my new dudes!

[rDr4g0n]

he just ate 2 live goldfish. i know goldfish are bad in the long term, but i got to get him eating.

[ninnybone]

i use to have one. had it for about 6 months and everything was great. was feeding brine shrimp everyother day unless he was begging. best fish ive had. then i heard should alternate food so i feed him siverside and blame would not eat again and died about two weeks later.but seeing your makes me think about getting another one. he also ate about $100 worth of fish first week i had him lfsdid not give me very good advice.but that is another story. good luck i love him

[JFK_Jr]

Congrats dude...

Just always keep those poisonous spines in mind when sticking your arm in the tank!

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by ninnybone

i use to have one. had it for about 6 months and everything was great. was feeding brine shrimp everyother day unless he was begging. best fish ive had. then i heard should alternate food so i feed him siverside and blame would not eat again and died about two weeks later.but seeing your makes me think about getting another one. he also ate about $100 worth of fish first week i had him lfsdid not give me very good advice.but that is another story. good luck i love him

so.... no reason? that just happened?

[lcstorc]

So sorry you lost one. Could it have been Cyanide? Not sure how they catch lions but I know it is a problem with many wild caught fish.

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

So sorry you lost one. Could it have been Cyanide? Not sure how they catch lions but I know it is a problem with many wild caught fish.

i dont know anything about the relationship between wild caught fish and cyanide, can you explain?

im really irritated. the thing appeared extrememly healthy, as much so as the other. my wife watched it swim around at about 4:30 my time when i called her to see if everything was ok. when i came home at 5:30, it was dead.

as if this isnt enough to worry about, im going out of town this weekend, and one of my new clowns being abused by someone. i suspect it was the other clown because ive seen it hit on the abused one. at first a little piece of his caudal fin was missing, now his whole freakin fin is gone. ive seperated the hurt fish from the rest of the fish.

another weird thing is the healthy clown is swimming up and down the glass like crazy! i dunno if hes chasing his reflection or something? any ideas if there is a link between these problems?

oh and that melafix ended up coating all my glass surfaces with white junk. plus it made my skimmer go crazy, which it warned against on the label. i guess it wasnt a good idea to use it. blech.

[Dentoid]

Awe, that stinks! Sorry for your loss. Perhaps one stuck the other. What I have read about cyanided fish is that they can look healthy, and have good color, but they wont eat. Traces of cyanide in their system eats away at their liver, digestive tract and gills. This can occur over a period of 1-2 months after capture and this is why they don't eat.

[lcstorc]

Exactly. I think certain countries do it and others don't. They use the cyanide to make it easier to catch the fish. Once the cyanide is in their system it often slowly kills the fish. You can have a fish looking fine in the store and a short time later they die for no apparent reason. Really the cyanide was slowly poisoning them to death. I'm not sure which countries do this or where lions are captured, so I don't know if this is a logical answer, but it is a possibility.
Cougra would probably know more of the specifics. She is good at that stuff.

[rDr4g0n]

my abused clown died too.

so far ive lost 4 fish in the 3 or so month period ive had my system running... running total is $62!!! yay!

really though... the only reasonable fish death was the clown that was being picked on. the other 3 looked fine one day and died the next... there HAS to be something happening!

[lcstorc]

How long had you had the others? What kind of fish were they? Have you tested your water? What are your paramaters like?
Sorry about the loss of the clown. They can be quite territorial. I tried to add a second one once, but it was a very bad idea. Now I stick with just the one clown.

[DaBird]

Dragon, are you using treated well water or are you on a city water system? Sometimes here in south Texas they are putting Fluoride in the water and that kills the fish pretty quick, I had this problem and had to get a RO/DI to get it cleaned up...anyway it's a thought, sorry about the lion loss...

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by DaBird

Dragon, are you using treated well water or are you on a city water system? Sometimes here in south Texas they are putting Fluoride in the water and that kills the fish pretty quick, I had this problem and had to get a RO/DI to get it cleaned up...anyway it's a thought, sorry about the lion loss...

here in south texas the tap water is complete and total crap. its literally not safe for human consumption. they have "Water huts" everywhere where you can get 5 gallons of RO/DI for $1. thats what i use.

i added 1 pajama cardinal months ago. hes been perfectly healthy since then. a few weeks later i added 2 bang gai cardinals. they too have had no problems. a week or so later i bought 2 pajama cardinals from the lfs. i took them straight from the lfs shipment from their shipper so they didnt ever make it into the lfs system. those looked fine (color, breathing, eating, everything) but both died 2 or 3 days later. just a few days ago i added 2 clowns. the 2 were in the same display tank at the LFS and are very young and tank bred, so i assumed they would be fine together. the next morning one had a chunk missing from his caudal fin. i assumed it was the emerald crab. i moved all the fish to the fuge in preparation for the arrival of my lions. the next day, there was more caudal fin missing, and i witnessed some agression from the other clown. im assuming that the other clown picked off his poor tail. yesterday i lost one of the lions, and this morning i lost the abused clown.

thats my fish history. the other lion looks fine, the clown and the cardinals are all acting perfectly normal.

up until i added the lions, my water was all 0s. just recently the ammonia jumped to 1, but is down to .25 from water changes. the trates and trites went up a very small amount as well. im assuming this is all just bioload from the new fish.

[rDr4g0n]

called the lfs and told the guy there my story. he says that the lions are tank bred, and hence were never caught. he also says he is careful to not order from suppliers that he suspects uses any bad chemicals during capture or shipment. also, he said he may be able to replace the fish for free or very inexpensivly. he will place a new saltwater order in about 2 weeks and said he will check in with me around that time to see how this one is doing.

so at least i got that to look forward to.

[DaBird]

hang in there man, don't loose your sense of humor...

[rDr4g0n]

Originally Posted by DaBird

hang in there man, don't loose your sense of humor...

you mean do something like THIS!?





im still pretty bummed though.