New Fish Keep Dying

[StikHedRon]

So... I'm not sure what the problem is but, I have currently a yellow tang, scopas tang, bristle tooth tomini tang a six line wrasse, a purple dottyback a pair of clowns and 1 green chromis in a 125 sps dominant tank. All my parameters are fine and these current fish are healthy and eating fine. A couple months back I added 2 naso tangs to the tank that were about 4 inches long. They decided to hide in the corner and proceeded to starve to death. Then a month passed and I figured I would give it a try again and added a healthy looking blonde naso tang. The fish was out swimming around for a few days and some what eating, then out of the blue he just began hiding under this rock and never came out and just disappeared one day. I assumed my clean up crew ate him up. What would cause such behavior in the fish? I want to add more fish to the tank but I'm afraid that they are just going to keep dying on me. Like I said all my parameters are in check, my 250W MH run 6 hours a day, water temp is 78. Please give some helpful advice to this issue.

 

[Tahoe61]

Sounds like some under lying aggression probably caused by one of the other Tangs. It does not have to be overt fin nipping, posturing alone can intimidate newer fish cause them to hide and become stressed, next thing you know disease sets in.

 

[aherre07]

What I have done with new fish in the past in the place of using an acclimation box is those hamster ball enclosures which will help the fish become acclimated to its new tank mates and keep it protected at the same time. Will one day be willing to fork out 80.00 on a large acclimation box.....

 

[atlfishes]

I agree, fish aggression. Are you Quarantining these fish first? Are they truly healthy?

 

[Reefing Madness]

You'd have to watch the fish initially. Watch for one of the others to bolt after it when its released. But heres a heads up. Throw in a algae sheet on one sid eof the tank, and release the fish on the other. The other guys should not tanke note of the other guy until they are filled up. Then its a watch game. How are you acclimating the fish to the tank? I like the hampster ball idea, thats a good one, but how are you acclimating them to your water? I'd recommend Drip Method. Then theres the, some fish just don't acclimate to our tanks. Hard to swallow, but theres some that are a pain in the butt to acclimate.
And aggression will haunt them initially when introduced, if they feel threatened they will hide out and thats it. You could try moving the tank around a bit on them before the arrival of the new guys, then everyone is on even terms. No territory to fight over.

 

[StikHedRon]

I have been acclimating my fish the drip method and temp method, and I put them in the tank at night to try and eliminate this possible territory issue. As for how I assumed it to be healthy was that the fish was nice and fat and very colorful. Not skin and bones and pale like I've seen fish store fish before. But honestly that doesn't dictate healthy.

 

[StikHedRon]

Thanks everyone for the replies. The common denominator here is aggression it seems. I guess my best bet is to not go with any more tangs, but one story that was weird that I didn't talk about was my flame angel that also died. My bristle tooth would not let him come out of the corner rock work either. I did not think tangs were aggressive towards other fish that were not of the same species of tang as themselves. This has me baffled as well.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You are correct. They may ship out healthy from the initial warehouse, and not acclimate to the LFS. Ask to see the fish eat before you buy them. Night time acclimation doesn't always mean it will work, They wake up to the same looking tank. New aquascape messess um up.

 

[StikHedRon]

I have never thought about an acclimation box so to say. What does this do, do you keep the fish in it for a period of time while it's in the tank so they get to know each other or what? And how long would you keep your new fish in this "box"?

 

[AlexG]

Sounds like tangs being aggressive. Nasos are calm by tang standards. Most of your fish have aggressive tendencies. Adding fish might be problematic unless they are even more aggressive.

sent from T-Mobile GSIII

 

[dannyab84]

If your having trouble with aggression you can always try my method. I had my tangs fight throughout the night without me knowing until I finally found out what was going on on late night. So I came up with getting a tank or large container that was see through and placing the fish inside within the tank. I left the fish there for about 3 days until the other fish were well known to it and have already found they could not harm it through the glass. Just keep a sharp eye on the fish in the tank as it can stress a tang out quickly if its small. It's worked for me every time in my tank. Best of luck!