Why won't fish stay alive in my tank?

[btodd43]

Everytime we buy a fish it dies within 2 weeks and we don't know what is going on..6 gal nano,4months old,do a 25% water change once a week,with tropic marin salt(24 hour mix with powerhead)very little coralline algae in tank,stock lighting,spraybar pointed toward front glass w/good surface aggitation,all other inhabitants are fine-here is my readings as of last night- Salinity-1.023/24
temp-80
calcium-395
alk-3.8 meg/l
ph-8.1-8.2
phosphate-.02ppm
magnisium-1260
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-10ppm
anyone have a clue? I am feeding dt's and cyclopeeze every other day-
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Mercedes 260 D

 

[Anonymous]

How are you acclimating the new fish? What fish have your been adding? What is your salinity?

 

[btodd43]

Hi Righty- We ALWAYS put bag in tank for 1 hour then slowly add tank water little by little for another hour,And then scoop the fish out by hand and put him in . I have a refractometer and it is calibrated salinity is at 1.023-1.024,the fish was a true percula clown- only fish in tank- Cleaner shrimp died 1 week ago also ( he also lived for 2 weeks. ??
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The Girls Next Door Forum

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm.

How many fish have you lost? What is the salinity of the store where you are getting the fish?

 

[btodd43]

We've lost 2 damsels,1 bi-color blenny,and this percula -1 by 1 over a three month period. The LFS keeps there water at 1.022-23 .The r/o salt they sell by the gallon is at 1.018 - so I stopped buying it and just mix my own with tropic marin to 1.023,circulated for24 hours in a container with a power head. (me and my wife are just beside ourselfs we cannot figure this one out -all the snails,crabs,even a peppermint shrimp are doing just fine. we had a brain coral die also and a candycane coral also-) I have all salifert kits???? I used a fasttest kit to double check the ph (our ph reads 8.0 with the salifert and 8.3 with the fasttest)
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[mark78]

What about evaporation? A very small amount of evaporation in a tank that size can change the salinity by a lot. Same goes for anything else, thats why nanos are tough tanks to keep...the smallest little thing can be really bad. I know thats no help to you, but I can't think of any other good reason.

6 gallons is also going to change temperature really fast. Does the house ever cool off or heat up at night, during the day while your out, etc? If the temp is running at say, 80 all day, then drops to 76 every morning, or jumps to 86 in the afternoon while no ones there...

Is the tank at work? Many offices turn thier AC off on weekends to save money.

Just some things that come to mind, hope it helps.

 

[btodd43]

Yeah- I know it evaps everyday gos up about 1 point so I put in RO water until it comes to 1.023 and then next day it will be at 1.0235 or 1.024 would that much variation cause it? During the day it stays at 80-82 and at night gos down to 78 or so. (we live in huntington beach Ca about 3 miles from the beach- it doesn't get over 80 in the house) Hey but thank you so much for your time.
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[ChrisRD]

Have all these fish come from the same LFS?

Have you ever tested ammonia levels immediately after losing a fish?

 

[Anonymous]

Also IMO you can acclimate fish for too long.

 

[btodd43]

Yeah- same LFS -Tongs in huntington beach, Yes I checked ammonia right after it was 0.Nitrate 10 ppm, nitrite 0.
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Religion Board

 

[Diana]

Try using a drip system to acclimate fish next time.... put the fish plus LFS water into a bucket. Then get some small air-pump tubing and create a syphon into the bucket from the tank. Tie a knot in the tubing until you only get drips coming out of the other end into the bucket. Then let the water drip until theres about double the amount of water. Take some out, and keep going until most of the water in the bucket is your tank water. The only trouble with this is you have a small tank and you dont want remove too much water from it or else you will shock your corals with a large water change.

Also, with such a small tank, one single fish will stress the bioload of the tank. I have a 5 gallon nano setup, and while most of my corals are thriving i have lost some since i started it. Ive also had trouble keeping fish alive. Ive tried clown gobies, a damsel, and a couple small clownfish. The gobies are a good size but hard to keep alive. So far, the only thing that has lasted is a baby tomato clown (they are very hardy). They get large though, and will need to be moved to a larger tank.

Its all trial and error with selecting not only appropriate species, but good healthy specimens. I would try a clown goby and if it works for you then great, its a good choice for such a small tank. Or mabey a neon goby if you can find them. But IMO damsels will get too large for the tank. Even a clownfish will outgrow it.

HTH
-Diana

 

[mark78]

Any signs of tiny spots on any of the fish? Do you use RO/DI or tap water? If its RO, have you ever tested it for TDS before adding salt?

How is flow in the tank? I was having a REALLY hard time keeping fish alive and O2 levels up in my 125 when all I had was a Rio 2500 as a return on it.

