why did all my chromis die!? WHY WHY WHY

[humu]

sup
I just got 5 blue chromis. this morning I had 4. during today I saw all eating and then they all started swiming funny and doing flips! then they died

it's like a wierd mass suicide!
all of the bodies look perfectly healthy, ecxept thier dead.
WHY WHY WHY!!!!!!!!

 

[EnchantedSea]

Funny you should bring this up! I too purchased 3 green chromis last week. They also seemed to be perfectly healthy. 2 of the 3 are dead and the 3rd isn't looking healthy. What are going on with these chromis?

 

[spectral_ranger]

Seems to be a fairly common occurrence with chromis. I bought 4 a while back from the LFS, three of them died over the first two weeks. The fourth has survived for half a year now. I bought another 4 MO, and all four have survived for 4 months now! Very odd. The original chromis schools with the other four, but sleeps separately. Anyway, may have to do with capture method, I'm not sure...

Chris

 

[myreef]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by spectral_ranger:
<STRONG>....may have to do with capture method, I'm not sure...

Chris</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have heard that Chromis were caught using cyanide. I have purchased 5 Chromis on two separate occasions and they have slowly dissapeared over time. Usually within two weeks. I would inquire how long that they have been in the LFS, if more than 2 weeks you are safe, if not...buy at your own risk. Since they are so inexpensive, they will not usually last that long at the LFS.

 

[skylsdale]

Another problem is that they are shipped en masse, much like "feeder" fish. Many of them subdue to ammonia poisioning during shipment, and many kick it soon after arriving in the LFS. I bought4 nearly a year ago, and all died but one. Since then, this guy has been through everything...and he just won't die!

I guess it's just touch and go until you find some that are going to make it.

 

[pez]

I actually read an article a while back suggesting that cyanide does not kill the fish, but the combination of cyanide and ammonia exposure during shipping. That it is really the combination of ammonia and cynanide that does the fish in - one or the other does not do great harm. Don't know if it is true (wish I could remember where I saw the article).

-Tom

 

[Sue Truett]

I seem to have the exact opposite problem. I still have the first 8 green chromis that were added to my 120 sps tank, after cycling. That was 3 1/2 yrs. ago. These are now the biggest chromis, the largest being near3". I have also been actively looking for the blue reef chromis to add to my 180 ecosystem tank. I accidentally ran across them at a lfs that I haven't gone to much. But there they were all 8 of them. I took them and these fish are as tame as puppies. They acclimated well and have eaten from the get go.
humu, did you notice any of the fish not acclimating well?? Did they all show signs of hunger and eat when offered food?? These fish are supposed to be so hardy it's weird that everyone has had such problems with them.

check out my 120 sps tank: http://suetruett.homestead.com/home.html www.marshreef.org/members

 

[skull]

sorry for the lost guys,

i picked up 9 about 1.5 month ago. they started to go one every day. only 2 are still here. 2 weeks ago i picked up 12 more. they are all still kicking. i waited 2 weeks before picking them up. i think that helped alot.they are all fat as hell. they are pigs!

 

[Jeff_S]

I started my 250 FO tank with 13 of them back in april. 2 died within a week, the rest are still going strong.

 

[gazpep]

I don't know but I'd be inclined to suspect pH shock as a possibility. Certainly sounds like there is something drastically different in the chemical make up of the water to get such a quick reaction and the simultaneous demise of the fish.

It would be interesting to do a pH check on the water in the LFS holding tank compared to that in your tank. Even with normal acclimatisation it may have been too big a change for the fish to handle.

 

[Colonel]

They do this. I had 3 that almost kicked off. They just shook in the corner of the tank for almost 2 weeks. Then they just recovered. I assumed it was cyanide. I still have them almost a year later. They are all about 3 inches inches in length.

 

[humu]

thanks guys.
I think the problems were that I got them the exact day they came in, and yes they were eating like crazy the first day

my lfs sucks!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

It's not the stores fault that you bought them the same day they came in.

Glenn

 

[humu]

WIND, BLACKCORAL,
back me up! dosen't coralfish suck!?

ROVER, you don't know my lfs

 

[NanoWind]

Humu, I'm here. Yeah CORALFISH SUCK.

Coralfish are crap. They dont' really care or give a damn about their fish since they are importing so much. They trap them in containers, so small, not even 1 gallon of swimming space. very sad. I'd say a quart or so. And its not slow moving fish. Its flame angels.

You see HIPPO TANGS breathing hard, some floating. Wrasses are dead. Some fish picking at each-others.

wanna see dead fish? Go to the FRIDGE by the frozen food. Buckets of beautiful fishes all frozen and dead. why? mm. let me think.

I can only see the YELLOW TANGS being the best buy. hehe.. They are caught here, and they have abundant to choose from. Also tank-bred clowns. Thats the only way I'm assured of cynaide free. My 2 clowns have been with me for 2 years. And I couldn't even keep the other fish from CORALFISH over 2-3 months.


Humu, what types of new fish you saw at CORALFISH?

I was thinking about the BLUE CHROMIS too.

P.S. Its just so hard to trust LFS when there are so few. You just gotta get lucky sometimes, and just go w/ the flow... I know it sucks..

HUMU, where should we buy fishes now? I dont' even know what fish to get now. All I have are 2 TANK BRED clowns.

 

[jmeader]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by myreef:
<STRONG>

I have heard that Chromis were caught using cyanide. I have purchased 5 Chromis on two separate occasions and they have slowly dissapeared over time. Usually within two weeks. I would inquire how long that they have been in the LFS, if more than 2 weeks you are safe, if not...buy at your own risk. Since they are so inexpensive, they will not usually last that long at the LFS.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Depending on the level of cyanide they were exposed to, they can die within minutes to over a month later. At lower levels that allow the fish to live a month, the digestive system gets destroyed. The fish will continue to eat but won't be able to digest any of the food that was eaten. So it slowly starves to death. So watch for signs of starvation, even though the fish may be eating.

 

[JennM]

Andy, did any of yours come from our store?

We're careful with our suppliers, but we don't know about such problems if people don't let us know.

I'm doubtful it was our store..but never hurts to check

)

I've found that some Chromis will die if you look at them the wrong way, but other individuals in the same shipment are tough as nails....

I've not seen the massive die-offs described in the initial post, but IMO it does sound like bleach or cyanide was used to collect them.

Bummer.

Jenn

 

[myreef]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JennM:
<STRONG>Andy, did any of yours come from our store?


Jenn</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

jenn, Nope, none came from your store. I haven't bought any Chromis in over a year because of the problems. I want some, but am leary of adding any more. I think both batches came from TFS&M.

 

[tomocean]

I got 4 of them recently and 2 have since completely disappeared. The other 2 are doing fine...in fact, eating like pigs. I too got them from a questionable LFS, but it was the only place that had them.

 

[EmilyB]

I had some trouble with loosing chromis as well. They were definitely not cyanide caught, but as one poster mentioned, the enmasse shipping may not agree with them. It was suggested that their deaths were due to a bacterial infection of some kind, and since I saw some pink color in the odd one, I thought that just might be the case.

At one point, I moved all my remaining chromis to a rubbermaid tub I had running, and basically figured they would not survive. I fed exclusively anti-bacterial flake for two weeks, and was very surprised to find three extremely healthy chromis at the end of that time.

They are still here, residing in my 155g. However, if I were to add more, I think I would now follow the same procedure, and QT with anti-bacterial flake as food. Just because it seemed to work in this instance.