Fish dying off, no idea why!

[citymouse]

In the small tanks at the LFS the damsels normally seem fine too, they dont seem to kill each other until you buy them lol. I've taken home 20 at one time and only 5 ended up making it. Same problem as you, every day one would hide, another would look sick until I was left with all bullies.

It's just weird, they've been in the big tank since before Christmas and they were all fine until this week. The 1st one that went off on it's own, did this immediately after adding them to the new tank. I put them all in at once and they immediately invaded the Clown's territory, the clowns taught them pretty quickly to get out of their space! So that one went off alone and hid in the corner. The rest continued to stay together, never saw any bullying.
When the lights go out, they'd go into hiding together, light on and they'd eventually come out and swim around together.

Fish are weird sometimes...I don't get why they suddenly hate each other, lol.

 

[jduong916]

It's just weird, they've been in the big tank since before Christmas and they were all fine until this week. The 1st one that went off on it's own, did this immediately after adding them to the new tank. I put them all in at once and they immediately invaded the Clown's territory, the clowns taught them pretty quickly to get out of their space! So that one went off alone and hid in the corner. The rest continued to stay together, never saw any bullying.
When the lights go out, they'd go into hiding together, light on and they'd eventually come out and swim around together.

Fish are weird sometimes...I don't get why they suddenly hate each other, lol.

Hows the bangaii looking now. Does he seem like hes healing up from his fin wounds?

 

[Coralfuture]

Also, now curious why people haven't been successful with them? Do they fight? Mine have always been peaceful. I have a 20g quarantine tank, they were always together in there and in the new one (except the 2 that left the group).

My theory is that in a confined space there really isn't any "territory" that they can call their own. However once placed in a system they find a home sweet home and defend it with their lives. The bully's though seem to just take unsuspected jabs at those defending till it all belongs to them. I have 3 chromis from the 9 I started with. Similar situation...QT then slowly started killing each other off at night. Then they started picking on other fish of similar size. Then my tangs made it out of QT and put them in their places and now when a quarrel starts the Sailfin/Lemon/Kole tangs always seem to swim by to say hello and see what's up. I fell like its a fear thing that keeps them together schooling. That's my experience and theory on it at least because if they had been eating well and doing great in QT and you system is clean as you mentioned its unlikely the hermits are to blame no matter what the size.

 

[citymouse]

Sometimes they pick on eachother, other times disease is to blame, and other times it seems unexplainable? I've heard also within the past year some fish stores that have gotten in hundreds of these fish with few surviving the long run? I'm not really sure what is to blame, it may be several factors. What I do know, is this is not a rare occurrence unfortunately! There's some ladies and gentlemen here on R2R that have a lot of knowledge about these fish, hopefully some more will chime in!

Are the clowns and the cardinal the only other fish in the tank? Sorry if I missed it.

Yes, 2 clowns and 1 cardinal, plus the 2 or so Chromis that are left. I didn't have any others besides the Goby who presumably jumped to his own death, found him in the filter on the sponge where there was no water for him .

I got the Chromis online, I forget the name of the place, but we've ordered many fish from them with luck..My husband has done the ordering.

I currently have 2 other clowns living in my QT, not because they need to be there, but because I'm sucker and they didn't do well with my existing clowns, they are still young, I assume not paired yet and they wanted to hang with the older clown pair, oddly they all got along for hours until one of the young newbies started chasing away the other newbie...weird. It was hanging around with my female exclusively and the other was being alienated! So I took them out of the tank and put them in the QT. They were my husbands, he bought 4 and kept 2, intending on selling the other 2. I love clowns, they are black Ocellaris, mine are orange (one is my profile pic). After my brief trial with them, I put them back in the QT tank that he has, decided to let them be sold... that same night we found the tank was not running, a GFCI in our house broke and shut down his QT , so I took them and put them in my QT with the Chromis before they were moved, I knew they were all fine, the clowns were also in quarantine for months because they had nowhere else to go. All got along fine, now that I'm attached to them...I bought a biocube 16 for them because I want to get a couple tangs and they'll need to be quarantined, I don't want the clowns exposed to anything, obviously. That's how I ended up with 2 more clowns and yet another tank to set up!! I also have a 75g freshwater.

 

[Richards_reef]

What do you feed your fish?

 

[citymouse]

Hows the bangaii looking now. Does he seem like hes healing up from his fin wounds?[/QUOTE
I didn't notice his fin issue until today, he's been at the back of the tank and the back is black, so he blends, if his fins were not right before, I didn't see it. Today though, my daughter said something to me about his fins while I was just noticing too. Maybe because he was swimming in the front, but his longer fin on top is shorter, as short as the other top fin, the rest seem okay, I think. There is not uneven areas like when other fish pick at fins or when they have fin rot etc.
He's super peaceful and even the Clowns have never bothered him when he's wandered into their area, they just ignore him, or they did in the old tank anyway. I guess they don't view him as a threat in anyway.

 

[Robink]

I did a 40g water change on New Years Eve, I had been doing them weekly to try and get an handle on the nitrates and ammonia, the first few were only 30 gal. because I had smaller barrels.

This, if you were struggling with ammonia that could be the cause. There should be no detectable ammonia. Even at small amounts it will kill fish and inverts. I think maybe when you added the chromis all at one time your biological filter wasn't able to keep up at this point.