Maybe do 2, 15% water changes a week instead and see if it makes any difference?

Ironiclly I had a bi-color blenny in a 10g QT tank with some small chunks of live rock and he only lasted about 3 weeks, not sure why eitherm he always looked healthy. =/

 

[Bojangles]

We've lost 2 damsels...

I think its the source. No fish I have ever bought from Petco lasted more than a month and I finally found out the reason. Some fish collectors use (correct chemical if I'm wrong) cyanide to stun fish to insure an easier and more bountiful harvest. The problem is that the chemicles mess up the fish so badly that their life is severely shortened, almost always resulting in internal organ failure.

Thats the only thing I can think of if you lost damsels...I mean they're like the roaches of the sw fish world.

 

[btodd43]

Hi Mark- No we never noticed any spots (ick?) he seemed fine then just started floating and gasping it seemed. We get our water from a water market in town It's RO/DI,I've never tested it But I am considering buying the Ro/Di unit for our drinking water (tired of lugging those jugs) In my stock 6 gal nano- I put in the next biggest Rio pump that would fit and a loc-line spraybar across the entire width of the tank and spray it above the water and shoot it toward the front glass lots of O2 exhange.and flow.(but a mess on the light glass) Bojangles- I am beginning to think it is the source-The true percula clown was supposed to be tank raised so- should be better no? We will put in a damsel as a test fish 1 more time after the tank has a few more months of maturity.
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[Anonymous]

Hey Bill,
I used to have that same problem. Bring home a new fish only to watch it die shortly thereafter. What I learned from all that was NOT to buy a fish that had just recently arrived at the store. Either is comes home in the same water that it arrives at the lfs in or it comes home at least one week after arriving at the lfs. For your tank size I would high recommend getting nothing bigger than the clown goby that [edit]Diana[/edit] suggested or a pair of neons. The neons being my first choice.

It's my understanding that the Chongs you visit is a very reputiable store, but then I'm not able to go there and see for myself either. If you have a good relationship with them, they may be willing to order these fish for you, let you know when they're coming in so you can pick them up at the time they come in. This alone greatly reduced my fish loses. Either that, or I hope that the fish I want doesn't sell before I'm willing to take it home.

Did you take the filter media out and replace with lr and sponge? You might want to remove the sponge also. Maybe just use it when you feed or when/if you blast the dibris off your rocks. I also wouldn't feed as much, maybe once twice a week and that's only with fish in the tank. I feed my fish when I think about it, maybe once a week sometimes twice.

Sure hope you get things figured/worked out. It'll happen, sometimes it just takes a little longer than we'd like it to.

FYI, not all fish are caught with cyanide, just certain target fish are.

 

[btodd43]

Hi Knowse! good to hear from you again- Yes I did I put only live rock in chambers 1 and 2 , and I use a PUR pad in between feedings and blasting- That's what we will do we will order 2 neon gobys and wait for them to come in and give that a try. Thanks,
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Mercedes O305

 

[Jolieve]

btodd, make sure that when those gobies come in, you have the LFS hold them for at least a couple of days. Acclimating fish to new tanks twice in the same day is dangerous for the animals, and might be part of the problem you're having.

If you're not sure how long a fish has been in the store, ask, I am sure, if you want to wait a few days to take a fish home, the LFS will be glad to hold it for you. Some ask that you pay for the fish in advance, others don't ask for anything at all, but either way, it's better for your livestock.

Are you watching gill movement while you are acclimating the fish? This seems to me, to be a tell-tale sign of when to add a fish to the tank or not.

J.

 

[btodd43]

Thanks Jolieve- We will do- You know we don't know how the little guys are handled before we get them- When I picked out the true percula it was in a tank with about 20 other baby true perculas and they were just brawlling with each other- I felt almost like I was rescueing him-but most likely he was already stressed to much and they never show signs -they just die -has to do with showing weakness-that the preditors will notice- no?
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[Anonymous]

Hi Righty- We ALWAYS put bag in tank for 1 hour then slowly add tank water little by little for another hour,And then scoop the fish out by hand and put him in . I have a refractometer and it is calibrated salinity is at 1.023-1.024,the fish was a true percula clown- only fish in tank- Cleaner shrimp died 1 week ago also ( he also lived for 2 weeks. ??

Sounds dumb, but want to cover all bases...you are taking fish out by hand...are you making sure your hands are clean, and wet?

It sounds to me like more of a source issue anyway. Try another LFS.

 

[Bojangles]

Technically her acclimation is solid...about twice as long as needed but solid. The whole process I normally takes about 45m-1hr. I still say its the LFS...try another one.