scubanerd13

Ammonia was tested at 0.50 today. What I called "really high" after the break was water was a reading of 1. Nirtite is 0.5, and nitrate is 5. The tanks is kept at a temperatue of 80 F, and the temperature does not fluctuate, as far as I know. I've been in the school on weekends, and tracked the temp before I added the fish. The tank is set up in the corner of the room, under a window. It has 2 airstones, 2 heaters, and an over-the-back filter. I know that except for the week when no one was able to get into the school, they are not under fed. I feed them 1 cube of spirulina, brine shrip, and mysis frozen aquarium food every other day, as per the recomendation of Sean at F&F. The other fish have grown visibly since I got them. I think that the deaths could be due to stress. The 1st fish died less than a week after he was put into the tank. The 3rd fish (a runt) died a few days after the snow break, which I know was stressful for the fish. I don't know if the fish in the middle died of natural causes, or if it was killed by the other fish over the break, because the body was eaten by the other fish. I hope that this info helps!

OK, here's a quick update: over the long snow break no one was able to get to my fish for over a week. We lost 1 fish, which I later found out was eaten by the other 10. (Yay for cannabalistic fish living in my classroom!) I went to F&F and picked up and ammonia test kit, which has been a life saver. My ammonia was realy high after the snwo break, and I was able to test and do a water chang to bring it down. I lost 1 more fish last week, cause unknown. I have a feeling that as it was one of the runts of the school, it was weaken by not having food for a week, and he just died now. Any ideas? I've been trying toget into F&F for a few weeks to order replacement fish, but Sean has been sick, and we keep missing each other. I hope you and your daughter are feeling better now!

Due to the big series of storms coming in this weekend, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my fish. I'm going to go in and talk to Sean at Fins and Feather tomorrow, before the storm hits, but I thought I would post it here too. Would it be safe to keep them in the 5 gallon bucket for a few days like I did when I was moving them to the school? or should I try to transfer the fish from the large 55 gallon to the smaller 20 gallon, and just move the filter over from the main aquarium to the small one? what do you think?

I checked the nitrite and nitrate as soon as I saw the fish was dead, just to check for a spike, and to see if I needed to do an emergency water change. I didn't see anything, but I don't have an ammonia test kit at school. Could the fish have possibly been weaker than the others, and not gotten food, or just stressed? What could I look for to twll me why he died?

just a quick update: I had a friend feed the fish on Friday before school got out. Becasue of the long weekend I came in today to check on them before school tomorrow. I was very sad to find one of the fish laying on the bottom of the tank, dead. I don't know what happened, because they all looked fine on Thursday, the last time I saw them. I fed them today, and all were eating and swimming well. I;m going to see them again tomorrow. I have now officially had a saltwater tank running for one week. Thanks for all your support!

Ok, just an update. Yesterday I added my fish, after picking them up Sunday night. They looked great this afternoon when I left. They were swiming a lot more today. Yesteday, they just motored right down to the bottom and hung out there the rest of the day. I cleaned of the bottom of the tank where soem waste and leftover food had settled. It was so cool to watch them eat! I think I'm already seeing a couple of the fish show dominance to the others. BTW, can anyone tell me what specific actions the dominant fish will do? like chasing, nipping, ect? My teacher was thinking that a list might be a good idea, because I would be able to check off the actions as I see them.

great, that's what I thought it was. I did a small water change today, and it won't be until Monday that I add the fish (Tuesday if we have a snow day tomorrow). Will the 2 air stones in i have in tha water keep it enough oxygen in the water? Or will I need to do a large water change instead?

So here's my update for the past few days: I'm finally geting my temp stable (adding cold water to the tank does not does not help to keep the temp stable ) I added bacterial ampoules to start my tank, 4 of amino block and 6 of bio-digest. I also added about a tablespoon of sugar, and turned up the temp to 82. When I cam on this moring, the tanks was very cloudy, and my teacher said it looked that way yesterday. Any ideas for why this happened, and how to fix it? I'm planning on adding my fish to the tank on Monday, weather permitting. I loved seeing my babies at F&F yesterday! I'm so excited to finally get them to their new home soon.

Part of the testing is to see if a male will change in the 55 after the female is removed. That will tell me whether they are using visual cues or not. If another male changes, just the sight of the female is not enought to prevent sex change. The experiment will answer a yes or no question. Sorry, I cn;t figure out how to quote more than one person at a time my filter is an Aquaclear hang on the bakc filter, sized for a 40-70 gallon tank. I have 2 sets of "cycle guard"(ceramic porus stone that come in the pakage with the filter) and the sponge in. I am not using carbon becaseu I was told it would remove homones from the water. I have about 10 different sources of published reserch papers about protandric sex change in fish in general, as well as ocllaris clowns specifically. I you guys want the sources( and more details of the project overall, I can post the experimental design and backgroud research up here. I just didn't want to post it w/o interest) Sorry, st this point I can't change what tank I'm using or what livestock I have, as the school has already paid for it. I went with what was shown to be the easiest to maintain and keep alive that I researched. Thanks for all the help so far. If i didn't answer your question, please just wait until I can look at the posts again or if you think I'm too slow, repost it. I'm already loving this site!!!!!

I'm using 12 ocellaris clowns. I'm going to put all of the fish in the 55g tank, and when one becomes female, I will move her to the smaller isolation tank. This will test the visual cues becaseu while the female can't reach the males, they will be able to see her. I will alot be takign water samples thoughout the experiment, then running them through a set of tests called ELISA assays, one for 11-ketotestosterone and the other for estrogen. These tests can measure tiny amounts of these homones in tha water, and I will be able to see any differences between the tank with the female in it and the tank without the female. About the bacteria- I was told that using a dead shrimp or clam would allow me to cycle the tank w/o accidentally killing a fish with an ammonia spike. There's no LS or rock, because I was told by Sean at Fins and Feathers that having sand and rock would lead to fights between the fish, each of which would end with a fish with a broken jaw that would then starve to death. Because of the rules assosiated with the science fair my school uses, a project using vertebrates cannot have more than 30% of the test subjects die, or the project will be shut down, i.e. no sand

Hey, i just joined this forum on the sugestion of the guy at my LFS. I starting a project to find out how the female clownfish prevents the other males in the from changing sex. I will be looking at visual cues as well as potential hormones in the water. As of right now, I have a 55 gallon tank set up with a filter and heaters, and a clam in the bottom to build up bacteria. My fish came in on Friday, and i will hopefully be adding them to the tank this week. This will be a 2 year long research project for my Jr and Sr years in high school. If anyonw wants to see my ED or backgroud reserch for more info, I'll be happy to post it. I can't wait to ask all of my question and get better answers tht looking it up online or using books from the library.