SkiFletch
New member
So this is a combination rant and brainstorming request for you all. I can't catch a break with fish at all. First, storytime:
Last summer I got lazy with my refractometer verification/calibration (yes, I'm old enough to know better) and consequently allowed my salinity to creep much too high :facepalm:. Ultimately sent 2 of my fish into kidney failure and lost them both as a result. At the time I had a skunk clown pair, mystery wrasse, kole tang, and psuedochromis springeri. The male clown and the psuedo (smallest 2 fish) were the victims of my lazyness.
So it had been a while since I had added any fish and decided that once I corrected the issue and everybody was happy again that I'd try adding some more fish. First tried a purple firefish (since I've always liked them). Got one in, QT'ed it (learned that lesson the hard way too...) and got it eating and doing well in the basement for 2 weeks. Brought him upstairs to the DT and the mystery wrasse kicked his *** and killed him
. The mystery is my oldest fish in the tank, going on at least 6 years I think. That little guy is a trooper. Survived the october storm along with 2 heater failures, but he's gotten into being a complete PRIC in his old age.
So I decided OK, no more weak-minded fish and no more wrasse-shaped fish. Gotta get some spunk and perhaps size back in there. Rolled the dice on a Bi-color dwarf angel. Brought it home, QT, and the thing just never ate. Tried every frozen/dry food I had, nothing. Poor thing died after about a week. Never any sign of disease, just wouldn't eat and withered away.
Took a break from adding fish (Angel was in Nov) for the winter, just ****ed at the bad pair of circumstances. Fast forward to march and my trip to the GBR. Heater broke on vacation (mercifully off) and lost a couple corals (not tooo bad) but aiptasia went bonkers in my 2-week absence. So as chronicled in my other thread I started pulling rocks and burninating them with a soldering torch. Figured I could concurrently start adding new fish too as I could keep the new guys in the basement with the aiptasia-free corals and hoping that the destruction of the old guys' home might make them more accepting of new fish. Also figured I'd use this time to get a new pair of clowns and sell/trade/whatever my old big female skunk.
So I got a coral beauty angel (again, size/spunk, rolling dice with corals) and a pair of tank-bred ocellaris clowns from Randy at ARC. Dropped them in the "aip-free" tank in the basement. CB is doing great. He's out, eating, and not even bothering the couple corals I put down there to test. Clownfish, that's another story... One jumped (I swear, how these fish find the little 2" gap in the egg crate and manage to get out of the tank I will never flipping know :uhoh3: ) and I found it laying on the floor all shriveled up. So I went back to ARC and Randy had 2 left from that litter, so I picked another one up. He's doing great but the 2nd of the original pair up and dissapeared like a fart in the wind. I looked under every rock in the tank, all around the floor, nothing. No body. I've never had anything big enough in my tank to eat a fish in under 24 hours. There's always some body left...
Long story short, I'm basically 2 for 6 in my recent attempts at fish addition and am getting really discouraged by it all. I know it happens, and these are fragile creatures and all, but I just can't seem to catch a break lately. Anybody have any thoughts/comments/suggestions?
FWIW, tank hardware for the display is a 65g with 20g sump, mag7 return on OM 2-way, Vortech nano pump on surge with custom LED lights generating 100-350PAR with kalkwasser topoff and 2-part bolus addition and a Euroreef skimmer (similar to an ASM G1X) along with GFO in a TLF reactor. Source water is of course RO (1-2TDS) and I primarily feed a combo of frozen, flake, and pellets (although I always start with frozen if that's what they get from the LFS). Temporary aiptasia-free tank is a horse-trough with a spare CPR skimmer, my old twin 175watt halides, Koralia3 and mag7 for flow. And the QT is a 20L with a piece of rock, an MJ1200, small HOB filter, heater, and cheapy flourescent light. I always keep an eye on ammonia in the QT tank when adding new fish, but never had a problem with it, same for the temp basement tank, although that one is well-established now with a majority of my rocks from the DT in it.
