A lot of my fish are dying?

[michelleh1403]

I am new to this site and saltwater aquariums.
I have a saltwater tank that is about 4 weeks old. I have live sand at the bottom, some live rock. I have 3 hermit crabs and 1 snail. 2 yellow tail damsels and 1 coral beauty.
I got fish in my tank after about a week of having it. All of my levels were good and I talked to a guy at the pet store who has been running his fish tanks for years. He said it would be fine to put fish in and helped me pick some out.
I had gotten a royal gramma and a firefish. The royal gramma died about 2 days later it was sick he thinks so he gave me my money back. My firefish was fine until today, I had him for about 3 weeks and today i went out with a friend and come home and my firefish, a 4 striped damsel and a peppermint shrimp were gone...
I was just wondering if any one could help me understand why all of my fish seem to be dying. All of my levels are still fine. I check them about every other day. I just checked them when I found my fish gone and they are still all fine. My ammonia is the only thing that is above 0 but it is a .25 ppm.
If anyone has any information or any helpful tips on what might be happening please please tell me. I want to have success with this tank and I know its going to come with time but any information about anything I could do would be awesome.
Thanks,
Michelle

 

[siptang]

Hi Michelle,
first of all, your tank is too new. I'm not even sure if it's properly cycled or the fact that you had too many fish in there in that span of time.
It may have been too much bio load for the new tank... but I'm not sure. Please give all the specs of the tank and the water parameters please.
Tank size
ammonia
nitrite
ph
salinity.
Also get rid of damsels, they are vicious little demon fish that will also contribute to some of massacres in your tank if not so already.
Welcome to the forum btw.

 

[kiefers]

Hi and welcome. I agree with Siptang. your new system is way to new and without cycling your tank, your going to kill things. Sorry..... but your fish store representitve lied to you. Your levels are fine because you never started an initial cycle to your tank. Thats okay, and it is unfortunate that you are having loses but this hobby is a learning process and we can help you get going the right way.
I will send you something to read. It will let you know what you need to do to get off on the right track. It was written by a member here and it will help you and answer any questions you may have.
On behalf of this saltwater community, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing us to help you with your future piece of ocean.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/386044/let-s-talk-about-cycling

 

[dustintx]

I agree with him on this one. Get rid of damsils!! Personally i feel ocellaris clownfish are the way to go. Also,did u buy and add all three fish at the same time? If so,that was a bad idea,especially on a very new tank. I started with one fish and worked my way up. Basically like he said,its too many fish at once for a new still establishing tank. Do u do water changes? Are u using rodi water or tap?

 

[kiefers]

You really don't need to start a cycle with a live fish, actually, it is just not right. The ammonia spike will hurt the fsih and make it very uncomfortable.
Read the link provided above. Start off with a "Raw" shrimp and let it go.
Read the link.

 

[tirtza]

Hi Michelleh, welcome to this site!

I totally agree with Dustin and Kiefers, starting out with that many fish isn't a good idea. Compared to most of the people on this site, I'm still a newbie and learning my way through this hobby. Here are some tidbits of info that I hope you find helpful. Maybe something in there will help you with your problem? Don't ever be affraid to ask questions, without this website I would have given up on this amazing hobby long ago. I'm so glad that I didn't, and I truly hope that you find it as worth while as I do!
Water Cycle

[*]
Did the guy at the fish store talk to you at all about the tank going through different cycles? Usually when people say 'my tanks been cycled' it's actually misleading......what they mean to say, is that the water in your tank has gone through it's 1st (and probably most dramatic cycle). The water will always continue to cycle but not have dramatic peaks in Ammonia and Nitrite that coud harm the fish and inverts in your aquarium. Most experienced hobbyist would recommend cycling your tank without fish. There are two reasons for this: First, the fish most often used for cycling are damsels (because they are cheap and hardy) and those are fish that (if they survive the initial cycle) will later terrorize your other fish and be very difficult to remove from your aquarium. If you already have them in your aquarium, don't worry...there are ways to get them out! The 2nd reason you wouldn't want to cycle with fish, is because unless they are really really hardy fish they won't be able to withstand the dramatic changes that your water will be going through in the beginning and then you will have just waisted lots of money. Some aquariums go through a 'soft cycle' simply by having enough live rock. Some people use pieces of raw shrimp to cycle their aquariums. There are all sorts of methods.
Why are your fish dying??

