Fish Death

[aquaman30k]

Every time I buy 4-5 fish within 5 days all of the fish will be dead. Occasionally one will live but that has been rare. When I buy corals they all live and thrive in the tank but for the life of me I can't keep fish. I only shop at Coral Reef PC so every thing I have has come from one source. The tank in question is a 100gallons and has been set up for about 4.5 months now. I feed once a day with the principle that there should be little to no food floating around after 5 mins. All tests check out fine, temp is at 78 with a fluctuation up to 80 when the mh are running and the house gets hot. What has survived is about 30 snails, one fox face, one rabbit fish, one diamond goby, one 6 line wrasse, one sally light foot, one coral bandied shrimp and two cleaner shrimp. Please help me!!!(scratch)

[Michael7979]

IMO you shouldn't be putting in 4-5 fish at one time. Add only 1, maybe 2, fish at a time and let your tank adjust to the new bio-load before you add anymore, this should take a week mayb e two.

[impur]

Yah, Mike hit it on the head. Its tough on your system adding that many fish at once, especially if a few are larger. I am going really slow on fish for my tank, adding 1 every 2-3 months.

[mister crabs]

i agree with the other two.....its tough having a large show tank and going so slowly when adding fish because it just looks like such a big empty box of water but its what you gotta do to ensure a constantly stable environment. you arent doing the fish any justice (not to mention your wallet) by adding so quickly.

[aquaman30k]

Man that sucks but like you all said its not worth throwing your money away. One a month it is! Does that go for corals as well?

 

Mister Crabs, howdy neighbor!

[Michael7979]

No you can place more corals in at once but you still need to practice patience and go slow. I would say no more then 3-4 frags at a time. But some will tell you more is OK. That's just my opinion.

[dsoz]

Corals don't make such a large bio-load as fish. I would only do three or four corals frags at a time, or one large coral, and wait a week or so to do it again with another batch.

 

Good luck on stocking your tank.

 

dsoz

[ThePremiumAquarium]

You know, when I first started this hobby I had a very similar craving to fill up my tank asap. I have learned to be patient, but only to a degree. What the others have said is so true. Besides your tank will look much better with a larger number of corals in it then fish. For your tank size, I would only add at max another 6 or so fish. Go down to Jasons and pick out a couple at a time. Slowly aclimate them into your tank together and wait a couple of weeks for your system get back to its normal balance. Then you can repeat the process. I also like to wait until he gets the really exciting fish in. This comes periodically, so you will have to check in every week and ask him when he is going to be getting some more in. Summer is upon us which means high availability and low demand. Good luck and I look forward to meeting you some time at the store!

[huskerduck]

Or you have ICH, if they have white "frosty" appearance on their fins or looks like little grains of salt on their bodies. Do you have a living fish? If so, maybe its aggressive.....we have a maroon clown that panics everytime anything gets near its anemone and takes time to get used to other fish coming near.

 

I have trouble with large fish, they always die in a week excluding 1 blue tang and a Mystery Wrasse

 

I would try a Hawkfish, Blenny, Chromies they are tough as nails in my tank.

 

Other than a stress on the tank, remember these fish were in the ocean and had a pretty stressful trip from there to your tank, its a small wonder any fish make it through that stress

[octoman]

My guess is its the coral banded shrimp. Check out the fins from all the dying fish. If they are frayed and cut, i would definately suspect it. Try catching him at night. He does all his bad habits de-finning at night. Thats how i lost a few of my livestock.