Fish dying :(

Kielee

Reefing newb
As the title suggests I have fish dying.

I woke up Saturday to a dead Foxface, he had been acting odd for a few days. Pressed up against the tank spikes out sitting at the bottom. Then my Sailfin Tang started acting odd and this morning got up to him sat at the bottom of the tank struggling to lift himself off the bottom. Hes gone into a tiny hole and im not sure if he is dead or alive.

My water test came out fine no obvious problems, nothing has changed in 4 weeks other than a new leather toadstool and a cabbage. I just don't understand.

The other fish are fine not acting out of the ordinary. Oh and no stray voltage as iv checked.

Any ideas?

Thank you x
 
You will have to excuse me as I only have some as my puppy ate the paper it was on so im doing it from memory.

Salt 1.026
Mag 1200 ( I touched this up at time of testing)
Cal 500
PO4 0.002
NO4 1

Cannot remember KH 100% but I think it was 7.8

I removed 5 Firefish and 5 Chromis about 6 weeks ago to get the Detritus down and improve the levels.
 
How long has it been set up?
How are you acclimating?
How much live rock do you have?
How long were they in your tank before they died? How were they acting?
What do you have for equipment?
Clean up crew? Corals? Any other inverts?
 
How long has it been set up? = Since June 13 60G / 275l

How are you acclimating? = About an hour

How much live rock do you have? = 55 kilos

How long were they in your tank before they died? How were they acting? = Both in the tank around 9 months (Longer than any other fish) The foxface was sat at the bottom pushed against the glass with his spikes out, we had a one hour power cut the day before he died but I have been assured this would not have caused it. The Sailfin has been a bit shy but really went down hill when the foxface died, they swam together all day. They were both eating but not as much I would say.

What do you have for equipment? = What do you mean? A skimmer, sorry im new to this..

Clean up crew? Corals? Any other inverts? = One skunk shrimp, one big and one small blue legged hermit, sand sifting star, horse shoes crab, a few snails, Tuxedo urchin and a couple of nasty crabs which we didn't put in but are trying to catch (teddybear crab and some big black nasty thing). Corals I have a few mushrooms, two leather toadstools (Iv been told the new one I put in last week could have killed them??, a cabbage, and a coral that goes blue if you touch the grass on it (sorry i can't remember the name.)

As for fish = A blue streak cleaner wrasse, a royal gramma, two clowns, a coral beauty and a juvi emperor angel, oh and a very shy yellow headed jaw fish lol


Thanks guys x
 
Ok, it seems you had/have a very overstocked 60g tank. You got rid of 10 fish six weeks ago which was a good start but still left you with 9 before the death. The foxface, tang, and the angel all need much bigger tanks than you are providing for them. The power outage may not have directly caused the death but it could of been a contributor since you had no circulation in the tank therefore a lot of oxygen was being used up without being replaced. This would have caused stress in an already stressful environment which can lead directly to death. I would definitely try and find a new home for your emperor angel.
This response isn't meant to bash you because we have all mistakes in this hobby. I am only trying to share my knowledge with you and based on your facts this is the conclusion I am drawing. If you put that many fish as well as fish that need more space in such a confined environment bad things are going to happen. If you get rid of the emperor angel you will be sitting right on the number and have a much healthier system, IMO.
 
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Thank you for your reply, we are looking at upgrading the tank to a bigger one well before the angel is to big to have outgrown it. But thank you for your response. Do you really think 7 fish is to many? We have been looking at adding a watchman goby and a Dragnet (in time anyway)
 
I think 7 fish is too many in a 60 it sounds like your fish are all fighting for the same small territory (though 120# of LR prob has some pretty good hiding spots) which leads to stress, and well, death. Even a juvi emperor needs a big tank. Salt is right that a power outage can contribute to the cause of death. No citation handy but one of the books I read said depending on live stock a tank's 'normal' oxygen levels can be lowered to 'dangerous' for fish in as little as 15 minutes without any circulation. I know the last time we lost power it took me about an hour to get the generator set up and wired in and running, and in that time period my fish started to act pretty lethargic.
 
Saltwater tanks cannot be loaded up with fish like freshwater tanks they are two totally different ecosystems.

If you keep the wrasse, clowns, coral beauty, gramma, and jaw fish I think that will probably be a good stopping point. I'm not saying you can't put more fish in there but I recommend you don't. Your success rate will be dramatically be reduced with each addition.
All we can do is offer you advice but ultimately you are the one that will make the decisions. Good luck:thumbsup:
 
Well said and +1 to all the boys.

We only want what's best for you, your tank, and your livestock. They offered some excellent, friendly advice. :pat pat: Good job.
 
Thanks everyone, found the teddy bear crab this morning looks like it had been in a scrap lol. One down one to go. Everything else in the tank seems fine ill keep an eye on it x
 
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