notajr.fan January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Hi all, I'm sure I'm just having one of those moments that we have all had at some point, trying to figure out what we get out of this hobby. I've had various size saltwater tanks going on 5 years now. My current tank is a 75g with t5 lighting (8 bulb Tek). My return pump in an ehiem 1262 and I have 2 korallia 4's in the tank. The tank is controlled by a AC jr and my ATO is by JBJ. I dose 2 part when needed and feed sparingly 1 - 2 times a day. Recently I added a male and female blue throat trigger pair. Not even two weeks later they have gone on to fishy heaven. It seems like any fish I add, they wind up dying. The only two fish inhabitants are a clown and red/black hawkfish. My corals are all LPS except for my large green carpet anemoveI feel that I have plenty live rock, about a 80 pounds, 70 pounds of sand. A clean up crew that leaves my tank spotless. A phosphate reactor and an Euro Reef RS 80. If anybody has advice, insight, or any other suggestions please let me know. Right now I am seriously debating tearing down the tank and going back to freshwater. Thanks, Jeff
ReeferMan January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Whats your tank parameters? I went through the same thing 6 months ago when the tank crashed and i reaquascaped and right back in it. Seems everytime i feel that way i get interested again and make it better than before
zygote2k January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Maybe you need a challenge- try going all SPS and it will stimulate your creativity and desire to stay in this hobby until...
jason the filter freak January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Are you drip acclimating your fish. That sounds awfully similar to my girlfriends set up and shes uses straight tap water in the tank.
epleeds January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 over the past 9 months every fish i put in the tank lasted about 3 weeks and then died. I currently have a maroon clown, 2 hawk fish and a lawnmower blenny. I have had them for years and no issues. I recently decided to put in a porky puffer, thinking if something kills him, we have a problem. He is still alive and well for about 4 months now....i did however find a gorilla crab in the tank that was (huge). He is no longer with us but i think he had something to do with me losing all those other fish. Just give it some time....throw in a few cheap fish and see how they do.
lanman January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Check all of your water parameters closely - see if something is amiss. I've had good luck with fish, but still have lost a few by surprise. If you don't have all the test kits, take some water to one of the LFS's. bob
DDiver January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Maybe you need a challenge- try going all SPS and it will stimulate your creativity and desire to stay in this hobby until... this would be the last thing i would suggest to someone in your situation...but thats JMO
ctenophore January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Maybe the carpet anemone is eating your fish? They are notorious for that.
jamal January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 yea i was goin to say how big is the carpet. your parameters would have to be pretty messed up to kill healthy triggers. were they healthy? are the clowns hosting in the anemone? that helps sometimes
Rascal January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 were they healthy? That was my first thought too. Where are you getting your fish? Have you seen them eat in the store before you buy them? How do your water parameters compare to the store(s) you buy from? What is your acclimatization / QT process like? Most stores keep their fish systems at a much lower spec gravity than our tanks (1.015-1.020 seems to be the norm). Also, what are you using to check your salinity? I recently had a reminder of why not to use swing arm hydrometers - the cancer center tanks were using one that read about .03 low. Which meant that 1.027 was really more like 1.030. Adding a fish from water at 1.015 would take quite a while to properly acclimate to that level. Just something to think about. I was also recently reminded by Copps how important it is to QT fish - and not just for disease prevention. They go through so much stress b/n capture to shipping to wholesalers to shipping to fish store to shipping . . . And often they haven't been fed through all of that so they don't pollute their shipping water. Adding an already stressed and weary fish to an established tank can be asking a lot. Not only does it have to adjust to yet another set of water parameters, it also has to try to deal with the established tank mates. Copps' point is to allow the fish to adjust to the system parameters and whatever food you are feeding first and get its strength back before adding it to your tank. One parting thought -- IME when you are going through one of these periods it is not a good idea to add any fish that you do not really want in your tank, just because you are trying to see if anything will make it. As luck would have it, those will be the fish that live.
notajr.fan January 9, 2009 Author January 9, 2009 Thanks all for the replys. I guess I can begin by my water parameters. I use RO/DI (air water ice typhoon III) and salifert test kits. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, otherwise I would have to believe I would have 0 fish in the tank. When acclimating new fish I do a 3 - 4 hour drip. I will admit that I currently do not use a quarantine tank, the fish are placed directly into the display tank after acclimation. I would prefer not to get too specific into where I get my fish. They come from a local shop that is not roozens, wally's, or superpetz. The female was eating in the store. I tried feeding the same thing they had her on and couldn't get her to eat, tried other things and that didn't work either. The male was brought in for me directly from their importer. I was more worried about the male acclimating and eating except he did great right from the start. I just can't figure out why he died so suddenly. I've been thinking that maybe my carpet is the culprit, even with the clown hosting to it. The only thing that does not make sense is that there was at least a carcus with the female. I have seen no sign of the male for the past two days. As for other hitchhikers/crabs, I think they would have got to the hawkfish by now and he's been in the tank going on several years. I have not added any new liverock in nearly 2 years. I'm stumped. I really enjoy this hobby, but the 2 triggers were going to be the highlight of my tank and I had no plans of adding any other fish after them. Back to the drawing board or sale forum I guess.
quazi January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 I have been in sw hobby since 1987. I find my reef tank much easier to manage than my fw. And my setup is not nearly as elegant as yours. I think you need to look at things a bit differently. Do you enjoy the hobby and your tank? You may have gotten some strange disease or you may have gotten posioned fish. We do not talk about that much here, but fish are still being collected by cyanide and other harmful means. I have spent hundreds of dollars in on posioned fish. It was really bad in the early 1990s. Anyway, loss is part of the hobby. We do what we can to prevent it, but we cannot. No fish that we place in our tank will live forever. They will not return to the wild (with the exception of a few lion fish ). We place these animals in our tank for our pleasure. You have made a good investment in providing an excellent environment for your animals. I believe you are doing things right. You really have to consider if you have the stomach (and the pocket book) this hobby.
SeanCallan January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 I would try a new LFS to be honest. Bring a sample of your water with you to one of our sponsors and have them look at it. Explain your situation to them and what you're trying to do or what you had in mind. They're all very insightful (some more so than others) and they should be able to help you get your tank back on track and rekindle your love for saltwater. Where in Alexandria are you? I'm out that way if you need a hand with things on the weekend.
SkiCurtis January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Maybe the carpet anemone is eating your fish? They are notorious for that. That is the first thing that came to mind. your set -up sounds solid. test everything water parm that's necessary.
jamesbuf January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Have you ever noticed any white spots on your fish? I also agree with the carpet anem possibly being the root of the problem. Although I've lost both pairs of bluejaw triggers I put in my 180gal back in the day. I definitely don't think they are as hearty as other triggers.
notajr.fan January 9, 2009 Author January 9, 2009 Can't say that I have. There were no white spots on the triggers and no white spots on the fish currently in the tank.
SeanCallan January 9, 2009 January 9, 2009 Why don't you spice it up a bit? Why not take some thing to think about what you want out of the tank and doing an overhaul? I'm sure theres plenty of people who could help or give you advice. It might just be as simple as reaquascaping.
Sharkb8 January 10, 2009 January 10, 2009 No carcass for the male ... something would need to be kinda big to clean that up. My hunch is something creepy crawly in there that the hawkfish has managed to evade somehow. Could also be bad luck. First fish dies and disappears - water parameters are thrown off, so second fish dies due to stress? Just another possibility.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now