If you read this far, treat yourself to a beer on me
Last summer I got lazy with my refractometer verification/calibration (yes, I'm old enough to know better) and consequently allowed my salinity to creep much too high :facepalm:. Ultimately sent 2 of my fish into kidney failure and lost them both as a result. At the time I had a skunk clown pair, mystery wrasse, kole tang, and psuedochromis springeri. The male clown and the psuedo (smallest 2 fish) were the victims of my lazyness.
So it had been a while since I had added any fish and decided that once I corrected the issue and everybody was happy again that I'd try adding some more fish. First tried a purple firefish (since I've always liked them). Got one in, QT'ed it (learned that lesson the hard way too...) and got it eating and doing well in the basement for 2 weeks. Brought him upstairs to the DT and the mystery wrasse kicked his *** and killed him
. The mystery is my oldest fish in the tank, going on at least 6 years I think. That little guy is a trooper. Survived the october storm along with 2 heater failures, but he's gotten into being a complete PRIC in his old age.So I decided OK, no more weak-minded fish and no more wrasse-shaped fish. Gotta get some spunk and perhaps size back in there. Rolled the dice on a Bi-color dwarf angel. Brought it home, QT, and the thing just never ate. Tried every frozen/dry food I had, nothing. Poor thing died after about a week. Never any sign of disease, just wouldn't eat and withered away.
Took a break from adding fish (Angel was in Nov) for the winter, just ****ed at the bad pair of circumstances. Fast forward to march and my trip to the GBR. Heater broke on vacation (mercifully off) and lost a couple corals (not tooo bad) but aiptasia went bonkers in my 2-week absence. So as chronicled in my other thread I started pulling rocks and burninating them with a soldering torch. Figured I could concurrently start adding new fish too as I could keep the new guys in the basement with the aiptasia-free corals and hoping that the destruction of the old guys' home might make them more accepting of new fish. Also figured I'd use this time to get a new pair of clowns and sell/trade/whatever my old big female skunk.
So I got a coral beauty angel (again, size/spunk, rolling dice with corals) and a pair of tank-bred ocellaris clowns from Randy at ARC. Dropped them in the "aip-free" tank in the basement. CB is doing great. He's out, eating, and not even bothering the couple corals I put down there to test. Clownfish, that's another story... One jumped (I swear, how these fish find the little 2" gap in the egg crate and manage to get out of the tank I will never flipping know :uhoh3: ) and I found it laying on the floor all shriveled up. So I went back to ARC and Randy had 2 left from that litter, so I picked another one up. He's doing great but the 2nd of the original pair up and dissapeared like a fart in the wind. I looked under every rock in the tank, all around the floor, nothing. No body. I've never had anything big enough in my tank to eat a fish in under 24 hours. There's always some body left...
Long story short, I'm basically 2 for 6 in my recent attempts at fish addition and am getting really discouraged by it all. I know it happens, and these are fragile creatures and all, but I just can't seem to catch a break lately. Anybody have any thoughts/comments/suggestions?
FWIW, tank hardware for the display is a 65g with 20g sump, mag7 return on OM 2-way, Vortech nano pump on surge with custom LED lights generating 100-350PAR with kalkwasser topoff and 2-part bolus addition and a Euroreef skimmer (similar to an ASM G1X) along with GFO in a TLF reactor. Source water is of course RO (1-2TDS) and I primarily feed a combo of frozen, flake, and pellets (although I always start with frozen if that's what they get from the LFS). Temporary aiptasia-free tank is a horse-trough with a spare CPR skimmer, my old twin 175watt halides, Koralia3 and mag7 for flow. And the QT is a 20L with a piece of rock, an MJ1200, small HOB filter, heater, and cheapy flourescent light. I always keep an eye on ammonia in the QT tank when adding new fish, but never had a problem with it, same for the temp basement tank, although that one is well-established now with a majority of my rocks from the DT in it.
If you read this far, treat yourself to a beer on me
