fish keep dying!

[acura rsx star]

I have had my 55 gal. tank for about 2 and a half years. I have a golden maroon clown who has been in the tank for about a year and a half, and along with a damsel seemed to be the only survivors no matter what fish I buy. I saw the damsel picking on other fish, so I returned him to the store and left the clownfish, he never has seemed really aggressive, only when they near his anemone. To this day, every time I put a fish in the tank, they do not make it past two weeks. This has happened to many different fish… Here is the list of those that I have bought and died right away.
2 yellow tangs
1 sailfin tang
1 Niger Trigger
1 Panther Grouper
1 Naso Tang
1 Goby
These fish were not all purchased at the same time, they were put in at different times throughout the past year, and I always wait about a month between the death of one fish, to add another. I also have purchased them from different local stores all of which I used to get fish that lasted a lot longer. In my tank now there is the golden maroon clown, an anemone, a peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, a lobster, and about 10 coral.
The water levels have always been good. I have checked both with a home testing kit and at a local aquarium store….
Please help me, I would love to have more fish in my tank, but it’s seemingly impossible!
any ideas??

 

[fooseball08]

I hear u... I am in the same boat... same size tank... all i can keep is a blue damsel, snoflake eel, Humu Trigger, LTA, and two shrimp. I have been through hundreds of dollars of fish...
Long nose butterfly
scooter blenny
anteneta lionfish
2 percula clowns
2 maroon clowns
powder brown tang
sailfin tang
niger trigger
coral beauty
purple firefish
domino damsel
I am not trying to hijack ur thread but please help us

 

[t316]

Describe exactly how you are acclimating your fish before entry, and are you using a quarantine tank before transferring them over to the display tank?

 

[t316]

And go ahead and post those water tests results. Even though you and the lfs agree, let's see what they are.

 

[sepulatian]

I am curious about the questions T316 asked as well. Did you notice anything on any of these fish before they died?

 

[bionicarm]

Originally Posted by AcUrA rSx StAr
http:///forum/post/2661347
I have had my 55 gal. tank for about 2 and a half years. I have a golden maroon clown who has been in the tank for about a year and a half, and along with a damsel seemed to be the only survivors no matter what fish I buy. I saw the damsel picking on other fish, so I returned him to the store and left the clownfish, he never has seemed really aggressive, only when they near his anemone. To this day, every time I put a fish in the tank, they do not make it past two weeks. This has happened to many different fish… Here is the list of those that I have bought and died right away.
2 yellow tangs
1 sailfin tang
1 Niger Trigger
1 Panther Grouper
1 Naso Tang
1 Goby
These fish were not all purchased at the same time, they were put in at different times throughout the past year, and I always wait about a month between the death of one fish, to add another. I also have purchased them from different local stores all of which I used to get fish that lasted a lot longer. In my tank now there is the golden maroon clown, an anemone, a peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, a lobster, and about 10 coral.
The water levels have always been good. I have checked both with a home testing kit and at a local aquarium store….
Please help me, I would love to have more fish in my tank, but it’s seemingly impossible!
any ideas??
What type of anemone do you have? I had a 55 for around 3 years that cycled through a bunch of fish, but the commom factor was an LTA I had in the tank. I got rid of it, and fish started living longer in the tank. My theory is the fish got too close to the LTA, and got stung just enough to where they couldn't recover from the injury.

 

[acura rsx star]

Well, I hopefully have solved the problem. I had an atlantic anemone who had been there for over a year with a golden marroon clown. I took the anemone to the fish store and now the clown doesn't have anywhere to lure the fish into. When I watched the tank, I realized that the clown would always have the other fish following it around and I'm guessing that they did get too close to the anemone. Also, the people at the store told me that clowns get more and more aggressive with time. Imagine, he was in a 55 gal for a year all alone. He dominated!!
Due to the aggressive nature of the fish, I was advised to put a mirror on the side of the tank and add at least two fish at a time. I followed those steps and it worked!! The clown is now distracted watching himself thinking it's another fish and does not bug the new ones!
They've all been in there for about a month, anemone free and ALIVE!! I have added a brown tang, sailfin tang, and a mandarin- all doing great!
Good luck

 

[hlcroghan]

Originally Posted by AcUrA rSx StAr
http:///forum/post/2770131
Well, I hopefully have solved the problem. I had an atlantic anemone who had been there for over a year with a golden marroon clown. I took the anemone to the fish store and now the clown doesn't have anywhere to lure the fish into. When I watched the tank, I realized that the clown would always have the other fish following it around and I'm guessing that they did get too close to the anemone. Also, the people at the store told me that clowns get more and more aggressive with time. Imagine, he was in a 55 gal for a year all alone. He dominated!!
Due to the aggressive nature of the fish, I was advised to put a mirror on the side of the tank and add at least two fish at a time. I followed those steps and it worked!! The clown is now distracted watching himself thinking it's another fish and does not bug the new ones!
They've all been in there for about a month, anemone free and ALIVE!! I have added a brown tang, sailfin tang, and a mandarin- all doing great!
Good luck

That is fantastic!! It's so nice to hear that someone found out what their problem is. Congrats on the success!

 

[vinnyraptor]

i hate to bust your bubble but tangs shouldn't be kept in such a small tank. one small tang may be ok for awhile but two isnt going to work longterm.
Originally Posted by AcUrA rSx StAr
http:///forum/post/2770131
Well, I hopefully have solved the problem. I had an atlantic anemone who had been there for over a year with a golden marroon clown. I took the anemone to the fish store and now the clown doesn't have anywhere to lure the fish into. When I watched the tank, I realized that the clown would always have the other fish following it around and I'm guessing that they did get too close to the anemone. Also, the people at the store told me that clowns get more and more aggressive with time. Imagine, he was in a 55 gal for a year all alone. He dominated!!
Due to the aggressive nature of the fish, I was advised to put a mirror on the side of the tank and add at least two fish at a time. I followed those steps and it worked!! The clown is now distracted watching himself thinking it's another fish and does not bug the new ones!
They've all been in there for about a month, anemone free and ALIVE!! I have added a brown tang, sailfin tang, and a mandarin- all doing great!
Good luck

 

[hlcroghan]

Ouch I didn't see the fish list that you got. He is right. A sailfin gets really large if I am not mistaken and that mandarin will run out of food really quickly. They need a pretty large tank (100+) and a lot of rockwork usually. It can be done but you would need to have a refugium to harvest the copepods which is the only thing that they eat.

 

[acura rsx star]

There's a lot of rocks and they seem to always be feeding off them. I thought tangs ate algae?

 

[soulfish]

You may be getting your fish from LFS that buy from wholesalers that "Chemically Catch" their fish.. Chemically caught fish just randomly die.

 

[spiderwoman]

Yes, tangs feed off the rocks, but your tank is 55 gallons and you have 2 tangs in there that need a lot larger tank to grow and be happy.

 

[acura rsx star]

eek! spoke to soon. I haven't seen the tangs in over a week. There's not even remains of them! So now i'm starting to think it might be a lobster that I have in there? It's not too big, but I heard they're mean! All I have left is:
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 Lobster
1 Golden Maroon clown
1 Mandarin
and lots and lots of coral. I don't get it

 

[gatorzone19]

Is it a Spiny Lobster? If it is its probaly to small to be legal to catch. Also they will kill anything you put in the tank which is probaly your problem with all the fish dying.