Dead Fish

[BigHack2006]

I have had my tank set up for about a month now and i used half of my old water and half new, i waited about 2 weeks then added a green chromis, 2 clowns, mandrian dragonite, scooter blenny,and snails and crabs. then added my shrooms and other corals and stuff. i bought 4 onix clowns, a yellow tang, ablue hippo tang, and a cleaner shrimp. first my yellow tang died, then slowly the clowns started dieing. i checked my levels when the yellow tang died and they were great. i checked them after some clowns died, they were good. last night the last 2 clowns and my hippo died. i checked my levels and they were all good. my cleaner shrimp is still alive, my corals and shrooms are doing better than ever, my levels are great. any advice on what happen would be awsome. thanks justin

[xroads]

Can you list off your parameters?

[heartben]

i think you should wait a lot longer to get a mandarin

uhm... did you remember to feed them every day (or as often as you so choose)

what about temperature? i think thats a huge thing...

also, your test kits could be jank... idk, i think my test kits are wrong because they always say everything is perfect and i dont think its true.

however, i havent experienced a dead of some sort where i didnt know what caused it (rocks crushing them, not eating, and a jumper)

im still reasonably new so i could be just completely wrong, but anything is possible, there are so many factors.

good luck on the next live stock buy...
-ben

[leeweber85]

That was a LOT of fish to add all at once to a new system. What size of tank do you have set up? I would only add one fish at a time with at least a few weeks between additions so your bioload can catch up.

Did you test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrite? What kind of flow do you have?

[saltwater6900]

he has a 46 bow

[hopper75]

Sounds like a load situation to set off a huge ammonia spike!

[ZLTFUL]

If I am reading right, 11 fish in a 46 gallon tank. I am not the tang police so I am not going to comment 2 tangs in a tank not even big enough for one.

But the bioload...along with corals, inverts, et al seems quite high to me.
I am at 5 fish in a 47 gallon tank and think I am borderline too much.
That and the clowns very well could have sniped each other off. Clowns are an incredibly territorial fish especially towards other clowns both similar and dissimilar species...

What are you running for a sump/skimmer/fuge/etc?
What are you using to test your params? Dip strips are notoriously inaccurate and alot of test kits tend to be a bit inaccurate...
What are your params? Good can mean alot of things to alot of people. I consider my 5-10ppm nitrates good while others would consider me insane.

[glaspie69]

I would say things should have gone alot slower and abit better planned out. Even fish that look healthy can die in the right conditions, adding multiple fish is never a good idea for anyone, experience or not. I'm guessing that with adding so many fish at once basically shocked the tank into a new cycle. Water parameters are not the only thing a good reefkeeper should use in looking at the health of his or her animals. Stress can kill a fish or coral faster than any water param, look to see if the fish are out, swimming normal, eatting normal, and socializing if there not theres something causing them to stress. You have to think of it as putting yourself in a jail cell, would you like to be alone or with one or two cell mates or would you like half of woodstock dumped in your cell with you. I would almost bet you'll continue to have problems with water parameters, more dying fish or both. That many fish even in a high tech system would require a ton of up keep, water changes weekly and a top of the line skimmer and even with all that the tank is far to small for tangs

[BigHack2006]

0 nitrite, 20 nitrate, ph is 8.3, ammonia is at the lowest color. the tests are from the saltwater test kit in tubes that you add drops in. all the fish just died over night. for flow i have a hydro 3, i have a fulval 304 for filtration, and a oddessa skimmer. temps good. and fed every day, frozen miasys shrimp. what kinds of fish would you recomend for my tank?

[phishcrazee]

How did you acclimate the fish? Do you have a skimmer? If you do, be sure to run it wet for awhile......

I would wait awhile until you think about adding more fish-wait until your tank becomes more stable and predictable. I think that's the number one error or newbies is going way too fast. Patience is really key in this hobby.

For a tank of your size, stick with fish that aren't going to get bigger than about 4", so clowns, anthias, jawfish, dwarf angels, yellow-tailed damsels etc. A tang of any sort is just really sad in that size tank. These fish used to live in the ocean where they had lots of room and then you stick it in a little glass box.... 75g is the minimum for most tangs.

[tibbs2]

Ammonia spike.Too much bio-load too quickly. Hippo tang is too big for a 46, hell it's too big for my 75 really. Look at the hippo tangs at the omaha zoo aquarium and you'll see what I mean. You might want to pass on the mandarin. Odds are not in it's favor that it will survive in your tank because the pod population won't be large enough to support it UNLESS you can get one that eats frozen food or pellets.

Fish should be added over a period of months instead of weeks on a new tank. Just take it slow. Nothing ever happens quickly in this hobby, as you've already found out...

[BigHack2006]

i floated the fish to the same temps. all my tangs were small, 2 in. and my clowns were 3/4 to 1 in.

[saltwater6900]

his tang was about a 1-2 inch small well i dont think it is big and isnt it about an inch of fish for each gallon idk were i heard that but i thought that was what it is

[bgreenlee]

Originally posted by saltwater6900
his tang was about a 1-2 inch small well i dont think it is big and isnt it about an inch of fish for each gallon idk were i heard that but i thought that was what it is

Not in saltwater. That is a huge bioload. A tank that size I would have a slowly introduced 4-5 fish if it is a reeftank. While I doubt a spike of anything killed them (corals are usually the first to show parameter problems), the stress of having that many fish in that small of a tank introcuded all at once would likely be the culprit. That and likely a sick fish or two to get the group down.

I would allow the tank a month or two to even out since it is brand new and not had a chance to really stabilize. I would then think about adding one fish at a time after a quarantine of each fish for three weeks in a small tank.

Bily

[phishcrazee]

But did you drip acclimate them? Most folks drip acclimate everything SW........... They will get pretty big even though they were small now, so I'd hope you'd upgrade before then. It was probably just adding such a big bioload on such an immature tank that did them in. If you had a mature system, with plenty of healthy bacteria, it MAY have been able to handle such an increase, but with such a young tank..... it's too bad

[BigHack2006]

i know all that money in fish, is discouraging. if anyone wants a 46 bow, mines here.

[glaspie69]

Well if you don't want it I'll be glad to come pick it up tomorrow

[saltwater6900]

IC

[BigHack2006]

nothins free, but very reasonable, lol

[seanndenise1]

just keep an eye on your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate every day.

and dont feed them too much, they will do fine getting fed a small amount once a day.

get yourself ready to do water changes whenever needed.

look really close at your fish, are there any spots or discolorations on their skin?
are they gasping for air?

i would definately get a new ammonia/ nitrite test kit

[NexGen]

I am not sure where you got them from, or if anyone mentioned this. Another option that could have taken place is cyanide poisoning.

I do agree with the others on the huge overload of fish. However this is still a possibility of what could have happened. Some collectors still use cyanide even though it is illegal. Fish seem fine until one day they just die.

[BigHack2006]

thanks guys for everything. now respond to my other post about lights

[saltwater6900]

lol i would say take some water into the pet store they test for free and have better ways of doiong so

[BigHack2006]

you could have called me and told me that