I need help…

zedHead84 · Mar 25, 2023

I have lost three fish in the past two months. First two was a bicolor blennie and second was a purple filefish. The last one happened today and I was able to snap a couple of pics of him. It was a wheeler goby. When I looked at him I did not see any signs of aggression besides a chomp that happened as I pulled him out of the tank. The tank is a 32g Biocube and currently stocked with 2 mocha clowns, yellow banded possum wrasse and a starry blennie. All the fish I have had more than a year besides the starry blenny which I added two weeks ago. I just tested for ammonia which is at 0. My other parameters are:
NO3 30.9
PO4 .22
ALK 10
CAL 450
MAG 1380
PH 8.3
Sg1.025
Temp 77.7

Im just at a lost of what it could be. This last fish was eating fine and was feed this morning. Any ideas will help. Thanks.

KQuillan · Mar 25, 2023

#fishmedic

vetteguy53081 · Mar 25, 2023

zedHead84 said:
I have lost three fish in the past two months. First two was a bicolor blennie and second was a purple filefish. The last one happened today and I was able to snap a couple of pics of him. It was a wheeler goby. When I looked at him I did not see any signs of aggression besides a chomp that happened as I pulled him out of the tank. The tank is a 32g Biocube and currently stocked with 2 mocha clowns, yellow banded possum wrasse and a starry blennie. All the fish I have had more than a year besides the starry blenny which I added two weeks ago. I just tested for ammonia which is at 0. My other parameters are:
NO3 30.9
PO4 .22
ALK 10
CAL 450
MAG 1380
PH 8.3
Sg1.025
Temp 77.7

Im just at a lost of what it could be. This last fish was eating fine and was feed this morning. Any ideas will help. Thanks.

If there is harassment and aggression, I suspect the clowns. The Wheeler appears to be a little thin and im curious as to what it was being fed. I do see the nitrate is elevated but not dangerous for fish and Phosphate is VERY elevated (you want .04 -.08).
Are you by chance using Tap water from the faucet or RODI water ?
What test kits are you using?
Any signs of heavy breathing, loss of apetite, clamped fins, scratching, lethargic behavior?

Hurricane Aquatics · Mar 25, 2023

He looks to have an injury to his spine. Almost looks like something clamped down on him. I agree with @vetteguy53081, the phosphates are very high.

zedHead84 · Mar 26, 2023

I’ve been feeding rods food once a day and feeding corals Red Sea AB+ every other day. I just started dosing Tropic Marin ElmiNP to try to bring down the nitrate and phosphate. I also added a gfo reactor with GFO. I have been using a 4 stage Rodi for the freshwater. I think the chomp was from when a fish grabbed it after it was dead. I haven’t noticed any aggression in the tank.

Hurricane Aquatics · Mar 26, 2023

zedHead84 said:
I’ve been feeding rods food once a day and feeding corals Red Sea AB+ every other day. I just started dosing Tropic Marin ElmiNP to try to bring down the nitrate and phosphate. I also added a gfo reactor with GFO. I have been using a 4 stage Rodi for the freshwater. I think the chomp was from when a fish grabbed it after it was dead. I haven’t noticed any aggression in the tank.

I would layoff the Red Sea AB+ and lay off the TM ElmiNP as well. If you have a GFO reactor, that will drop phosphates very nicely.

I also feed Rods food and it can raise Phosphates if you're overfeeding, which is very easy to do with that food.