1 dead, 1 MIA...

[ek9vboi]

Yup, 1st time my tank has been this bad. I guess it might not be my fault and maybe the fishes' fault. Who knows...

So the other day I got 3 firefishes (2 red and 1 purple) and a yellow watchman goby. I was told it would be a good idea to have more then 1 firefish because they do better in packs. Then again... maybe it was my fault for adding 4 fishes at once!

Anyways, when I left my house after acclimating them, they were fine. Even the watchman came out from his hiding spot to get a peak around. When I came back later that night I was looking for all of them. The firefish were hiding in the rocks as usual and the watchman was no where to be seen. I then realized the shrimp was hiding as well so I began my search for her. Low and behold, the watchman is getting eaten up by the cleaner. I go to bed...

Next day I woke up and looked for the firefishes. I see all of them and noticed the purple firefish still hiding and breathing rather rapidly. Left to work. When I got home the 2 red fishfish were out and about, but the purple was missing. So far I haven't seen it... so I guess it was eaten by the cleaner as well because the cleaner once again was hiding. It didn't even come out to eat! I did however find the body of the yellow watchman, it was being eaten by one of the hermits.

Hopefully the 2 firefish can survive my tank. They look awsome, maybe someday I will give the yellow watchman a try again. no more fishes for me for now.

Oh yeah, would my long nose hawk fish have anything to do with the deaths? he or she was chasing them around when i first placed the new fishes in the tank.

thank you for letting me ventilate... 38 bucks gone

 

[Kewlworm]

That sux!

Did you check you ammonia? The dead body + the wastes of the new fishes might be too much for your tank's bio-load. That might be why the purple firefish was breathing heavily.

 

[NanoKat]

I'm not an expert, but I have had both firefish and watchman gobys and not had such bad luck. I don't have a cleaner shrimp, but I have a "large" peppermint shrimp that is pretty bold. How big is your cleaner? I don't think he could actually "catch" one of these fish...they are very fast. I would tend to think that if you had another fish "chasing" them, they may have gotten stressed out (along with the usual stress of a new place to live) and ended up weakened and in the wrong spot (near the shrimp). Firefish are very jumpy and will freak out with other fish...I had a Royal Gramma that was so obnoxious that while he was in my tank, I never saw my firefish...ironically enough the framma died a short while later (karma, maybe?).

 

[ek9vboi]

I don't have an ammonia test kit, but everything looks like its doing fine. I removed the yellow watchman and gave it the solute down the can. As for the purple firefish it wasn't looking too well but out of the four purple firefish it survived the longest. There were a few torn fins or so when I got it, so who knows if that could have contributed to its demise.

I know the firefishes that were out and being chased around by the hawkfish were jumping, but i have a close canopy. i even looked around and saw no carpet surfers. my cleaner is much bigger then my yellow watchman, but the purple firefish was about the same size if not a little bit larger. I really doubt that the clean killed the two, it was just simply "cleaning" IMO

 

[CraigG]

My purple firefish stays in the rocks all day, peeks out every now and again, and comes out to feed. Then goes back in the rocks. I have had a watchman and lost him after a day or two.

Do a water change ASAP Eric, since you lost a fish (And possibly another!)

I lost my royal gramma a week and a half ago, that's why we got the purple firefish.

 

[ek9vboi]

I should do a waterchange but it might not matter because the yellow watchman was eaten up as soon as I died from my guess, same thing should have happened to the firefish if it had in fact died as well. I think when fishes died and their body just sit there and decay then it would be a good idea to do a waterchange. My inverts are always hungry and willing to eat.

All of the fishes seem to be doing fine except for one of my clowns. Seems like they got into a fight the other day.

 

[jessp]

if i am correct you had three fish and then added four more at once. I am guessing you have the 29/w 20 sump. Adding the four fish at once could have caused a bit of change in water chemistry. while the old fish are ok, the new fish are stressed and more vulnerable. don't know if that makes sense, just seems like a lot of fish to add at once.

 

[itz frank]

Those are all pretty small fish though. I don't see them making up such a difference but it's always possible. They may have just died from stress. Might want to inquire as how well the firefish would do with the Hawkfish. I had a problem with losing fish too. Then i came to find out that my Redsea sailfin tang was killing everything off. Do the fish look like they've been nipped at? Do they have bruises?

 

[ek9vboi]

It makes perfect sense to me. It could have been anything, I am thinking that its more of the condition when I bought them, the employee had told me to hold off on them... let them stay at the LFS for a little bit more so they could adjust. They were at the LFS for only a week, or that was the time frame that i wanted them there. Yeah, its my fault I added so many more fish all at once. Lesson learned.

I'm done with stocking fishes for now.

 

[ek9vboi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8167957#post8167957 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by itz frank
Those are all pretty small fish though. I don't see them making up such a difference but it's always possible. They may have just died from stress. Might want to inquire as how well the firefish would do with the Hawkfish. I had a problem with losing fish too. Then i came to find out that my Redsea sailfin tang was killing everything off. Do the fish look like they've been nipped at? Do they have bruises?

As far as the eye can see, they do look like they were nipped at prior to bringing them home. But the thing that strikes me odd is that the yellow watchman looked fine.

 

[Kogo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8167982#post8167982 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ek9vboi
the employee had told me to hold off on them...
Lesson learned.

whenever the guy selling the fish suggests holding off on spending money in his store, thats advice you should always take. LOL

but dont worry, weve all learned a hard lesson or two.

 

[ek9vboi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8168023#post8168023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kogo
whenever the guy selling the fish suggests holding off on spending money in his store, thats advice you should always take. LOL

but dont worry, weve all learned a hard lesson or two.

Actually I have been taking his advice on a lot of stuff and it has paid off. I also did research and from what I read these firefish and gobies are next to nothing on the bioload, therefore the reason why I went and just bought the 4 of them and added them at once.

I'll be stoping by the place later on the week, I do it on the daily. My #1 LFS.

 

[Kewlworm]

the employee had told me to hold off on them...

I just bought 2 tangs that was in the LFS for only 2 days plus they (the shipment) was sitting at the airport for a day before it gets on the plane to here. They are doing pretty good and looks very healthy. So, I strongly think that those fishes weren't in a good condition to begin with.

Thanks for sharing. I sometime like get that hard to come by fish even tho it's not in its' best condition, thinking that I can nurse it back to health, but the truth is that by buying that fish and making the stressed fish adjusts to the new water/environment would just push the fish close to its' early grave.

 

[itz frank]

I think that unless you have something seriously wrong with your water quality that the thing to blame would be that the fish were highly stressed out and you brought them home to early. Make sure you have the LFS feed them infront of you. If they're not eating done buy it. Because ontop of the X amount of days they haven't eaten at the store adjusting you then get them home and they stress more and take more days before eating. We're all guilty of this. Just be happy it wasn't something more expensive like the blonde naso tang i just picked up today. It could always be worse.

 

[ek9vboi]

It was eating, they guy who sold them to me is a really good friend. He told me not to buy them until they ate and when they did he called me to let me know. He also showed them eat in front of me too. I already called the them and they told me they would work something out. How great!