Loseing fish,need help!

[maurice]

I just lost mt female maroon clown and my coral beauty and there is no signs of anything on them when i looked,but they were breathing really hard the day before i lost them and not very active or eating.Anyone have any ideas what it may be?I have a 55 gallon tank,my ammonia is 0,my nitrate is 25,and my p.h. is 8.2,I have a few i only have a male maroon and my mandarin left,and i really don't want to lose them.If anyone has any ideas please throw them my way! Thanks in advance! :notsure:

 

[usafyyc]

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat (No punn intended). I posted right after you did. Kinda wish I hadn't as mine is a TAD longer than yours. I'll be popping between your's and mine to see any answers pop up. Best of luck to you. How did you work out having two marrons? I was told they can't be together or with any other type of clown.
Jason

 

[maurice]

Jason,
I bought mine as a pair,the lfs i like to deal with have had 3 pair for a few weeks,so i felt safe in gettting a pair,then i lose my female in a week!

I am sorry to hear someone is also in this boat with me too,it is driving me crazy.Someone has told me they think it is a parasite that gets in their gills and keeps the fish from breathing,and the more i think about it the more it sounds possible.Did your fish breathe really hard a day or so before they passed?
Maurice

 

[usafyyc]

Well my clow did show signs of slight heavy breathing. But we were told it was because of a gender change. Then things looked a little better (over a day) then next thing I know it was dead. The other one that we bought at the same time is doing just fine aside from not having a friend to hang out with.
Ya know if I'm reading right then a 55 gal tank is just too small for this type of project and if you really want to have the really really neat fish then you need like 100 gallons minimum. SOOO I want to get better with the smaller clowns and maybe we'll just keep them and our damsels. Hopefully my Dwarf Lionfish won't start munching on clowns.

 

[maurice]

You shouldn't have a problem with your lion if he is small.As for the bigger tanks,i am looking into a 190 gallon.If i get that one i should be ok for awhile or at least i hope so.I am curious to know what some of the pros think we could have in our tanks,it is really driving me crazy loseing my fish!Are you running a UV light also?

 

[usafyyc]

Well we're using 4 bulbs that are 18 inch florecent things. The 2 blue ones are designed for saltwater tanks and are meant to add to the white ones to "fill-in" and make something that's like the full spectrum of the sun...Hows that apply? Dunno, but that's what we have. We're new to this whole thing. We took as much advice as we could from our LFS but this is kinda beyond them.

 

[maurice]

The UV light is to kill parasites,not your tank lighting itself.I just got mine hooked up last night,maybe it will help take care of whatever is killing my fish!

 

[usafyyc]

I had a feeling that's what you meant. I just found out about them tonight. The book I have said it had a "possibility" of killing bacteria... I sat there and thought, if it has only the possibility of killing things why not list what it ACTUALLY does? lol But I'm finding out more everyday that the book I have really isn't the best. Have you ever worked with Seagel in your filters? I'm not for certain but I think it threw off my tank... It was meant to act as an additional bio-scruber. Dunno