New Marine Tank troubles

DomD

New Member
Hello, I am new to saltwater tanks and despite following my local shop's instructions to the letter I cannot keep a clown fish for more than 1 or 2 days at most. The 2 Gobies in tis tank are just fine. My specs:

55 gallon
30 lbs Live Rock
2 lbs fine sand (not live)
Marineland canister filter
UV sterilized
8.4 pH
0 NO2
0 NO3
0.25 NH4
1.024 salt concerns
Tank set up by the local shop owner
Cycled 3.5 weeks prior to adding 1 Bullet Gobie who is doing great.
Added 5 snails and 5 very small crabs at the same time as the Gobie; these are all fine.

1 week later added 1 Watchman Gobie and 2 Clown fish. The clown fish didn't last 2 days. One clown simply died the same day wile the other was ok for 2 days when I noticed it gasping and developing white patches all over. This did has now died.

What am I doing wrong?
 

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
The fact that only the clowns died within days but others are OK, combined with parameters in the correct range may suggest two possibilities.

One might be that those clowns came sick. I can’t stress enough doing some QT for every new inhabitants.

The other could do with the transfer of fish to the DT. If you can describe your acclimate process, maybe we can rule that out.

Not sure if that helps any...
 

DomD

New Member
The fact that only the clowns died within days but others are OK, combined with parameters in the correct range may suggest two possibilities.

One might be that those clowns came sick. I can’t stress enough doing some QT for every new inhabitants.

The other could do with the transfer of fish to the DT. If you can describe your acclimate process, maybe we can rule that out.

Not sure if that helps any...
 

DomD

New Member
Thanks for taking time to help; much appreciated.

Acclimate process:
> cut off top of new fish bag.
> the fish's bag is floated in the tank and clipped to the side to remain properly oriented
> over the next 30 mins I add small amounts of tank water until the volume is double what the fish was packaged in.
> the fish is then netted into the tank.

I do not have a quarantine tank.
 

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
Yup, that process is fine, rule that out.

That leaves sick fish.

A good LFS can help with the QT since you do not have .

When I buy from my LFS, all fish are QT by them for 7 days before ready to purchase. Then, I put them on hold for another week. If all still looks good at pick up time, and actively feed, then I purchase.

You seem to be doing everything right, but if your LFS does not follow normal protocol, this can easily end up as it did.

You should discuss the death with them, they should replace them since they died quickly.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
... despite following my local shop's instructions to the letter I cannot keep a clown fish for more than 1 or 2 days at most. ...

Tank set up by the local shop owner ...
...

You have two main areas you need to deal with here. The first one is why your clowns died. Considering that one got "white patches" it's likely that the fish you got were diseased. Many clowns being sold today are in extremely poor shape. Some people recommend quarantining them, consider them infected, and treat for disease. I recommend you let clowns go for awhile, and get other fish for the time being, and come back to clowns once the tank is better established.

The other big problem you have is that you depended entirely on the LFS, even to the point of having them set it all up. I don't know your LFS as such, but I will say that the system they sold you is not would I would have recommended, especially for someone new to the hobby. We can go into this later, in another post.

What you need to do here is to educate yourself so that you are knowledgeable and know what your doing. I have posted this before, but it's worth repeating, and is the best advice I can give someone new to the hobby.

DaveK's Standard Lecture #1 – Advice for people new to the hobby

The very first thing you want to do, before you spend any money on equipment or livestock, is get yourself a few good books on state of the art reef systems. Then read and study them, so you have some idea about what your are doing.

Here are two to start with -

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner
The New Marine Aquarium by Michael Paleta <---This book has an especially good section on fish suited to someone starting off in the hobby.

A note on the books. You can often find used copies at much lower prices at places like Amazon. In most cases these are going to be as good as new copies, especially when your first learning.

This is information that you can not easily obtain from the net. While it's out there, it's all over the place, and there is a massive volume of information. There is also a lot of bad information out there.

Once you get that done, plan or rethink your system. What do you want to keep? Do you have the necessary equipment? Do you have the knowledge to keep the livestock you want? Do you have the time to dedicate to keeping a system and it's livestock?

Many salt water fish, corals and inverts often have very specific requirements. Some are extremely difficult to keep alive, even if you do everything right. Before you get anything, research it, and be sure it will work out in your system.

Lastly, you will find that most LFS people are clueless when it comes to SW systems. Verify their advice, until they prove otherwise.
 

DomD

New Member
Thank you friends! Let me reply in turn here:

Uncle99 - Thanks for verifying my initial steps; at least I am on the right track in that regard. My Local Fish Store (LFS, still making sure I have the initialism correct) seems to have plenty of different marine fish, inverts, and corals. The fish, as best I can tell, look healthy and active - I spend time during each visit looking over all the tanks. They have been in business 28 years (eh..I know). And, they have no issue replacing the lost Clowns. As for your on-site "quarantine-then-hold" process, which I think is fantastic by the way, I have no idea if they would do this. Unfortunately, this is the only saltwater fish store in my area. I will ask them at the next visit and report back.

DaveK - Many thanks for your advice as well, and for the 2 reference books - I will surely look them up. I have the "Marine Aquarium Handbook: Beginner to Breeder" by Martin A. Moe, which I have read cover-to-cover 2x in the past month. I am pleased to have these added refs to consult. As for the white patched on the Clowns, they were large, circular, densely colored (not clowdy or opalecent), and the fish made a rapid demise. Again, my 2 Gobies, 5 snails, and 5 very small crabs are all fine.

Humblefish: Thank you as well for the link to the Brooklynella site - very interesting indeed. Yet, as noted to DaveK above, my Clowns did not look at all like those on the Brook site, and thus I think there may have been something else going on. I may be that the stress of transferring them from store to home tank caused enough stress to accelerate whatever disease/illness may have been present.

I will dig into more books and I also agree with staying away from Clowns for now, especially because when the first Clown of my initial pair died, I replaced that fish with another clown who also died that day, with and last one (3 in total) dying a day later. Maybe a bad batch of fish? Hard to know.

My thanks to you all!
Dom D
 
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