Losing Cardinals

lilyicu

lilyicu

FOWLR
My first stocking attempt is not going so well. Last Tuesday I went out and bought 4 pajama cardinals and one blenny. By the next morning one was dead. OK, I just thought that it might have been a fluke. Friday on my way home from work I bought two more. I know that they are school fish and I wanted to keep them around together for a month or two before adding any more new ones. When I got home from work one more was dead. I went ahead and added the two more. I went away for the weekend and left my roommate to feed them. He said that they all ate very well. When I got home today one more was dead. I did a 25% water change and cleaned up the tank. I have one more that doesn't look like it will be around in the morning. I have started noticing that right before they go, their spots start to lighten up. This one is having the same problem. The other two look great. My snails are very happy and so is my blenny. What is happening to by cardinals?

72g bowfront
FOWLR
temp-80
p.H. - 8.3
salinity-1.024
Ammonia -0
Trates-20
Trites -0

My water levels have been the same for weeks now. I have started turning my canister filter off 12 hours after my water changes (I run it long enought to get the big stuff out of the water).
 
All your parameters look fine. How many other/what other fish do you have in the tank? If you are newly stocking it, you should only add one to two fish at a time. Adding so many at once may be what's doing it.

Also, how are you acclimating them?
 
Those are the only fish that I have in the tank. I float the bag in the tank and slowly add water from tank a little at a time. I normally take over an hour before I let them lose in the tank.
 
Since they are your first fish in the tank, you shouldn't be adding so many at a time. Start with one fish, then make sure he does okay. Add a second fish three or four weeks later. Then add a third fish three weeks later. Your tank will be very touchy when it's newly set up, and it will not be able to handle the addition of five fish at the same time.
 
I have another question, I had read that some types will only allow another fish of the same species as long as they are added together. If I wanted to add two clowns, do I add them together or seperate?
Don't worry I am not going to add anymore until my Cardinals are given more time to acclimate.
 
So it should be OK to only add two at a time? The clowns are the only fish that I wanted to add two of, the rest are only one of a species.
 
I would wait a couple of months (I know it seems like a long time) since you've had some problems. Let things settle down and then I think you could add a couple of clowns at the same time. If you order on-line there are many sites which have mated pairs you could order. Or go to your LFS about 2-3 weeks before and ask them to order you a mated pair. I have done this twice and it works for me and there is no fighting amongst the two for territory.
 
I got my pair together...they were both still very small and the same size...the did their dominance struggle a few weeks after I got them. So you can expect at some point if they're the same size for them to start getting pretty violent until one comes out the dominant one -- which will become the female -- she will get significantly bigger. My male is half the size of my female...even though they started out the same size.

The drip method definitely works for me. Plus it's less work. I just start the drip, and every half hour for around 2 hours, I'll dump some water out. My last step is to close the bag up again, float it for 15min to get the temperature to match the tank, then scoop them out with my hand into the tank. Just make sure to toss the bag with their water away. It might have some copper from the lfs.
 
Do I need to buy a "mated pair" or can I buy two small same sized clowns? The "mated pairs" online seem to run much more money than the small clown that my LFS has.
 
I agree with all the above.
But I'd have the LFS get me a mated pair.That you have a better chance of them actually breeding,then the planktonic fry makes great coral food.
 
I am now feeling like a failure. I am not sure why I could keep those 5 damsels alive for weeks while they were seeding my tank and now I have one cardinal left.

The last two have just "disappeared". No bodies to pull out of the tank. And the last one look very well before I went to bed. Swimming around and eating. Good color on the spots and then he was gone........

I am really hoping the last one sticks it out.
 
Lily,This is just a shot in the dark.But have you by any chance heard any "clicking" noises coming from your tank at night?
 
That fact that you asked me makes me worried.......

No, I haven't heard any strange noises coming from the tank. I normally lay on the couch by the tank for an hour after the lights go out and I check on it before I leave in the morning and I haven'
t noticed anything unusual. Why do you ask?
 
Since your fish are dieing or disappearing at night,makes me think that you may have a predator in your tank.
 

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