What did I do wrong?

Reefer102

New Member
I started my first reef tank 5 weeks ago! I've been researching and learning a lot about reefing. My tank is a 29 gallon with live rocks, live sand, a canister filter, a skimmer, a power head, a heater, and T5 lights. I went all out and got the nicest stuff i could. I waited and tested my water and it was good for about a week, so i decided to get a fish. I got a juvenile ocellaris clown. I acclimated him to the water with a drip line and put him in. Almost immediately i thought something might have been wrong with him. I got the food he ate at the store and feed him 1 large flake a night. by the third night i got worried about him because he was twitching. Because this is my first fish I didn't know if this was normal behaviour or not. I tested my levels again and everything was perfect. I decided to keep observing him and see what happened. Today i come home to a dead fish. Why did he die? What can i do to prevent this from ever happening again? Thanks for any help!
 

Leandre

New Member
Hi, first of all what are you testing? Did you put the bag with the fish into the tank to acclimate the temp? What's your tank temp and silinity? You really haven't given much info on your parameters to let anyone give a good guess. Could of been stress, sometimes fish just die. Sorry I couldn't of been more help.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
How did you cycle the tank?

How long did you do the acclimation?

Many clowns being sold today are in fairly poor shape. It's possible that it had something wrong with it or had some sort of disease.
 

ziggy

Active Member
did ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels all spike up and then drop to 0, to indicate a completed tank cycle. A week is not enough time to start and complete a tank cycle to me.
 

Paul B

Well-Known Member
Your fish died from parasites in his gills. All fish carry parasites and flakes are no food for any fish but that's not what killed him. Your water parameters didn't either. I think you need to read a lot more before you buy another fish. It was not really your fault but there are things you need to research first.
In such a new tank the parasites on a fish will almost certainly kill it. You need to either quarantine new fish or at least learn the symptoms and how to pick out a healthy or sick fish.
It is too much information to put on here (and I am tending to a very sick wife) but if you research this and other forums, you will learn everything you need to know.
Good luck
 

Reefer102

New Member
Your fish died from parasites in his gills. All fish carry parasites and flakes are no food for any fish but that's not what killed him. Your water parameters didn't either. I think you need to read a lot more before you buy another fish. It was not really your fault but there are things you need to research first.
In such a new tank the parasites on a fish will almost certainly kill it. You need to either quarantine new fish or at least learn the symptoms and how to pick out a healthy or sick fish.
It is too much information to put on here (and I am tending to a very sick wife) but if you research this and other forums, you will learn everything you need to know.
Good luck
thx
 

Reefer102

New Member
did ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels all spike up and then drop to 0, to indicate a completed tank cycle. A week is not enough time to start and complete a tank cycle to me.
no and i had the tank cycling for 5 weeks not 1
 

Reefer102

New Member
How did you cycle the tank?

How long did you do the acclimation?

Many clowns being sold today are in fairly poor shape. It's possible that it had something wrong with it or had some sort of disease.
i had live rock and sand and i cycled it for 5 weeks and the water was good for a week or 2. i acclimated it for an hour.
 

Reefer102

New Member
Hi, first of all what are you testing? Did you put the bag with the fish into the tank to acclimate the temp? What's your tank temp and silinity? You really haven't given much info on your parameters to let anyone give a good guess. Could of been stress, sometimes fish just die. Sorry I couldn't of been more help.
salitity, alkilnity,pH,ammonia,nitrite,and nitrate. yes i floated the bag or temp aclimation.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
It really could have just been sick. The obvious things to look for everyone is implicitly pointing out are (1) your tank was not yet cycled or (2) the fish was sick when you bought it.

That's because those are two of the most common things to go wrong here.

I'm not sure what your local fish store is like, but mine is willing to test water to make sure it is cycled. If they are, you could have them double check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test.

Unfortunately, there are ALOT of sick clown fish in the industry right now. As a beginner, it's likely extremely difficult for you too tell the difference, but like others have said there is a really good chance that killed your fish and there wasn't much you could really do about it.

I've been in this hobby 3 years now and I'm not sure I can tell a sick fish from a healthy one. So, try to read what you can so you can try not to buy sick fish, but really it might kind of be luck of the draw for you.

In either case, don't take it too hard. We've all lost fish. Just try to learn from it and move on.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
i had live rock and sand and i cycled it for 5 weeks and the water was good for a week or 2. i acclimated it for an hour.

When you cycle a tank, you need to add some source of ammonia so that the bacteria that breaks down ammonia to nitrite to nitrate get established. Most people do this by adding a single raw uncooked shrimp that you get from the seafood section of your grocery store, but there are other ways to do this.

Keep in mind that a lot of live rock and live sand often doesn't have much bacteria on it. In the "olden days" live rock would come with so much growing on it, and so much of that would die off during the initial cycle that all you had to do was add it to the tank. Today you need to "kick start" things a bit with a source of ammonia.

The acclimation time is ok as long as the fish was not stressed.
 

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
I won't rehash all the standard stuff above that is right, but I will RE-emphasize the importance of providing as much detail as possible if you want to see if your system is up to pat and ready...
Specific equipment models, media types, actual test results (preferably in some sort of timeline progression), source water, etc.

Then, Budget a couple hours of study time, and go here---->>http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?forums/fish-diseases-treatments.155/

Read as many of the top threads as possible. Lee has a wealth of knowledge and was kind enough to leave much with us here on RS.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
No matter the condition of the tank, at times livestock dies. I know I have been quite upset in the past over deaths of loved livestock. My best advice is to not fall in love with your individual fish or coral. Enjoy your tank for what it is, where it is.

I have a new tank that has been cycling for a few weeks. The rock was pre-cured for 9 months or so, and my cycle was minimal.

There is nothing in the tank, and it looks like the moon. There is no life visible....until I get close to the glass, and see thousands of little dots of life skittering all over the walls of the glass. There are tufts of red slime, and a few spots of green algae. I really enjoy this tank right now because it has the capacity to hold fish and corals....and once that happens, I will almost certainly forget about all the little forms of life that literally fill the tank.

Clowns are generally tough as it gets. If you cycled your tank, and its parameters were even close to good a healthy clown should not kick the bucket.
 
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