Ohh Noo

[wnecbubba74]

This is the third time in a row that I have had a fish for about 2 weeks before they DIE!!! It has become some-what depressing. I buy a fish have him around for a couple of weeks then BANG died. I just don’t understand it. I’ve had couple of fish in my 90 for about year and they have been fine. Over the last two months I have gone through two clowns and a Green Mandarin. The reason I am confused is that I use Ro water and when I test the water it’s all inside the safe range. And when the fish is alive they look great and healthy. They swim eat and everything??????

The only one that is enjoying this is the crabs!!!!!!


Any ideas what I should check for or do????

[ezcompany]

possible predator hiding in the liverock.
possible contamination from the source of your fish.

[wnecbubba74]

The only thing i have found looking at the tank for hours for a possible "hider" is that i noticed that a couple of the blue crabs that i orderd have no blue at all. Theres two of them that came with the package. They are gray with a bigger "claw" then the rest of the blue and red crabs.

ID help???

[Sheol]

I had the same thing happen early on in my reef. Lost a total of 4 Gramma loreto & two Centropyge bispinousus. What a dismal start! One cause was from an innacurate hydrometer. Others are still unkown. It bites. My condolences.

Sincerely,
Matthew

[Fischer's Angel]

Can you post a picture of your crabs? Some species are predatory and the fish you listed are fairly slow swimming types that might get picked off.

[OneDayMatt]

There are a couple of things that kill the kinds of fish you mention.

1. Mandarins need a good supply of living pods and or flatworms to feed on. I have a huge supply of each that I used to see crawling all over the rocks and showing up where I didn't want them. The mandarins (one green one blue) have frightened them into hiding in daylight. Without these creatures, Mandarins will not survive

2. Clown fish shouldn't be introduced to a tank that already has clowns. If there's a clown that's happy in the tank, then let that one be.

Those are the two things I can think of right off the bat. If other fish are living just then either a) you can't support a mandarin in your system due to lack of food, b) you've got a territorial clown already or, now that I think of it, your fish may have been on the way out already. It happens. It's a real pain when it starts costing you a lot of money and time, but sometimes that's just how it is in this hobby.

[mrwilson]

I have become convinced that getting healthy livestock to begin with is the most important aspect of keeping fish alive. Although it certainly could be the case that you have a hiding predator, not enough food for the mandarin, etc., it is also very possible that you just got fish who were, as OneDayMatt says, already on their way out. The trouble is that often, a fish on its way out will display no signs of ill health until it is on the very verge of croaking. One suggestion I have is to be on the lookout for hobbyists in your area who might be selling a fish or two. That has worked very well for me so far. When you buy from other hobbyists, you can make sure that the fish aren't stressed out from a halfway-round-the-world journey from their previous home in the ocean, have already adapted to captivity and prepared foods, etc.

[Conesus_Kid]

When is the last time you've calibrated your refractometer?

Are all of the new fish from the same source?

[xtm]

Agreed with most of the above.. but above all, do you quarantine your new specimens? Everytime you have a new addition, always assume that they are sick and have parasites, and should be treated as such.