Worried about sick fish

[TheNewGuyHere]

Hi all -

I am new to the hobby and have a 3 month old tank, 32gal, with 2 clowns, 3 shrimp and 3 damsels and corals -- all small, maybe an inch long and bought about 2 weeks ago. I also have an anemone. The Anemone has been looking a little looser/stringy lately and I then found a dead fish this morning - a damsel. This damsel hid a lot and I've never seen him eat directly so maybe he wasnt great to begin with. Here are my water parameters from yesterday:

Temp: 79.3f
Salinity: 1.028
ammonia .5 (maybe .25 or even 0 -- i have trouble with this color test and ordered a digital one here tomorrow)
nitrate: 0
calcium: 490
magnesium: 1470
Alk: 8

Attached are pictures of the Anemone and the dead fish. The dead fish was not there last night at 11pm and I found him today at 2pm.

Thanks for the help

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The anemone looks "o.k." - what lights do you have over the tank? I generally suggest people not add anemones until an aquarium has been running a bit longer than yours, but it is possible to do.

I can't say why the damsel died, after death photos don't tell us much.

You definitely want to confirm your ammonia levels, always shoot for zero. Salinity (specific gravity) is a bit higher than I like to run (1.026) but that won't acutely harm the animals.

I see a cardinalfish in the picture also - how is it doing?

Jay

 

[TheNewGuyHere]

Hey Jay -

Thanks for the reply. I forgot about him - he is doing well, eats well. Maybe it was just a one off as the guy who died always hid, not even coming out to eat. I figured he was just shy and was picking up the scraps later.

All the other fish are very active and eat well. I don’t really know what to look for to see if they are happy and healthy tho.

For lights I have the Fluval flex 32.5g marine and the might that came with it. There is a slot for a second light and I debated on getting another of the same Fluval marine light. I have the settings set to the default:

Red: 70%
cyan: 100%
Blue 100%
purple 85%
white 90%

It runs for 7 hours a day. Some days the anemone will reach far up to the light, other days he is very wide and lower.

Do you think I should get a second light?

my new tests come today and I will run a full run of digital tests and I will post back here with the results.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey Jay -

Thanks for the reply. I forgot about him - he is doing well, eats well. Maybe it was just a one off as the guy who died always hid, not even coming out to eat. I figured he was just shy and was picking up the scraps later.

All the other fish are very active and eat well. I don’t really know what to look for to see if they are happy and healthy tho.

For lights I have the Fluval flex 32.5g marine and the might that came with it. There is a slot for a second light and I debated on getting another of the same Fluval marine light. I have the settings set to the default:

Red: 70%
cyan: 100%
Blue 100%
purple 85%
white 90%

It runs for 7 hours a day. Some days the anemone will reach far up to the light, other days he is very wide and lower.

Do you think I should get a second light?

my new tests come today and I will run a full run of digital tests and I will post back here with the results.

I would run the light on full for 8 hours with a ramp up and down on either end.
Jay

 

[Lavey29]

Anemones need a very established tank not a new set up. Do you have custom anemone covers over your powerheads?

 

[TheNewGuyHere]

Jay -

I will turn it up! My 7 hours included the ramp period. Thanks for the info.

Lavey - Yikes - the pet store told me the opposite- they should be put into the tank first before corals because they will move around the tank to find their perfect spot - not caring who lives there at that moment, coral or otherwise. I don’t want him to be unhappy or die, should I rehome him?

 

[Lavey29]

Jay -

I will turn it up! My 7 hours included the ramp period. Thanks for the info.

Lavey - Yikes - the pet store told me the opposite- they should be put into the tank first before corals because they will move around the tank to find their perfect spot - not caring who lives there at that moment, coral or otherwise. I don’t want him to be unhappy or die, should I rehome him?

Well part of that is true. Before corals is good because they do move to their preferred spot but overall anemone can be moderate level animals to sustain which is why an established tank is preferred. Work with what you got not and focus on stable parameters and adequate lighting for it. Hopefully your fish issue was an isolated incident. Feeding them quality frozen food with vitamins will help. QT before adding to tank is essential.

Welcome to the reef. Lots of great knowledgeable people here willing to help at any time.

I had the same tank but freshwater. You will need second light. Run blue and uv at 100% but red white and green lower like 25%.

 

[TheNewGuyHere]

Well part of that is true. Before corals is good because they do move to their preferred spot but overall anemone can be moderate level animals to sustain which is why an established tank is preferred. Work with what you got not and focus on stable parameters and adequate lighting for it. Hopefully your fish issue was an isolated incident. Feeding them quality frozen food with vitamins will help. QT before adding to tank is essential.

Welcome to the reef. Lots of great knowledgeable people here willing to help at any time.

I had the same tank but freshwater. You will need second light. Run blue and uv at 100% but red white and green lower like 25%.

Thanks for all the info - any brand of light I should look for or are these Fluval ones a fine brand?

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks for all the info - any brand of light I should look for or are these Fluval ones a fine brand?

I didn't try them with coral but if you add a second light you should be able to use them with simple soft corals and easy LPS corals I would think if they are full spectrum with enough par to reach the bottom.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I was able to keep soft corals and some LPS in the Flex with the one Fluval Marine 3.0 light (this is assuming you have the marine version of the tank). Took me a while to figure out the best settings for the light, but it worked ok and I never bought a second light for it. I did just upgrade to a larger tank though... that's the risk of getting into this hobby, lol. Sorry about the damsel - it's so hard to know what happens sometimes. Like you said, sounds like that particular one maybe wasn't doing too great from the start. I definitely recommend researching how to put a quarantine process in place, or only buy fish already quarantined. It's not a "must" for everyone, but it is for me, and I feel has saved me from a lot of potential issues.