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larocqjs193
04/13/2015, 09:56 AM
Ok, so I suppose I am fairly new at the hobby (slightly less than a year). I have a 29gal tank and have been having issues keeping fish alive and can not figure out what is going wrong.

I started my tank wanting seahorses (I know not for beginners). My collection grew to incluse 2 seahorses, striped blenny, scooter blenny (who was eating brine like a champ), and a pygmy angel. Slowly, one by one, everyone stopped eating, became skinny and lost color, then finally I lost them. After losing my last fish I gave up.

In the last couple of months I decided to give it another go. Bought more live rock, let the tank sit a long while before I got 3 green chromis. I let them swim around a while to make sure they would survive and decided to get a chalk bass and another pygmy. Everything was testing fine. Then a chromis went missing. I thought he had gotten bullied because he was a bit smaller than the other two.

Now, I fed everyone this morning and everyone ate fine. Went to the doctors and came back to find another chromis dead. I immediately tested everything!
Salinity: 1.024-1.025
Nitrates: 0-5
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.0 (not as high as I'd like but it has bean pretty steady at that, sometimes rises to 8.2)

I am at a loss as to why I can't keep my fish alive! Oh, and I haven't seen any signs of parasites.

CStrickland
04/13/2015, 03:43 PM
of course there's no way to know what really happened with the first batch, but there's a few mistakes that probably didn't help things. it sounds like you know the seahorses were not a good choice. scooter blennys are dragonets, they commonly starve in new tanks for a lack of pods, even when they appear champ-like. pygmy angels need a larger tank, and can be aggressive. the striped blenny maybe had a chance, but with all the other stuff dying he probably didn't have very good water, assuming the angel didn't kill him.

hopefully you have better luck with this pygmy angel, but a tank that is too small, and crowded (5 fish in a 30 is crowded imo, but some can make it work) is going to maximize aggression. it's common for chromis to pick off the weaker of the group until there is only one.

it doesn't sound like a crazy unexplained phenomenon to me, just the usual result of overstocking a small tank with semi-aggressive / not-for-beginner fish. the best way to avoid that is researching what they need beforehand, and there's a great sticky in the noob section where folks who know a lot about fish compatibility will advise you before you buy new stock.
good luck!

hotelbravo
04/13/2015, 04:37 PM
of course there's no way to know what really happened with the first batch, but there's a few mistakes that probably didn't help things. It sounds like you know the seahorses were not a good choice. Scooter blennys are dragonets, they commonly starve in new tanks for a lack of pods, even when they appear champ-like. Pygmy angels need a larger tank, and can be aggressive. The striped blenny maybe had a chance, but with all the other stuff dying he probably didn't have very good water, assuming the angel didn't kill him.

Hopefully you have better luck with this pygmy angel, but a tank that is too small, and crowded (5 fish in a 30 is crowded imo, but some can make it work) is going to maximize aggression. It's common for chromis to pick off the weaker of the group until there is only one.

It doesn't sound like a crazy unexplained phenomenon to me, just the usual result of overstocking a small tank with semi-aggressive / not-for-beginner fish. The best way to avoid that is researching what they need beforehand, and there's a great sticky in the noob section where folks who know a lot about fish compatibility will advise you before you buy new stock.
Good luck!
+1