A Sad Day...
Today I farewelled the two oldest members of my tank crew, a pair of ocellaris clown fish I bought from a fellow reefer once my original tank had cycled. They were with me for about 1.5 years. Gutted.
How did this happen? I am not 100% sure what happened, but here is the story...
New tank is going well. Pretty much all set up now (just need some macro for the fuge), nitrates hovering around 5ppm and trying to wait patiently for the algae stages of the cycle. Moved across the start of a small cleanup crew as the first signs of algae appeared a few days ago - 5 small turbo snails, a few tiny starfish.
My previous tank, a 2ft cube, housed a small selection of LPS and softies, plus 5 fish and my CBS. I have been battling a nuisance algae for a few months that I now think is some type of bryopsis --> decision made to turn the LR in my DT into base rock (via bleach, vinegar and cooking) before moving to the new tank. Didn't want to bring any algae, if possible, across on the base of any of the corals, so decision made to setup a small BB tank to better be able to look for said algae. Also would eventually double as a QT tank as I increased fish stocking.
So a spare 2 x 1 x 1ft tank was pressed into service - setup with NSW, LED light, heater and powerhead, plus one piece of cycled LR. Waited for it to come up to temp. Tested and water parameters fine, as expected. Moved across corals. All good. Now had 3 tanks running the house!
Then made a decision to move my fish across to the new tank so that I could remove the LR I wanted to nuke in my old tank. Used the transfer method that I have successfully used in the past. Fill bag with tank water, catch fish, place bag floating in new tank to acclimate temp, every 15 min add a little new tank water to the bag to gradually transition fish. After roughly 2 hours, catch and release fish into new tank.
4 fish caught and floated in their bags. 5th fish is a sneaky little bugger and very quick (a yellow assessor). Couldn't catch him and didn't want to remove all the LR just to do so. Left him in there for now. Went to check the other 4 fish (after 15 minutes total had passed) and my two gorgeous clowns were floating upside down in their bags.
Two gobies were fine and went through the rest of the process without a hitch. Not really sure what happened to the clowns. Were fat and healthy, with no signs of disease or dramas prior to the move. Didn't even get to the stage of adding water from the new tank at all. Wasn't a temp thing as I tested temp between two tanks prior to starting the transfer (measured within 0.5 of a degree of each other using the same digital thermometer moved between tanks and left for 10 min to adjust properly).
I am at a loss to explain and gutted by their loss. They had so much character and had provided so many hours of enjoyment over the last 1.5 years. They will be missed.
How did this happen? I am not 100% sure what happened, but here is the story...
New tank is going well. Pretty much all set up now (just need some macro for the fuge), nitrates hovering around 5ppm and trying to wait patiently for the algae stages of the cycle. Moved across the start of a small cleanup crew as the first signs of algae appeared a few days ago - 5 small turbo snails, a few tiny starfish.
My previous tank, a 2ft cube, housed a small selection of LPS and softies, plus 5 fish and my CBS. I have been battling a nuisance algae for a few months that I now think is some type of bryopsis --> decision made to turn the LR in my DT into base rock (via bleach, vinegar and cooking) before moving to the new tank. Didn't want to bring any algae, if possible, across on the base of any of the corals, so decision made to setup a small BB tank to better be able to look for said algae. Also would eventually double as a QT tank as I increased fish stocking.
So a spare 2 x 1 x 1ft tank was pressed into service - setup with NSW, LED light, heater and powerhead, plus one piece of cycled LR. Waited for it to come up to temp. Tested and water parameters fine, as expected. Moved across corals. All good. Now had 3 tanks running the house!
Then made a decision to move my fish across to the new tank so that I could remove the LR I wanted to nuke in my old tank. Used the transfer method that I have successfully used in the past. Fill bag with tank water, catch fish, place bag floating in new tank to acclimate temp, every 15 min add a little new tank water to the bag to gradually transition fish. After roughly 2 hours, catch and release fish into new tank.
4 fish caught and floated in their bags. 5th fish is a sneaky little bugger and very quick (a yellow assessor). Couldn't catch him and didn't want to remove all the LR just to do so. Left him in there for now. Went to check the other 4 fish (after 15 minutes total had passed) and my two gorgeous clowns were floating upside down in their bags.
Two gobies were fine and went through the rest of the process without a hitch. Not really sure what happened to the clowns. Were fat and healthy, with no signs of disease or dramas prior to the move. Didn't even get to the stage of adding water from the new tank at all. Wasn't a temp thing as I tested temp between two tanks prior to starting the transfer (measured within 0.5 of a degree of each other using the same digital thermometer moved between tanks and left for 10 min to adjust properly).
I am at a loss to explain and gutted by their loss. They had so much character and had provided so many hours of enjoyment over the last 1.5 years. They will be missed.
