New and enjoying this hobby

[dwair]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

My wife and I recently acquired an established reef aquarium from a friend who needed to move away. It is a 13.5 gallon with amazing established coral and anemone, 1 clown fish (Fico) 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 sexy shrimp, 1 conch, 2 hermit crabs, 2 whelk (?) and 2 snails.

We have taken our friends lead and introduced ourselves and are setting up a relationship with the gentleman who owns and runs a local shop where he and now we are buying water, both salt and RO.

We do want to add more action in the form of fish and colorful would obviously be preferred. Any recommendations?

We took the advise of the shop owner and brought home a Royal Gramma, it found a cave in the LR and we barely saw it for several days, but at least peaking out and a quick swim, then from a Thursday through a weekend never saw any signs of it again. So I went and spoke to the shop owner, he truly believes it is hiding somewhere, (he's the expert not me) but I have never seen it eat and since that Thursday (3 weeks ago now) I have not seen it peek or anything. So I added a Pseudochromis diadema, found the same cave and hid a bit (this told me the gramma was not in there or it would have chased new guy out) but was our socializing with the clown and eating and circling the tank. (When I added him the cleaner shrimp jumped on him, I thought very strange) after a few days I noticed what looked like a bite on his side (or that he swam hard into rock and ripped his skin). Then that day he started hiding MUCH more, the next morning the shrimp was eating him like crazy. So I am sort of at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome!

Glad you joined. Sorry for your (possible) loss (but maybe he's in filter or hiding really, really good). My cleaner shrimp are lazy unless food is around, so hoping all is going well between those two, too. This is a great site for info, and there is already great feedback here in your thread from others.

+ 1 vote firefish

 

[stewie]

Welcome

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Welcome

 

[Clo]

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Welcome John and Mrs. A26. Good luck on the new tank.

 

[Salty Rambler]

Welcome to R2R! Sorry to hear about your recent tank troubles.

 

[JAC-]

Welcome friend,

If I'm understand correctly (I very well may not be) you have lost both of the new fish you have added.
Could you tell me a about how you acclimated them? That'd be the process you used for adding them to the tank.

Saltwater fish are very sensitive to a few things that can go wrong when adding them to a new environment and that could be your problem.

You can also give this thread a look, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/beginners-guide-to-acclimation-and-quarantine.304980/

Lots of great info in there.

Best of luck friend. This hobby can be stressful sometimes, but it is amaizingly rewarding too. Ask for help when you need it.

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world John. Sorry to hear about your teething problems. I wonder if they were acclimated correctly. Also good to have decent test kits. Now and again get lfs to check your water parameters. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[JohnA26]

Welcome friend,

If I'm understand correctly (I very well may not be) you have lost both of the new fish you have added.
Could you tell me a about how you acclimated them? That'd be the process you used for adding them to the tank.

Saltwater fish are very sensitive to a few things that can go wrong when adding them to a new environment and that could be your problem.

You can also give this thread a look, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/beginners-guide-to-acclimation-and-quarantine.304980/

Lots of great info in there.

Best of luck friend. This hobby can be stressful sometimes, but it is amaizingly rewarding too. Ask for help when you need it.

Thank you, As far as the acclimation, a 25 minute float in the bag, then a 30 minute slow drip, then I scooped the fish with my hand and placed it in the tank.

 

[BaysEndReef]

Welcome to R2R!! Always here to help!!

 

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome to R2R!

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello and welcome to the channel.

 

[tbrown]

Welcome! I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like the acclimation was done correctly. Hopefully the Gramma shows up. If the cleaner shrimp "attacked" the new fish, there could be a reason, but my cleaner shrimp always jumped on my hand like that whenever I reached into the tank, so I'm not sure if that's unusual behavior.