HELP!!!

[blueyedcop911]

I have had three fish die in the last 5 days. I have a 90 gallon fish w/live rock. Parameters are excellent. PH fine, trates 0, trites 0, ammonia 0. I did a 25% water change last week. The spotted sweetlips was first, left for work that morning, all were doing great. No sign of sickness of any kind. When I returned home the sweetlips was dead. Two days later we before we left for the evening I checked all the fish and everyone was doing great. Returned 4 hours later and the singapore angel was dead and the spotted mandarian goby stomach was sunk in and was all but dead itself. The goby died an hour later. I've had this tank up for about 8 months now. Have had no problems at all until now. What I have left in the tank is a damsel, coral beauty, cleaner shrimp, and a few snails....any ideas???

 

[amphiprion]

The first thing that comes to mind is that the three fish that died are difficult to get to eat in captivity. The mandarin rarely eats provided aquarium food - they feed exclusively on copepods/amphipods in a live sand bed. If it's belly is sunken -it is starving. The Sweetlips will also often waste away and die of starvation. Have you seen these fish eat?
[ September 10, 2001: Message edited by: Amphiprion ]

 

[blueyedcop911]

The sweetlips and the goby I had in the tank for about 4 months. Both ate very well, especially the sweetlips...he was a pig. The singapore I had only had for about 2 weeks but it ate well also.

 

[pufferlover]

Jason; The 3 fish you mentioned are all hard to keep alive (I have had them all and lost them all to). What happens is they eat but they do not get the things they need to survive and waste away just finally being found dead one day. The sunken stomach on the Mandarin was a sign it did not get enough proper food to live. My sweetlips (I had 3 or 4 over the years) would do fine for a few months then like you I would find them dead one day. One of the problems in this hobby is many of the best looking fish are impossible to keep very long (there are exceptions of course- some people can have very good luck with these hard keepers but they are in the minority). My Singapore did well and then it to was found dead one day (then I found out they are almost impossible to keep alive- most sites selling them won't give you a guarantee on them). I don't think you should worry too much yet but as you consider replacements suggest you (like I) look for hardy easier keepers. Since I started doing that I now can say I have many 7 and 8 year old fish in my tanks.