I just don't understand this......???

[tomato clown]

I have my 26gal. tanks set up here for just about 2 years now. At the moment it has the following:
35lbs LR
3in. DSB
6 peppermint shrimp
4 turbo snails
3 blue leg crabs
1 18in. tree sponge
1 mint green polyp colony
2 chocolate chip starfish
1 Regal Tang (4in.)
Now I had a a small 3 1/2in. Keyhole Angel die on me. My water parimiters are good sal= 1.024, Am=0, No=0.5, etc
It seem that any other fish I have placed in this tank has passed on. The only ones to have survived in this tank are my Maroon Clown, my Clown Trigger, and my Regal Tang. All of the inverts are doing awesome (growing even)
Anyone have any ideas what I'm dealing with here???
Dan

 

[ebeckels]

has there been some stress from fellow tank inhabiants...I'm sure u've heard it before, but that tank is kinda small for those fish. That is most likely what is causing problems.

 

[tomato clown]

No, actually the 2 got along just great. Right now I'm thinking its an Ick outbreak, only because my Regal has been allowing the peppermints to pick him. I only allowed the 2 together because they were small.
I really don't think i'm going to place another fish in there, I'll probably keep it filled with stars, crabs, snails, and some other types of low light corals.
Dan

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

What are you using for water? What are you feeding you animals? How long after you get the animals did they die?
regals are not know for territorality...what are your Nitrates like?

 

[tyrfing]

It's not going to take long before those fish outgrow that tank. First you have three fish considered fairly aggressive, so even if they are small, they are still territorial. A tank and a trigger are usually considered 75 gallon sized animals. Again, even if the fish are small, they are still aggressive and will defend their territory.
Ebeckels is right, there's a lot of stress in that tank right now due to the instinctive nature of those fish and the limited territory you've given them due to the size of the tank. Your plan for keep this tank as a invert tank is a good one. I assume you're going to move the fish to a larger tank then?

 

[tomato clown]

The water is ro/di, feeding twice weekly prime reef and brine, and 3 months after i got the angel.
I know about tanks and fish sizes etc... I have a 120 being set up for this now.