Raturner33
New Member
Good evening, I have recently jumped back into the aquarium game. 13+ years ago I set up and maintained a reef aquarium at my dads office and really enjoyed it. We pay for the maintenance at this point, so I haven’t been hands on in years. I have had an empty 55 and 120 in my garage for years and have always wanted to get back into it but we travel a lot and it was hard to get motivated.
Quarantine hit and I started throwing crawfish traps out in my ditch in the front yard. We (Family of 4) caught about a dozen little fish and 2 crawfish so I thought I’d throw them in the 55. Now we have 6 crawfish and about 20 fish and tank is doing great. May look to add store bought freshwater stuff to change it up.
One day a friend of ours caught a sea horse in a trap in the Indian River in FL where I live and that basically set me on a mission to set up the 120 for what we call our “river tank” and catch a sea horse.
Recently, however, my 4 biggest fish have died and I cannot figure out why (except for 1).
My “river tank” is not a typical reef/marine tank. 2 months ago we started stocking the 120 gallon tank with sand and water from the river where we live. At first the tank was probably about half full and now it is 3/4 full and we have some drift wood pieces and seaweed that hangs out on surface to mimic the river. At first we were catching very small invertebrates and fish, so I used two sponge filters (powered by an air pump) on either side of tank for surface and general movement and an air stone... as to avoid losing any small guys, I didn’t want anything with powerful suction or anything like that. Again I realize it isn’t a typical set up but it’s what I had on had and a hang on back filter wouldn’t work due to water level and load was very small.
We gradually stocked tank with what we caught in river with dip net or traps. We have 4-5 king conchs about 2-3 inches. 2 large hermit crabs about 4 inches. Dozens of very small hermits. Dozens of very small conchs. A few snails. A clam. Glass shrimps, 2 large emerald crabs and many smaller crabs. Several types of small blennies and pipe fish and about 5 unknown species of fish I will just call minnows. They were all going strong for about 3 weeks and then we had a pretty good haul from an inlet nearby. 2 pinfish about silver dollar size. 6 pinfish about a penny sized and a dozen Sargent majors about a penny size and a large - 5-6 inch - Blenny. Those have been going strong for about 5 weeks as well. In between there we caught a sea horse(!) a goby of some kind and 3 needle fish. All in all the tank had been going 2 full months and everything has been really cool and everyone eats and looked healthy.
A couple of days ago, I caught a small unknown species of fish and introduced to the tank. He picked out a needlefish and followed its every move to the point that I believe the needle fish became so stressed out that it died in about 2 days. I took out the new fish and put back in river.
Then the tank was getting a little green so I cleaned glass real good and did a 15 gallon water change (with river water - this is the first time I performed a water change). 2 days later my two large pinfish died and my large molly Miller blenny died. In those 2 days I noticed very heavy breathing from pinfish and they hung out at surface. Blenny had some labored breathing, didn’t eat like usual, was lethargic and was pale - everyone else seemed normal. Once i noticed breathing issues I bought a test kit and results were pretty good.
Salinity is on low end but consistent with river water. 1.021-1.020. Ph is little lower but I believe consistent with the river at around 7.8-8. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate were 0-.25, nitrate could have been as much as about 5 ppm... As far as I know those are pretty good readings and don’t explain the fish dying. Given that I have an air stone and my sponge filters are powered by air pumps I can’t imagine that oxygen would have been a problem.
Anyone have any ideas what could have happened to my fish?! My kids were pretty devastated they lost 4 so fast. Everyone left in tank seemed fine today and haven’t shown any signs like the other.
thanks!
adam
Quarantine hit and I started throwing crawfish traps out in my ditch in the front yard. We (Family of 4) caught about a dozen little fish and 2 crawfish so I thought I’d throw them in the 55. Now we have 6 crawfish and about 20 fish and tank is doing great. May look to add store bought freshwater stuff to change it up.
One day a friend of ours caught a sea horse in a trap in the Indian River in FL where I live and that basically set me on a mission to set up the 120 for what we call our “river tank” and catch a sea horse.
Recently, however, my 4 biggest fish have died and I cannot figure out why (except for 1).
My “river tank” is not a typical reef/marine tank. 2 months ago we started stocking the 120 gallon tank with sand and water from the river where we live. At first the tank was probably about half full and now it is 3/4 full and we have some drift wood pieces and seaweed that hangs out on surface to mimic the river. At first we were catching very small invertebrates and fish, so I used two sponge filters (powered by an air pump) on either side of tank for surface and general movement and an air stone... as to avoid losing any small guys, I didn’t want anything with powerful suction or anything like that. Again I realize it isn’t a typical set up but it’s what I had on had and a hang on back filter wouldn’t work due to water level and load was very small.
We gradually stocked tank with what we caught in river with dip net or traps. We have 4-5 king conchs about 2-3 inches. 2 large hermit crabs about 4 inches. Dozens of very small hermits. Dozens of very small conchs. A few snails. A clam. Glass shrimps, 2 large emerald crabs and many smaller crabs. Several types of small blennies and pipe fish and about 5 unknown species of fish I will just call minnows. They were all going strong for about 3 weeks and then we had a pretty good haul from an inlet nearby. 2 pinfish about silver dollar size. 6 pinfish about a penny sized and a dozen Sargent majors about a penny size and a large - 5-6 inch - Blenny. Those have been going strong for about 5 weeks as well. In between there we caught a sea horse(!) a goby of some kind and 3 needle fish. All in all the tank had been going 2 full months and everything has been really cool and everyone eats and looked healthy.
A couple of days ago, I caught a small unknown species of fish and introduced to the tank. He picked out a needlefish and followed its every move to the point that I believe the needle fish became so stressed out that it died in about 2 days. I took out the new fish and put back in river.
Then the tank was getting a little green so I cleaned glass real good and did a 15 gallon water change (with river water - this is the first time I performed a water change). 2 days later my two large pinfish died and my large molly Miller blenny died. In those 2 days I noticed very heavy breathing from pinfish and they hung out at surface. Blenny had some labored breathing, didn’t eat like usual, was lethargic and was pale - everyone else seemed normal. Once i noticed breathing issues I bought a test kit and results were pretty good.
Salinity is on low end but consistent with river water. 1.021-1.020. Ph is little lower but I believe consistent with the river at around 7.8-8. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate were 0-.25, nitrate could have been as much as about 5 ppm... As far as I know those are pretty good readings and don’t explain the fish dying. Given that I have an air stone and my sponge filters are powered by air pumps I can’t imagine that oxygen would have been a problem.
Anyone have any ideas what could have happened to my fish?! My kids were pretty devastated they lost 4 so fast. Everyone left in tank seemed fine today and haven’t shown any signs like the other.
thanks!
adam
