What's the problem here? Poison sand?

[Jim Cannon]

Since I am using a Nano tank, I figured this is the best source for information.

I have a 12G NanoCube. I bought it 2nd hand. With it I received about 6 lbs of LR, and maybe 2" live sand.

I have added another 6 lbs of live rock, a clown, a cleaner crew, some shrooms, and a rock of Green Star Polyps.

In the last 3 weeks I purchased one Yellow Watchman Goby. Very small actually. He disappeared after a few days. This weekend I bought a Twin Spot Goby. Haven't seen it since Sunday.

I know fish will hide for a while, but this is ridiculous. I am wondering if perhaps maybe the sand is killing them? To my knowledge the snails, hermits, etc. are all there and doing a great job of keeping my tank clean.

Water conditions are all in the zero (0) range. PH is about 8.3.

The tank is been up and running for 2 months. All other stock is flourishing.

?????????

[saltycreefer]

twinspots are tough to keep. sometimes you get bad yellow watchmans a lot of them come out of the phillipines. doubt your sand is bad.

[july865]

start with the basics.
please list perameters other than (0). what are you testing for? as "saltycreefer"states they are a bit tough to keep. 2nd hand tanks come with risks. other owner could have used copper.
what water are you using? do you test before you mix? after? city water? rodi unit? temp? LFS ro water? list goes on... start with the basics first, then move on. did you research the gobi's needs?

[Jocko]

Considering copper kills inverts and not most fish, I doubt thats the problem. But the overall comment about 2nd hand tanks is certainly valid.

How long did the LFS have each fish before you brought them home? How were the conditions in the store? How stressed were the fish from the experience of being brought home. How did you acclimate the fish? How were the fish behaving for the first few days? Were they eating?

[Jim Cannon]

Considering copper kills inverts and not most fish, I doubt thats the problem. But the overall comment about 2nd hand tanks is certainly valid.

For future reference, what precautions or procedures are a good practice for people who do buy 2nd hand? The person I purchased from had a really nice 90 G reef. He purchased a 24G to replace the 12G I bought. I felt pretty confident he was well experienced.

How long did the LFS have each fish before you brought them home? How were the conditions in the store? How stressed were the fish from the experience of being brought home. How did you acclimate the fish? How were the fish behaving for the first few days? Were they eating?

The yellow watchman was a week old in the LFS. Excellent LFS store, by reputation at least. The time between purchase and home was 15 minutes max. Placed the bag in the tank and waited a good 30 minutes for it to acclimate to tank temps. Adding a very smal amount of tank water to the bag. He was swimming up and down from top to bottom mostly. Would sit for a short period then be up and down. I never observed him eat a thing. But I only saw him a couple of days.

The Twin spot was acclimated the same. The LFS was a Petco. He was brought into the store on Tuesday, I got him on Saturday.
He seemed normal for the first day...eating sand and scooting around like I expected. At night he hid in the rocks. Then disappeared. I assume to the back of the tank under the rocks.

I am not saying they aren't alive and doing well. But I haven't even seen them for the last 4 days, so I assume the worst.

From what I have read and surmised, I didn't choose wisely.

[mister crabs]

if your fish are just "disapearring" then assumably they are dying and the cleanup crew is eating them. This would cause some change in your water parameters due to the decaying material. So if your levels are all 0 then they must be damn good hiders

[triggerfreak]

Have you lifted your lid and looked in the back chambers of the nano cube. my friend had a clown that would get back there atleast once a month. He would always get bace in the compartment with the pump.

[Jim Cannon]

Sorry for taking so long with the water parameters. I only have one of those water test kits that you buy in the LFS. It tests for Ammonia, PH, Nitrate, and Nitrite. That being said, water tests tonight :

Salinity - 1.022
Amon - 0
PH - 8.4
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0

Maybe the cleaning crew IS good. *g*

I looked in the back, and no Watchman, no Twin Spot. I gonna forget blennies and gobies for a while and concentrate on other reef stuff. More shrooms, etc.

Thanks all for your input.

Jim

[DarkXerox]

Your salinity is rather low and it very well could have shocked the fish if you didn't drip acclimate them over a long period of time. I tend to like giving them about 20min per .001 difference in salinity. Also are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer?

And what is your temperature?

The comment about the twin spots is very true. They rarely come in without some sort of intestinal parasite and usually are kept as pairs. In general, they need a very large tank with a large amount of microfauna in the sandbed to survive since they rarely accept prepared foods.

I tend to also ask the LFS to feed the fish before I buy it, just to see if it actually is eating.

[Jim Cannon]

I use one of plastic things for measuring salinity. It's a hobby. It's not a passion. It's a 12 Gallon tank. If I could afford all the really sophisticated equipment and measuring devices that one really needs to do it perfect, I would have a 120G tank, and a service to take care of all this.

So I'll forget livestock for now, and just stay with the corals and stuff. Thanks for everyones opinions and information.

I am not where I want to be in this hobby, but I sure ain't where I used to be!! Thanks to you all with great suggestions and help.

Jim