1st fish died :sad: questions why?

jennahill

jennahill

New Member
I have had my tank up about 4 weeks now- I added a cleanup crew late last week and tonight one of my fish (blue damsel)are dead-They have been in there about 3 weeks- when I got him outI looked him over and his whole back side was eaten. Thisis a list of the clean up crew I bought- is there something in there that may have gotten him- or do you think he died (sometime during the day- he was alive and well this morning) and was eaten after he died
20 Scarlet hermits
20 blue leg hermits
20 turbo snails
5 nasssarius snais
2 brittle stars
1 serpent star
1 coral banded shrimp
5 pepermint shrimp
I thought these were all peacefull- am I wrong??
Thanks!!
:help:
 
saltytom2

saltytom2

New Member
:confused:
i'm a newby too, but have plenty of fw experience w/ red bellied pirrannahs and other carnivourous fish. the only fact i can offer is; after death, any living creature considers this a fresh meal. i apologize for the loss, but with the crew you described, it probably was inevedable. i too just started and put some damsels in my 55g. i haven't put any invs in yet, still waiting for the lr to show up to know what to expect...
tom
 
S

shouse

Guest
whuw oh, better watch out or the po po's might be coming.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
More than likely your fish died due to the ammonia spike of your tank cycling, Your LFS has steered you wrong if they told you to put in a cleanup crew before the tank has cycled.
You need to test you water, tell us, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH and alk levels.
 
jennahill

jennahill

New Member
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals- its what they sold me at the store- only have PH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitite- didn't know I was supposed to test for anyting else.
 
jennahill

jennahill

New Member
I have tested every evening since I started the tank- Amonia spiked at 1.5 on the 31st. Nitrates were at .25 on the 4th and the nitrates haven't moved.
 
jennahill

jennahill

New Member
oops- nitrites were at .25 not the nitrates:)
Birdy- where in MO?
How old are your twins? I'm an Identical.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
I live in KC too! What LFS are you going too?
Are you sure Nitrites were at .25? those AP test kits are notorious for a false ammonia reading of .25, If your nitrites are 0 and your nitrates are .15 and your ammonia is 0 (or a false .25reading) then I would say you are cycled, but if you have a nitrite reading of .25 then you are still cycling. Double check those tests. In any case, sometimes fish die, especially right after you aquire them, many are weak to begin with.
Get back with me on those test results.
Oh and my twins are fraternal, boy and girl, they just turned 1 a couple weeks ago.
Email me, I have some Kansas City reefer info you may want:
bugsnbirdsnospam@everestkc.net "take out the nospam."
 
jennahill

jennahill

New Member
I tried emailing you, but it came back to me- so here it is
My Amonia is at 0.
My Nitrites are at 0.
My Nitrates haven't budged from about 15 (The color isn't on the chart, but the color is between the 10 and the 20- so I'm guessing it there.)
PH has been a constant 8.2
I actually live in Belton. I started out at Brothers Pets- its in Blue Ridge mall-but I got frustrated with them, they treated me like I should know everything when I would ask a question and it seemed they were very interested in stocking my tank really quickly, whch just from reading the book I picked up at the library I know that wasn't right. I talked to a friend of mine who has a tank and she suggested I go to Pet Supermart in Lee's Summit. I was really impressed with them- my first trip in there she spent over two hours with me and actually drew out the nitrogen cycle. She has been a Godsend for me- I can call her and she is always willing to take the time with me. I called her lots before I found this board. I have learned so much from reading on here- and I spend a lot of time reading on here- much more help than a book. :)
Is there a better test kit I should be using? What else should I be testing for?
Thanks for your help
You can email me- jennahill@hotmail.com
 
figstr822

figstr822

New Member
Never put that many critters in a new tank. I would start looking for a new LFS with the bad information they gave you. You're stars may not survive, nor your other inverts in such a new and unstable tank. The best thing when setting up a new tank is to forgoe the cycle fish (ie. damsels) and throw in a piece of raw shrimp. Let the shrimp begin to rot in the tank and then remove it after a week or so. Then wait at least a month or two before putting anything in it - especially fish. To properly cycle a SW tank can take up to 3 months. Any amount of amonia or nitrites is toxic, while nitrates, in low quantities, are fine in a fish only, but not a reef. If the water has stabalized after 6 weeks or so, you can put in one very hardy fish such a chromie (stay away from damsels as they get very mean when they get bigger). Then watch the water carefully for the next few weeks. Then only put one fish in there about every two weeks to allow the tank to catch up with the added bio load. Also, before buying anything for your tank, wether it be fish, inverts or equipment, research, research and do more research. You'll spend a lot less money that way and this hobby is hopelessy expensive. Good luck and I do hope your inverts make it through the cycle.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
A cleanup crew does not add to the bioload very much at all, and that is typically what you add first after the tank cycles, which her's did, but she did not get an Nitrite spike which tells me she should go very slowly when adding more fish. I disagree you should wait 3months after cycling to put a fish in, by that time your biological filtration would not support the fish, it is best to put the fish in a couple weeks after cycling.
Jenna- I have never been to that store. So I don't know much about it. But newer fish keeping methods try to do a fishless cycle but most LFS still try to get you to cycle with damsels.
Jenna- my advise to you right now would be to remove those damsels (they will only terrorize the new fish) and start with one fish (or a pair), wait 2-3 wks before adding any other fish and monitor your levels closely, you should be okay as long as you go slowly.
 
jennahill

jennahill

New Member
What should I do with the damsel that is left? I was told when I bought these two that they aren't agressive like some damsels- is that just not true? Should I try to return it to the store? What type of fish do you recomend I start with?
I just checked my levels again- now they're all out of wack!!
Amonia- 1.5
Nitrites- .25
Nitrates-15
What am I doing wrong, I had this level of amonia a week ago! :notsure:
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
Well I worry that you never truly cycled before, if you never got a Nitrite spike then the biological filtration was not pushed very far. Now you had a fish die and it started decomposing in your tank, this caused the spike, if you tank had cycled properly in the beginning it would have handled this spike without much problem.
Since you have a cleanup crew in there, you need to keep those levels down. Go ahead and do water changes to get them back down. you will probably need to monitor those levels on a daily basis and do water changes up to every other day. If you didn't have any other animals in the tank, then I would say just let it run it's course but that could kill your inverts.
 
nacl-man

nacl-man

Member
I agree with Birdy. I was curious as to the ammonia spike. From the experience (limited to starting two tanks) I have had the ammonia spiked much higher than that. Of course I used LR to cycle and the ammonia goes through the roof... but 1.5 still seems on the low end of the spectrum to me. Just IME though. Every tank is different.
My .02 is hold out and wait a few more weeks until things calm down.
 
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