I have no luck keeping fish alive

Solarfall

Totally Gnar
Today, my blue eye kole tang died. I have perfect parameters, well perfect aside from my dkh/calcium troubles, but those are still in the safe range. My corals and inverts are all growing and doing great, but I have fish die waayyy more often than I should.

I've noticed my fairy wrasse is starting to breathe heavily, which seems to be
happening before my fish kick the bucket. So could it be an oxygen issue? I've got about 3000 gph of flow in a 55 with lots of it breaking surface tension. Could it have something to do with the atmospheric pressure of my town being on a giant mountain? Is there a way to measure dissolved oxygen levels that's not crazy expensive? I just don't get it :frustrat:

I've also considered stray voltage, and I plan on grabbing a voltmeter, but I would think that would effect everything in the tank. Which everything but fish are thriving and doing really well.

Anybody have an idea on this one? It's stumping me completely. Just for fun, my params are:
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: 0/unreadable
Phosphate: 0/Unreadable
PH: 8.3
Alkalinity: 9
Calcium: 400
Magnesium: 1350
Salinity: 1.025 (just calibrated refractor yesterday, has only been off by .001)

Again, the only thing that makes sense to me would be my DO levels. Which I don't know how to measure, but I have so much flow and rippling at the surface that it's rediculous. None of my fish that have stayed alive are even mildly aggressive.

Before anyone throws up the mantis alert, it always seems like they slowly degrade and die over a course of a few weeks. Also my cleaner shrimp would have been a goner a long time ago.
 
My black Oscellaris clowns have been in there for a few months now, and they've never had breathing trouble. The Mandarin, ironically, has been in there the longest at around 4 months. I've had two different tangs die, the kole and a powder brown. I had a scooter blenny die a long time ago. A sixline died a long time ago. I had a batfish die way back before I even knew what I was doing, which I guess is to be expected. Also had a cowfish die that was alive for a good while.

I know there are more but it's tough to remember.
 
What is the water temperature?

How many fish are in the tank at a time?

How are you acclimating your new fish?




Tangs are usually not good survivors in tanks under 75 gallons
 
What is the water temperature?

How many fish are in the tank at a time?

How are you acclimating your new fish?


Lately the temp has been about 76. In the summer it was more like 80. But now that I think about it, my halides are producing a ton of heat, I'm gonna check the temp in an hour or so now that the lights have been off for awhile. Maybe I'm getting huge temp fluctuations between day/night cycles?

The most fish I've ever had at once is 5. Which now with the tang gone makes it 4. Pair of clowns, Mandarin, Purple Head Fairy Wrasse (vauguely sexual name for a fish) are what I have now. But I fear with the way the wrasse is acting, it may be down to 3 again soon.

Acclimation usually depends on the individual fish. I dripped the Mandarin for like 3 hours when I got him, but with the clowns I just floated the bag for 20 mins, switched half the water, and gave em another 20 mins and scopped them. The wrasse got about an hour and a half of dripping. The kole tang about 1 1/2 hour drip too.

I actually heard somewhere that if fish are in copper and then go to a zero copper environment they can get a deficiency, sounded really bogus to me but I'm starting to believe it because my LFS treats their fish only tanks with copper. This is where all fish except Mandarins, Scooter Blennies, and the occasional super rare fish goes in their systems.
 
It wouldnt be a oxigen issue cause your nitrites and Nitrates are ok, if you just got the fish, tangs like that are hit or miss, sometimes they dont ship well, and how did you just float them?? how did you acclimate them??
 
Could also be internal parasites. Going by your acclimation methods, it sounds like nothing got QT'ed before you put it in your tank. Internal parasites can spead easily and there may be no outward sign of any problem.
 
Did you feed the Tangs enough? As herbivores they need to consume a fairly large amount of food (including "greens") to stay healthy - especially compared to smaller fish like the clowns that can seem to go forever on almost nothing. They may have starved over a period of time.
 
Also you might want to double check your water test results to make sure they are not in error. Maybe take some water to your LFS and have them check it out.
 
Also you might want to double check your water test results to make sure they are not in error. Maybe take some water to your LFS and have them check it out.

I've used a few different test kits and all are the same. Water quality-wise, my tank is very healthy. I Do 15% water changes once a week and always keep my Nitrates at zero.

I'm also keeping SPS and a clam that are all doing really well, so it's definetly not a water quality issue.

Montaya might be on to something with the underfeeding thing, because I only feed my tank twice a week at most. But I have so many amphipods it's unreal. Plus, my kole tang wouldn't take to the algae sheets and I always saw him grazing the algae off my rocks and sand. Maybe he ran out?
 
When you get your next fish, try bumping up the feedings to once a day (even if it's just a little bit once a day).

Also, are you getting all these fish from the same place?
 
My guess for why the tangs keep dying is the size of the tank. They say 55 gals is ok but i've had problems with every tang i have had in my 80. I just dont think 55s give a tang sufficient swimming space especially with rocks etc.
 
Plus, my kole tang wouldn't take to the algae sheets and I always saw him grazing the algae off my rocks and sand. Maybe he ran out?


I don't think fish are dumb enough to starve themselves, especially kole tangs. They are too easy to train to eat other food. That's another valid reason to QT them. I think it was the size tank that contributed to stress. A 55 only has 4 feet of tank space(JMO)
 
Try a 10g quarantine. I use to have problem keeping my fish alive until I started quarantining. I would get them nice and fat then put them in the DT.
 
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