 

[citymouse]

My theory is that in a confined space there really isn't any "territory" that they can call their own. However once placed in a system they find a home sweet home and defend it with their lives. The bully's though seem to just take unsuspected jabs at those defending till it all belongs to them. I have 3 chromis from the 9 I started with. Similar situation...QT then slowly started killing each other off at night. Then they started picking on other fish of similar size. Then my tangs made it out of QT and put them in their places and now when a quarrel starts the Sailfin/Lemon/Kole tangs always seem to swim by to say hello and see what's up. I fell like its a fear thing that keeps them together schooling. That's my experience and theory on it at least because if they had been eating well and doing great in QT and you system is clean as you mentioned its unlikely the hermits are to blame no matter what the size.

You have 3 tangs? I'm going to get a Kole and Yellow tang, these are my next 2 fish, hopefully I can find a place that has both so they can go in together. I didn't think the hermits were causing issues, I just thought it was weird that one Chromis had decided to befriend the one huge hermit, he spent the day by his side or facing him, as if he were just staring him down, the crab ignored the fish...that crab ignores everything, he plows through and over the other hermits and the snail.

 

[citymouse]

What do you feed your fish?

New Live Spectrum Marine. The chromis were getting a marine flake because the NLS was too big for them, Omega One marine flakes.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I had a school of chromis. They are known to pick on the weakest one till its dead, they keep going till you have one left. The two biggest or toughest will take a while to kill each other. Its unfortunate because a school of chromies looks cool and is affordable.

 

[JohnnyReef]

+1 on this never have any luck with them either so I stopped trying to make it work.

 

[Richards_reef]

New Live Spectrum Marine. The chromis were getting a marine flake because the NLS was too big for them, Omega One marine flakes.

Do you have access to frozen food. I stopped feeding pellets because they seemed to have too much nutrients in them. That might be where your nitrate problem is coming from.

 

[citymouse]

Do you have access to frozen food. I stopped feeding pellets because they seemed to have too much nutrients in them. That might be where your nitrate problem is coming from.

I have some frozen food that is awful, I stopped giving it to them, it won't breakdown, it just stays in a clump like its made with glue. It's Omega One. Same for freshwater one, I bought both and they are junk. I used to buy frozen that was great, never saw it do this before.
I like the pellets because it's cheaper and easy, I buy the large sized in a bucket an put it in the freezer to keep it fresh.

 

[Coralfuture]

You have 3 tangs? I'm going to get a Kole and Yellow tang, these are my next 2 fish, hopefully I can find a place that has both so they can go in together. I didn't think the hermits were causing issues, I just thought it was weird that one Chromis had decided to befriend the one huge hermit, he spent the day by his side or facing him, as if he were just staring him down, the crab ignored the fish...that crab ignores everything, he plows through and over the other hermits and the snail.

Yeah 3 tanks and a swallow tail angle and many more in my 125gal

 

[citymouse]

New Life Spectrum Marine. The chromis were getting a marine flake because the NLS was too big for them, Omega One marine flakes.

I was trying to edit...somehow ended up reposting this )

 

[citymouse]

This, if you were struggling with ammonia that could be the cause. There should be no detectable ammonia. Even at small amounts it will kill fish and inverts. I think maybe when you added the chromis all at one time your biological filter wasn't able to keep up at this point.

Yes, when I added them my ammonia was 0, it only went up a little bit, less than .25 but not quite 0, the nitrates were staying at 25 for the longest time, I was adding NO3 PO4 every day. But they are 11 very small fish (about an inch) to a 215 g tank, I didn't think they'd have that much of an impact. I did several water changes early on, at least 2 a week, and since then once a week. I'm 8 days since the last one and Ammonia is 0 still, it was slightly higher 2 days ago, but again, much less than .25, just a little over 0 based on color.

 

[citymouse]

Saw 3 Chromis when I shut off the pumps to feed, There are still 3 unaccounted for. Since my tank seem all fine, I'm hoping it's just them bullying each other like most of you are saying.
I do worry about the Cardinal, but he hasn't been thrilled since moving him, he's always been a low key mellow fish, but he always liked the middle of the tank, not a bottom fish...maybe the tank is just too empty.

Also, while I have this thread going, my tank is not super clear, I guess it could be that the sand hasn't completely settled or the flow is too high pushing the sand around, but wondering if it's something else? My husband suggested a carbon reactor, will this clear the water? It's not cloudy, it's just not clear, if that makes sense.

 

[Richards_reef]

It's probably a bacteria bloom. Not a huge deal just means your tank isn't quite fully cycled yet. Not saying that carbon won't work to clear it up but it never hurts to run carbon once and a while from my experience.

 

[Richards_reef]

Try to keep at minimum one water change a week until your tank is a bit more stable. Water changes help "reset" most things water quality wise.

 

[citymouse]

It's probably a bacteria bloom. Not a huge deal just means your tank isn't quite fully cycled yet. Not saying that carbon won't work to clear it up but it never hurts to run carbon once and a while from my experience.[/QUOTE

So a carbon reactor doesn't run 24/7? I don't know what size I'd need, I was looking at one on BRS but they were saying it was good up to 125 gal. I have little room in or out of the sump. The skimmer takes up and entire compartment, heaters in the next and the pump in the smaller section.