Help, two fish dead in 24 hours!

gruman28

gruman28

New Member
I have a 30 gallon tank that has been up for about 6 months. I have about 15- 20 lbs. of live rock, 2 anemones, some corals, polps, two scooter blennies, two chromis, a cleaner shrimp, and a sebae clown. I had a mandarin and a very small lion until today. When I came home my Lion was dead, and my mandarin was not doing great. I thought he had ich, but I can't tell. Once I put him in the Quarantine tank it didnt look like ich as much.
I did a water change two days ago. I also checked my levels and they are fine. No amonia, nitrate was low. All my other fish are fine. I actually have new polps growing. What do I do? Do I wait until something else something else dies?
I have some Kick Ich. Does anyone know anything about it? Does it work?
Thanks for any advice,
Chris
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
Originally Posted by gruman28
I have a 30 gallon tank that has been up for about 6 months. I have about 15- 20 lbs. of live rock, 2 anemones, some corals, polps, two scooter blennies, two chromis, a cleaner shrimp, and a sebae clown. I had a mandarin and a very small lion until today. When I came home my Lion was dead, and my mandarin was not doing great. I thought he had ich, but I can't tell. Once I put him in the Quarantine tank it didnt look like ich as much.
I did a water change two days ago. I also checked my levels and they are fine. No amonia, nitrate was low. All my other fish are fine. I actually have new polps growing. What do I do? Do I wait until something else something else dies?
I have some Kick Ich. Does anyone know anything about it? Does it work?
Thanks for any advice,
Chris
That many fish in a 30 gal is way too many, not to mention, the lion is a very messy eater causing water fluctuations, and the mandarin probably is not finding enough to eat with only 15-20 lbs. of LR. Sorry about your lion, but I would seriously consider taking the mandarin back or placing him where he will have an adequate amount of LR and enough pods to eat.
Lisa :happyfish
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Can you please list your exact water parameters for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, kh, SG, and temp? How long have you had all of these fish? Scooter blennies, like mandarines are copepod eaters. You have 3 fish in there that will not thrive off of any kind of frozen food and are likely in declined health. Lionfish do not do well at all in newer systems because of fluctuations. That is alot of semi-delicate fish in a 30 gallon tank with minimal unaged live rock. How often do you test your water?
 
gruman28

gruman28

New Member
Water-
Amon- 0
Nitrate- 10pp
Ph 8.1
Salinity 1.020
Tested at least weekly, sometimes twice a week.
I think the lack of copepods did the mandarin and blenny in. I saw them eat mysis shrimp, but I dont think it was enough. The Lion was very small. He was the smallest one I have every seen. I think he got stressed out when I changed the tank around. Then did a water change a couple days later.
Who knows? Thanks for all the help. I am just going to keep an eye on everything and let the tank be for awhile.
 
nigerbang

nigerbang

Active Member
Salinty needs to come way up..I keep mine around 1.025..Lions get very large..and are very messy..The mand. needs to go back maybe you can get some credit for it..
 
gruman28

gruman28

New Member
The mand. didn't make it, but didnt have any spots on him.
I was told to keep the salinity lower. Especially in a smaller tank. I was told this by both stores where I get my fish. The lion was so small and ate frozen food. He didnt make any mess at all. He was smaller than my chromis.
I belive Mand. can get ick, the pic on most sites of ick is a mand. Can scooters get ick? I can tell if he has spots or not because of his coloration.
Thanks
 
A

alix

Guest
i cant imagine what on earth would posess the stores to tell you to keep your salinity so low! i keep mine at 1.024-6 , it doesnt matter how big the tank is, as long as you top off regularly so the salt doesnt become too concentrated.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
I too keep mine at 1.026 Mandarines cannot get ich because they ave a VERY thick slime coat. The ich cannot attatch to mandarines. Blennies on the other hand can get ich. Have you had ich in your tank? If so then all of your fish need to be treated, they have all been exposed. If the lion was smaller than your chromis chances are he was not going to survive anyway.
 
nigerbang

nigerbang

Active Member
Originally Posted by gruman28
I was told to keep the salinity lower. Especially in a smaller tank. I was told this by both stores where I get my fish.
Thanks
Remember...They make money off of your fish dying because you will replace them...We on the other hand dont..sometimes free advise from strangers is the best advice...Ask 99% of ppl on here..They will tell you the salinity is way to low..
 
myreef05

myreef05

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
btw, salinity is too low.
Thats been mentioned But I am thinking this is a troll. NO WAY some LFS would have sold him/her ALL those fish knowing that the tank was so new and also only a 30 gallon. Over half the fish don't belong in a 75 but we are talking 30. RESEASRCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by myreef05
Thats been mentioned But I am thinking this is a troll. NO WAY some LFS would have sold him/her ALL those fish knowing that the tank was so new and also only a 30 gallon. Over half the fish don't belong in a 75 but we are talking 30. RESEASRCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH.
don't be so fast to call someone a troll :( and yes, a LFS would sell this stuff to someone who wanted them.
 
gruman28

gruman28

New Member
Whats a troll? First of all my lps did sell me all the fish. They even sold me the tank, water, and everything else in it. The only fish that maybe should not be in there would be the Lion, but he was to small to go into my big tank yet. The mandrin was eating shrimp for more than a month with out a problem.
I came on here for help. Thanks for those who did. If you are not helping then dont reply.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by gruman28
Whats a troll? First of all my lps did sell me all the fish. They even sold me the tank, water, and everything else in it. The only fish that maybe should not be in there would be the Lion, but he was to small to go into my big tank yet. The mandrin was eating shrimp for more than a month with out a problem.
I came on here for help. Thanks for those who did. If you are not helping then dont reply.
Mandarines, and maybe even scooters, will eat fozen mysis for a few months, but that is not the nutrition that they need to survive. It is alot like you living off of potato chips. Sure you could for awhile but eventualy you, like your fish (much sooner for the fish), would die from malfunctions of your organs due to malnutrition. A month or two is not success. Fish can go without food at all for a month. You should realy look for another LFS, they did you over realy well and are probably banking on you commng back in for more stuff. They realy did give you some terrible advice.
 
gruman28

gruman28

New Member
I agree with you about the LPS. I was also buying premixed salt water from them. After I did a water change last week I lost 3 fish within 24 hours. I went back to that fish store today and ran into two other people having similar problems. The only thing we had in common was that we all did water changes with the water. We think the water went sour some how...
I used the water before with no problems, but I know there has been some drama lately at the LPS and its changing management.
I am not sure if this is the cause, but I dont know what else it could be. I only have a clown left and I am going to let the tank cycle for a while and just do small water changes over the next month.
Thanks for everyones help
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by gruman28
I agree with you about the LPS. I was also buying premixed salt water from them. After I did a water change last week I lost 3 fish within 24 hours. I went back to that fish store today and ran into two other people having similar problems. The only thing we had in common was that we all did water changes with the water. We think the water went sour some how...
I used the water before with no problems, but I know there has been some drama lately at the LPS and its changing management.
I am not sure if this is the cause, but I dont know what else it could be. I only have a clown left and I am going to let the tank cycle for a while and just do small water changes over the next month.
Thanks for everyones help
You will be much better off buying a bucket of salt and making your own water. If you do not have an RO unit, you can buy the water from Wallmart for about .30 a gallon. If other people are having problems as well, do not trust their water anymore.
 
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