Acclimating

[Dean Smith]

I have a Coralife 32G Biocube. Its been up and running for a few years, i had no issues cycling the tank or adding fish initially. But for the last two years its been difficult to add fish, snails and now shrimp. When adding fish i acclimate them make sure temperature and salinity are matching the tank. Can't really match pH although the local fish store has a similar pH to mine and other stores are pretty close.
Parameters are 1.025 sg, pH 7.8, temp 78 deg all are pretty constant although pH can fluctuate but i don't chase it.
I have a Molly Miller Blenny thats about 5 yrs old, an urchin, a couple of skunk clowns that have been in there about 2 months, the usual snails some newer a couple of long term residents, a pistol shrimp again about 5 yrs old, hermit crab a couple of months old.
I actually didnt add anything to the tank for about a year because i was so exasperated with the fish deaths, it seemed that none of the fish would last for more than a few days, they would appear healthy then disappear overnight. I added the skunk clowns a couple of months ago with the urchin and they are ok and doing well. So I bought a cleaner shrimp and that was going fine. I added a coris wrasse about 2 weeks ago and it was eating and doing well then disappeared overnight the second day i had it and i also noticed the cleaner shrimp was gone and I hadn't seen it since before I put the wrasse in.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why I cant seem to keep fish alive for more than a day.

 

[kharmaguru]

I have a Coralife 32G Biocube. Its been up and running for a few years, i had no issues cycling the tank or adding fish initially. But for the last two years its been difficult to add fish, snails and now shrimp. When adding fish i acclimate them make sure temperature and salinity are matching the tank. Can't really match pH although the local fish store has a similar pH to mine and other stores are pretty close.
Parameters are 1.025 sg, pH 7.8, temp 78 deg all are pretty constant although pH can fluctuate but i don't chase it.
I have a Molly Miller Blenny thats about 5 yrs old, an urchin, a couple of skunk clowns that have been in there about 2 months, the usual snails some newer a couple of long term residents, a pistol shrimp again about 5 yrs old, hermit crab a couple of months old.
I actually didnt add anything to the tank for about a year because i was so exasperated with the fish deaths, it seemed that none of the fish would last for more than a few days, they would appear healthy then disappear overnight. I added the skunk clowns a couple of months ago with the urchin and they are ok and doing well. So I bought a cleaner shrimp and that was going fine. I added a coris wrasse about 2 weeks ago and it was eating and doing well then disappeared overnight the second day i had it and i also noticed the cleaner shrimp was gone and I hadn't seen it since before I put the wrasse in.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why I cant seem to keep fish alive for more than a day.

I'm not particularly a fish guy, but if they are in the bag for extended periods (travel from the store + drip acclimation time), ammonia can build to gill damaging levels that results in death after appearing fine at first. I think I recall some online resellers of fish saying to temp acclimate and throw them in (no drip) for just this reason.

 

[Dean Smith]

I'm not particularly a fish guy, but if they are in the bag for extended periods (travel from the store + drip acclimation time), ammonia can build to gill damaging levels that results in death after appearing fine at first. I think I recall some online resellers of fish saying to temp acclimate and throw them in (no drip) for just this reason.

fish was in the bag for maybe 15 mins

 

[Idech]

Do you find the bodies or not ? I’m wondering if some undesirable creature living inside the rocks is eating them.

 

[Dean Smith]

no i dont find any bodies but i think thats the pistol shrimp disposing of them. He wont attack the fish or pursue live animals