another fish gone, what am i missing...

agentdelaney

New member
hey folks,

so i posted not to long ago that i had an issue with my flamehawk beating up my other fish and potentially killing 2 that i had recently bought. Well now that poor guy is gone, i found him in a rock with my emerald crab guarding/picking at him. i guess my main question is, i have 2 fish left, black clowns, and want to know what I can be doing to keep them alive. i've tested my water numerous times, salinity, alcalinity, calcium are all right on par. i'm solid on water changes every 4 weeks, changing over 20% of the water usually. From experience what do you folks see that maybe i'm overlooking?

thanks!!
 
i can't say i know off hand, i know they were tested and came out great, or at least didn't alert Tom at the reef shoppe. i've had this fish since the beginning and haven't changed anything recently. so i'm not sure what goes into causing a "spike" persay.
 
What type of water do you use? RO/DI? Dechlorinated Tap Water? Temperature? What size tank? Just trying to pick your brain a bit and get all the variables down.
 
If the 2 new fish were not quarantined disease may be an issue.
 
What type of water do you use? RO/DI? Dechlorinated Tap Water? Temperature? What size tank? Just trying to pick your brain a bit and get all the variables down.
I use just regular tap water, have been since i got the tank almost 8 months ago. i premix my salt and watch my alinity levels closely. i've been meaning to get test kits, but lately when i've been going into shop's, i've had it tested and everyone says my water is dead on all the time. Temp stays at 79 usually, monitored by an aquacontroller. Tank is a 65 cube
If the 2 new fish were not quarantined disease may be an issue.
true, but i've gotten many opinions that said my flamehawk was the cause. i spent almost 6 hours aclimating the fish because of the money i spent on them, that's just me personally.
how long did you have the Hawk and what were you feeding it?
normally has been pellets. hasn't been an issue, he/she is a machine with food, always hearty and healthy, very active in the tank. about 2 months ago, i started fedding frozen minced shrimp. same deal, goes after it a lot, i was using it normally to spike my tentacles for my corals before i fed a few of them. i would only do this like once a week, maybe twice at most.
 
i'll bring all of my stuff and have nitrates and such tested for it. that makes sense, and probably is a good idea based on what i've been dealing with for the last 2 months. i'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for the help!
 
Aside from the problems, if you want to truly be successful in this hobby you need to be comfortable testing your own water parameters regularly. I suggest buying Salifert Alk and Calcium kits and testing and adjusting levels weekly, at the minimum. Otherwise, problems will creep up and you won't know it.

You can't rely on what everyone says about your water parameters. You must get to know them and be willing to track their trends.
 
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<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset"> If the 2 new fish were not quarantined disease may be an issue. </td> </tr> </tbody></table>
true, but i've gotten many opinions that said my flamehawk was the cause. i spent almost 6 hours aclimating the fish because of the money i spent on them, that's just me personally

If you mean becuse it was aggressive and killed the other two fish, then why do you or those suppose it died? It could easo;y have carried in a parasite or other pathenogen.

Acclimation has nothing to do with disease prevention.
Six hours confined to bag water probably does more harm than good with increasing odds for ammonia toxicity.imo.
You asked what you are missing. FWIW, it is my opinion that you are missing a useful acclimation process and qaurantine.

Sorry for your losses.
 
I agree that QT and testing your own water is a necessity if you're going to have a successful reef aquarium. These things will end up paying for themselves in the end.

Talking fish in general, Flame Hawks are tough fish. They can withstand poor water conditions and they are fairly disease resistant. They can be bullies, too. It wouldn't surprise me if the flamer took out the new fishes but that leads me to wonder why the hawk itself died?
Maybe you should switch to feeding Flame Hawks HUFA enriched mysids occasionally. This species needs MEAT.
 
he/she is not dead! haha. i found it in my sump 2 nights ago. alive and well eating swimming etc. now this morning i found one of my black clowns did the same thing. what do you guys/gals use to cover your filter sump housings from fish diving into it?
 
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