deing fish.....

[liga]

hi guys i am having a huge problem with fish dying.My main problem is basically fish are dying and i dont know why. I have had 4 clown fish, 1 blue tang, 1 sailfin tang, and 1 bicolor blenny die, Not all at once....

Tank: 30 gallon long with 20 gallon refuge.
equipment: protein skimmer, heater, 2 korelia 9750 gph each), and a 650 water pump pumping water back to the dt tank from the sump.
salinity: 1.025
amonia:0
ph: 8.0
nitrite: 0
nitrate 0
temp: 78

current live stock: 2 black and white ocellaris clowns, 1 flame hawk, 1 yellow fish (i think its some kind of wrasse... ill post pic), 1 cleaner shrimp, 10 snails, 8 hermit crabs, 1 starfish.
corals: flower pot doing good, 2 mushrooms that are doing good, anthelia, and the star something.

Story: I started my tank and let it run for 1 month. After that month i had 0 everything and added a pair of ocellaris clowns and 4 snaila dn hermits. 1 week later i added a falme hawk and the 1 week later i added a tiny blue tang. After 2 weeks with all the fish i came back from miami and found 1 clown and the tang dead. First suspect was ich, but none of them had white spots so then i turned to my coral banded or emerlad crabs. But i said w.e and then added another clown after 3 days . after i got home with the new clown i couldnt find my other clown and found my coral banded eating it with my emerald crab. SO i flipped out and put them both in the refuge. So i put the new clown in and went to buy another one. After 1 more week i found both clowns dead again adn waited 2 weeks to get a small sailfin tang with the flame hawk and nothing else. 5 days later the tang died and found out that my otheremerlad crab was picking at it wen it hide in the rock. So i guess he died from stress. 2 weeks later i bought a yellow fish (forgot name). He did fine and then 2 weeks later i bought two black and white clowns. they did fine. Then i waited 1 week and bought a bicolor blenny to stir up my sand bc of some cyano i had on the sand. Now i wake up to find him dead. My parameters areall 0 and my ph 8.2 sainity 1.025. Does anyone know what might be happening????? I know the tangs arent suppose ot be in but they were small and i planned on just keeping two months that returning for another small one. I never planned on keeping more than 5 fish. I acclimated them by leaving bag on dt for 30 minutes and drip acclimating for 30 minutes. Should i wait 3 weeks to buy another fish or just leave it as it is???

 

[valasaraptor]

Both tangs were probly stressed from being in such a small tank and the ammonia most Likely went up from the dead fish Causing the others to die

 

[liga]

well the tangs were small and at eperate times. Also before i bought the fish iwould make sure i had 0 nitrate nitrite and ammonia

 

[valasaraptor]

Even tho they were really small being in such a small tank will stress them until they die! Even if params were suitable and only a few hours of being dead they start to decompose

 

[liga]

ohhh thanks but do you know why also the clowns and blenny died?

 

[valasaraptor]

If it was shortly after the tangs most likely from the ammonia from the dead fish,and a stressed fish can stress out others in the tank,try dripping them first then floating them for temp acclamation.

 

[liga]

Ohh I'll make sure to acclimate like that from now on and hopeless I won't get more dead fish. It's still pretty weird how I waited 1 to 2 weeks after a fish died and checked for Ann and got 0 and then put a fish and it still died. Im beginning to think maybe the hawkfish is to aggressive?

 

[little_fish]

Im pretty sure I told you several months ago that you shouldnt be keeping any tangs (even tiny babies) in your tank because its too small and they will stress out and die. Now that you have killed two of them, do you finally believe me?

And one stressed fish, will stress out the rest of the fish in the tank leading to series of deaths, as you have seen. You need to stop adding fish for a few months and let your tank stabilize. Then only add one fish every 3 weeks. Its very important to wait because you need to let the bacteria grow to handle the new waste load before you add more poop to the mix. The addition of so many fish, so fast is stressing your tanks bioload. You might not be able to detect the water parameters being off, but there is a period where water quality is compromised by adding a new fish. This is especially important in small tanks.

Finally, that yellow coris wrasse will require a much larger tank than you have, so please return him to the store. And keep your tank to 3 fish, no more until its a least a year old, and THEN you can think about adding one more small, peaceful fish.

 

[Northstar24]

You like tangs, I get it. Most people in saltwater do. A 30 gallon tank is too small for them - period. Buying a tiny tang with the plan of keeping it for a few months is silly. Many of the really small tangs do not survive long term for us because they are too fragile. If you want to keep a tang, you need to upgrade

You also need to slow down. Adding a fish a week is way too fast, and you've also added too many fish to that tank. A 30 gallon tank would be fully stocked with 3-4 fish tops, and it should take several months to add all of the fish.

My advise is to slow down, this is a hobby, not a race - you need to take time and enjoy the process of stocking a tank