Help-new 120 gal aquarium with too many deaths

tam

Reefing newb
I began a new 120 gal saltwater aquarium July 9th---very slowly and patiently. The end of August we introduced a Coral Banded Shrimp and a few snails. They did well so a couple of weeks later we added an Emerald Crab and a "?Sallie?" Crab , starfish, fire shrimp with 6 small "cleaner shrimp" and a Lawnmower Blennie.

Everyone did well until around Oct 9? Our water continued to check out well so we introduced a pair of yellow watchman gobies, another shrimp gobie-(?forget the name-beautiful though-red striped with high dorsal fin that was yellow), 4 "nemos", and a foxface. Initially 3 of the "nemos" died within 3 days followed 2 days later by our oldest resident the lawnmower blennie. The 3 shrimp gobies did well and looked well and then last week we lost all three separately within a 5 day span. The gobies never looked ill.
Does anyone have any ideas? Our water has been checked out repeatedly, we have already had a 25% water exchange, etc. Someone suggested that it could be the coral banded shrimp killling off of the gobies. Also we have lost 5 of our 6 small cleaner shrimp. The fire shrimp is doing great!
Any ideas would be welcomed! Our beginning coral are also doing well and look great.
 
first off welcome to the site. and its a possibility that the coral banded shrimp could be doing it but i doubt it since the quick die off rate, could be a mantis shrimp, it could be that when you acclimated them you hurried through the process, or even that you introduced a parasite or some sort of bacteria to the system when you added something
 
you also added a ton of fish at once, you can get away with corals or inverts, but fish are one at a time, two max if you are doing clowns. Also, you should have only done a pair of clowns. no more than that. If your water checks out good, try again, one fish every few weeks
 
yes, one fish per three weeks is a good time table to follow. that way you give your system time to catch up with the bio load, and like bob mentioned, you added too many clownfish and there is a good chance that some where killed fighting
 
You added too many fish in too short of a time span. You should only add one fish every three weeks or so. By adding all those fish at once, you spiked the toxins in your water, which killed the animals. The tank needs time to adjust to new additions, and it usually takes around 3 weeks for the bacterial load to get up to the level to handle a new animal.

The coral banded shrimp and the sally lightfoot crab are dangerous to other animals and will not hesitate to kill other inverts and fish. But they didn't kill all your fish (maybe the small gobies), the addition of too many fish too quickly is what killed them

And like Melon said, clowns are highly territorial. Any more than 2 in a tank, and they will usually kill each other off until only one remains.

You should be doing 10 to 20% water changes on a weekly basis. If not so already, that's a good habit to get into.
 
Thanks for responding so quickly! We learned our lesson to late re:too many fish.... Would you suggest trying a pair of clowns first or a pair of shrimp gobies?
Any ideas on what killed 5 of the 6 cleaner shrimps?
 
it was most likely still due to the adding of too many fish too fast since inverts are way more intolerant of high nitrate and ammonia levels then fish, also i wouldnt add any goby to a new tank since they feed on the fauna in the sand and you need a very mature tank to keep them fed. and even once your tank is mature too many gobies will wipe the fauna out of the sand bed before it has time to reproduce.
 
A pair of clowns would make good starter fish. They are normally very hardy. Buy the clowns together to reduce the chance of them fighting. Then wait a few weeks before adding more fish.

Also, you may want to stick with just one goby. They do better solitary.
 
coral banded shrimp shouldn't keep they kill crabs and shrimp and sometimes small slow moving fish. Ditch the coral banded shrimp cause cleaner shrimp are very beneficial. Patience add stuff slow or your biological filter can never mature to handle the new bioload your tank is still new. i only did water changes once a month on a tank that size cause it seem like my tank was on a constant cycle. Now i do water changes once every three months on my 125 cause if i do anymore than that i have cyano and other issues, don't know why but it does.
 
i would have starting out a pair of clowns, one watchman gobie, a blenny, and a tang.
clowns are just cool and watchman gobie keep sand clean, blenny eat algae and tangs obliverate algae. Don't add all at once though. wouldn't hurt to have a carpenter wrasse or radiant wrasse to help keep pest problems down like flatworms, pyramid snail, nudibranchs all the stuff that kill coral and clams.
 
In addition to all that was mentioned, I'll ask the obvious. ;)
You say your water "checked out fine". Can you post specific numbers?
pH-
Ammonia-
Nitrate-
Salinity-
Temp-
What kind of water do you use? Tap? RO? etc
What brand salt?
How often and how much water do you change?
 
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