• 
  There are many things that could be causing the demise of your fish.....it could be water quality, disease, conflicts between the fish, ....there are any number of causes and combinations.
• 
  What are you using to test the water quality? Are they test strips or a certain type of test kit? What is the water temperature? What are you using to measure the specific gravity (a hydrometer or refractometer?) Where are you getting the water from for your aquarium? How often do you do water changes? What process do you go through to mix your new salt water?
  When you put your arms or hands in the tank, are they completely free of any soap residue or lotion? Both of those things can contaminate the water. You should try to keep your hands out of the tank as much as possible, but sometimes it just can't be avoided. I use a pair of rubber 'dish-washing gloves' (the long kind that go up to your elbows). Depending on how deep your tank is, and how often your hands are in in, you may need longer gloves.

Adding new fish
One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to have lots and lots of patients with this hobby. Add one thing at a time (unless its snails or crabs...those don't really make a big impact on the bio-load of an aquarium, and don't make big changes to the filtration all at once.
How are you acclimating the fish before you put them in? This could have a big role in how stressed out they are and thus making them more susceptible to disease.
When you've taken the fish back to the guy at the fish store, does he say why he thinks they 'must have a disease'? Next time ask for specifics. Better yet, if a fish starts to look ill...take a picture and post it on here and there are really experienced people on this site that can help identify the possibility of any disease.
[*]
Set up a QT tank: this is a quarantine aquarium. You'll just need the basics for it. You can set it up when you need it and then take it down when you don't. You can also use it as a hospital tank if one of your fish gets sick. It's kind of an annoying expense, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run.
Here's a link that I found SUPER helpful when getting involved in this hobby. https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/301033/101-tips-to-beginning-and-maintaining-a-saltwater-aquarium
I hope all this info helps, keep us posted on your progress!

 

[njbillyv]

Hi and welcome. These guys have you pretty much covered, the only thing I'd add is that you have to get some good test kits so you can accurately monitor what's going on in your tank.
Dip strips are not accurate. I'd recommend either Seachem or Salifert kits, very accurate. And a refractometer is also a must.
Good luck!

 

[michelleh1403]

Thanks for all of the advice guys A lot of it was very helpful.
So I just wanted to fill everyone in that I was mistaken and my shrimp and fire fish were both hiding and are perfectly fine.
The damsel that died wasn't eating so I don't think it has much to do with my tank cycling seeing as though all of my other fish are fine.
As for my pet store guy lying to me, I don't think he did because the only reason why my two fish died was one looked sick when we got it home and the other wasn't eating. He has ran his salt water tanks for years he said and he is the one that takes care of the fish at the store.
Thanks for all of the information and help. It was much appreciated.

 

[scrapman]

Welcome on this forum....
Patience is the key in this hobby. You cannot create a micro-tropical sea overnight. It's an expensive hobby and everyone here has suffered expensive losses. Patience and logging often on this forum are the best way to minimize your suffering. Enjoy the hobby!

 

[tirtza]

I'm so glad that your shrimp and Fire Fish are doing well! My Fire Fish loves to hide in her little cave.
Quote:
Patience and logging often on this forum are the best way to minimize your suffering
Scrapman is TOTALLY right! Without asking questions and having patience I would have crashed my tank long ago. I still make dumb mistakes sometimes, (like not researching Feather Dusters before I bought two of them)..... but at least mistakes can be limited if you're willing to seek help and learn as much as possible. We can't expect to have degrees in marine biology but we can certainly learn from more experience SW enthusiasts. There are a lots of people with many many years of experience who are willing to help