Hey all...

[potluckstew]

I'm new to saltwater tanks and am looking for a place to get some "expert" advice every once and a while. Looks like you all have your act together on this site. I have a small 38 gallon tank with a Fluval filter. I thought that was expensive until I saw some of your set ups. I'll get there eventually.
So far I have a few Damsels, a chocolate chip starfish, 1 medium and 2 small anenomes, and 1 skunk cleaner shrimp. The tank is only 5 weeks old and I'm taking it slow so that it will set up properly. I did try to add a clown fish but it died this morning. I have to look at my parameters again to see if something is off. But to the best of my knowledge, everything is in the green. Is there anything obvious that I should be looking for as I'm concerned that the clown died so quickly and all the other "pets" are thriving?

Thanks in advance and I love the website. Keep up the great work.

 

[animalwhisperer]

As always check your parameters. If they are fine (test kits are a death trap) go back to the lfs and see if they have any sick fish that were housed with yours prior to purchase. Also how did you acclimate the fish before adding it to your tank. Most people just float the fish like you do for freshwater. Thats bad JU-JU. Hope this helps, im sure others will weigh in here.




Tony

 

[jhnrb]

You are stocking too quickly. your system does not have the maturity to be adding more live stock at this point. My recommendation is to see if you can keep everything alive for three months before adding any more bio load otherwise, be aware of the new tank syndrom. welcome to the forum, I will watch for your posts in the regular foums. Glad you found us.

 

[DrBCool]

Welcome to the board ....

New tank syndrom , is hard to over come .. I have had my 36gal bow set up for 6 or 7 weeks and I have added 1 firefish , 1 mandarin goby , 2 feather dusters , I removed 1 yellowtailed damsel I used to cycle with ... I also had 1 banded coral shrimp , he lasted a week maulted then had problems , lost legs and died in a rather fast pace , I also added a cleaner shrimp who also met an early demise ...So now I am getting some more test kits other than the basics to see if there is some parameter of the water that is off ... No More live stock till my tank ages a bit .. I just hope the two fish survive ... The LFS told me the mandarin ate brine shrimp , then as I talked with others online they told me to keep an eye on him because their main diet is copeopods which my tank isn't mature enough to keep him in supply ... Hope he lives ...

Good luck with your tank .. And one thing I can tell you is making decisions on equipment is hard in this hobby .. You can askk 50 people the same question and get 50 different opinions ,... You just will eventually have to go the route you want and hope it works :-) 1 person may have great success with a certain skimmer while other may have had very bad luck with them ... I registered with 3 different saltwater sites and take a basic poll on everyones advice then make my decision .. Also reading is a good thing to do .. You can find lots of posts about products online , pros and cons and such ......

DrBCool

 

[potluckstew]

I thought I might be moving a little too fast but the guy at the store said that the clown should be fine. I'm going to wait a few more weeks and then see what happens. Being patient stinks! I did notice that my water temp was a little high for clowns since I have read that they like 75-80 deg.; my tank was right at 80. My anenome is doing awsome though. I've had "it" for almost 3 weeks now. I feed it thawed brine shrimp with a turkey baster. My cleaner shrimp tries to steal food though.

One other question: Is it normal for cleaner shrimp to "attack" fish at night? I noticed mine last night terrorizing neighbors until I kicked the lights back on. The he sits there like nothing happened. If he kills my fish he's going to be food. The kids didn't name him Gumbo for nothin'.

 

[Bifferwine]

80 degrees is okay, as long as you keep it somewhat constant, it's temperature swings that are really bad. So, if your tank hits its high at 80, but doesn't dip below, say 76 or 77, you should be fine. Some people say the tank needs to stay within 2 degrees, some say within 4.

Anemones and shrimp are usually pretty sensitive, so if something is wrong with your tank they will be the first to tell you. What kind of lights do you have?

Are you sure your shrimp isn't cleaning the fish?

 

[yote]

Thanks alot potluck,,,,I was doing great untill you brought up shrimp gumbo ( wonder how pepperments taste),, You will want to keep an eye on your chocolate chip to,,I had one that would eat anything he could crawl up on.

 

[DrBCool]

At least your cleaner is still alive ... :-)
Mine was fine last night I stuck my hand in the tank he climbed on my finger and started cleaning me .. was cool , I thought he was goinna make it ..
I found out from another source that cleaner shrimp are hard to keep alive in a new tank .. Was told to wait several months or so before I try to put another one in :-) I HATE KILLING INOCENT ANIMALS .....