Fish Funeral Home

[CT Trooper]

I have a 55 gal. set up w/ 120 lbs lr, 60 lbs live sand. The tank has been up and running for about 10 weeks +/- and I cannot keep my fish alive. Currently I have 2 purple/blue pseudichromis (sic) 1 algae blenny, and 2 clown fish. Everytime I put in a nicer fish it lasts 3-4 days and come morning I find it on the bottom dead. Water checks out fine by me doing it and my lfs. I feed once a day flake and/or brine shrimp. I am ready to pull my hair out. Help!!!!! Just this week I lost a Korean angelfish and a brown tang. Have also lost 2 tomato clowns at different times, yellow tang, coral beauty, etc etc etc.

P.S. I have am magnum pro canister/dual bio wheel set up and a sea clone protein skimmer.

[Travis]

Personally I would blame the pseudos. They can be downright mean!

[Maxx]

Psuedochromis can be nasty SOB's, but they dont hide their aggression, so you would most likely see it happening. WHn you say you've lost all these fish, how did they look before they died? How were they behaving? How did the bodies look after they died, (chewed on fisns torn, flesh missing etc), do you have any hermits?
Nick

[Craig Manoukian]

That is a lot of fish in a very short time. It usually takes about 8 weeks for a tank to fully cycle and stabilize. Fish should be added every 3 to 4 weeks so that the denitrifying bacteria can adjust to the bioload.

You say 10 weeks and that is a red flag.

[AJinNY]

I, too, would like to know the coloration of the fish. Were they eating? Did they appear to die for no apparant reason? Was there heavy ich action going on? Did any of them appear to have any wounds on them? Was the yellow tang emaciated?

Also were the 2 clowns beating up on your tomato clowns? I would think you had too many clowns in the same tank.

Give your tank a good week or two to stabilize before adding any other livestock...then add ONE fish at a time and see how it goes.

Good luck.

[DaveK]

As others have said, Psuedochromis can be really nasty, but you have added fish that are generally considered to ba able to take care of themself. While this could be the problem, I would also look into some other possible causes.

It's tough to give you anything too specific, because we just don't have enought information. Here are a few things I would check....

General water parameters. Obviously they must be correct.

Any possible predators that you don't know about in the live rock? Things like large crabs, mantis shrimp, etc.

Any possible diseases in your system? Very important to check. It's possible the existing fish may be resistant.

How did the dead fish look when you found them? Were they damaged in any way or just dead? Were the gills flaired out? Was the new fish eating befored it died? Were the existing fish chaseing it or nipping at it?

[Craig Manoukian]

Originally Posted by DaveK

Were the existing fish chaseing it or nipping at it?

Tattered fins would be a dead give away on this. Good points Dave!

[DaveK]

Usually SW fish are more interested in chaseing the intruder out of their territory. They usually don't kill something unless they plan to eat it. For a fish causing the problem, usually I'd expect to see a beat up fish after a day or so, not a death after 3 or 4 days.

This leads me to suspect that there is something else going on here.

Many years ago, about 30, I had a similar problem. My existing fish did fine, but any new fish died. This happend right at the time when many Pacific Ocean fish became easily available. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that problem was the massive use of cynaide that was being used to catch fish back then. This was so bad for awhile that I gave up salt water fish for about 10 years.

[Gina]

Like DaveK said there may be other external problems going on here. We had a similar thing happen here. We had a rough start for our tank but after things stabilized we were left with three happy and healthy fish. It seemed for a few months afterwards that anything we added (fish, snails, etc.) would be dead within 48 hours. Water parameters seemed fine and we never did find the problem. We just waited a few months and then we were able to successfully add fish. I would have to guess that there was just a problem with the livestock that I was buying from the lfs.

I would wait a while before adding anything new and then consider trying a different lfs.

[CT Trooper]

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my problem. I have just completed a large water change (20 gal) and everything seems to be fine. I am going to wait a while before I add anything just to make sure I am on track. Thanks again..

Tony

[gaubow]

my first thought was the psuedochromis... for the money you have already lost in fish I would try to get something from the lfs in exchange for them... good luck with that, though.

[oldsaint]

Wow nice board look at all the great answer you get in such a short time. Sorry for you loss CT Trooper you've already got some great advice but I'll throw some more out there. Not sure if its going to great though.
When you go to restock your tank make sure you check out the suggested min gals for the fish. That Korean angelfish, most reference books recommend a min 135gal tank. Liveaquaria recommends 100gals. I always use the larger suggestion, less stress on the fish. Also one thing I didn't see anyone mention is your acclimation procedure. I see you've got fish in the tank that are doing good but just thought it was worth mentioning. I use a very slow drip method takes about 2 hours++ before I put a fish in the tank.
Good luck with everything and karma to you as soon as I figure out how to do it.

[Craig Manoukian]

Originally Posted by oldsaint

karma to you as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Click on the karma under the name of the person you want to increase their repuation or click on the silver scales in the lower left hand corner under their name. Same functionality.

[oldsaint]

Got it.
Thanks Craig