Extreme Newbie and fish dying

[Ragincajun]

Hi all. I setup a 13.5 on 12/26 and used Turbo start per my LFS. The next day I added a Harbor Goby and he did great. A week later I added 2 stormchaser clowns and they seemed to be doing very well. Parameters all were good. Fast forward 2 weeks and we found one clown dead. It did not have any signs of disease, but its fins were fairly chewed. Then this morning the second one died. We are feeding about a half cube of frozen a day. They seemed to be eating fine as well. I just checked the parameters and all seems fine except for phosphates which is at .16.

The Goby seems fine.

Any other thoughts as to why they died?

 

[Nano_Man]

What are your water parameters now please
What’s your ammonia levels

 

[jtf74]

That seems like a lot of food for so few fish and your tank is so new probably an ammonia spike. Did you notice discolored areas ? Ammonia actually chemically burns the skin. Some tests and badges sometimes aren’t real accurate on testing ammonia.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Its too much too fast...
The tank didn't cycle
You added the second batch of fish too close to the first batch
You skipped disease preparation

Can you show a pic of your tank? Not to criticize, but to see if its built correctly? We want to help your fish.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Your tank is rather small and you added the clowns too fast. However, if the first clown had his fins chewed, I would suspect they were fighting and one killed the other either directly or by stressing him out.
The second could have died from an ammonia spike, or a disease or even from injury incurred while fighting.
Continue to monitor your gobby and wait a few weeks before adding another fish.
Half a cube for 1 gobby is a lot of food.

 

[Ragincajun]

What are your water parameters now please
What’s your ammonia levels

Salinity 1.025
Temp 80
calcium- 500
Alk - 8.2dkh
nitrate - 20
Nitrite - 0
Phospate -.16
Ammonia - API - 0 or .5

 

[Ragincajun]

That seems like a lot of food for so few fish and your tank is so new probably an ammonia spike. Did you notice discolored areas ? Ammonia actually chemically burns the skin. Some tests and badges sometimes aren’t real accurate on testing ammonia.

No discoloration that I could see.

 

[Ragincajun]

Its too much too fast...
The tank didn't cycle
You added the second batch of fish too close to the first batch
You skipped disease preparation

Can you show a pic of your tank? Not to criticize, but to see if its built correctly? We want to help your fish.

 

[Ragincajun]

Its too much too fast...
The tank didn't cycle
You added the second batch of fish too close to the first batch
You skipped disease preparation

Can you show a pic of your tank? Not to criticize, but to see if its built correctly? We want to help your fish.

I hear you, and I am here to learn. All good.

 

[Nano_Man]

Salinity 1.025
Temp 80
calcium- 500
Alk - 8.2dkh
nitrate - 20
Nitrite - 0
Phospate -.16
Ammonia - API - 0 or .5

Where any fish at the surface and rapid breathing

 

[Ragincajun]

Where any fish at the surface and rapid breathing

Not that I could tell. They were mostly to the bottom with an occasional swim to the surface.

 

[Nano_Man]

Not that I could tell. They were mostly to the bottom with an occasional swim to the surface.

Did you see any fighting

 

[Katrina71]

I think you are being pointed in the right direction

 

[Ragincajun]

Did you see any fighting

One was definitely more aggressive of the 2.

 

[Nano_Man]

If it wasn’t an ammonia spike from stocking too Quickly. It could be fighting that will kill fish
Good luck going forward remember go slow with adding fish if you rush fish will die . We are all still learning in reefing game good luck

 

[Ragincajun]

Thanks. Ammonia was at .5 based on the API test. I am guessing that it was due to fighting. Going to let the goby react for awhile and then see where it goes.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

one clownfish can die because of fighting, but the next clown died 2 weeks later, so fighting is not the cause of both fishes death. Either ammonia or disease would be my guess.

 

[tzabor10]

What is that purple stuff on your rocks? Where did they come from? What type of sand?

 

[Ragincajun]

one clownfish can die because of fighting, but the next clown died 2 weeks later, so fighting is not the cause of both fishes death. Either ammonia or disease would be my guess.

Sorry I could have been more clear. One died a few days ago and the other today.

 

[Ragincajun]

one clownfish can die because of fighting, but the next clown died 2 weeks later, so fighting is not the cause of both fishes death. Either ammonia or disease would be my guess