Difficulties keeping new fish

[NoxAeternus]

Hello,

I hate to admit this, but I'd rather be corrected and embarrassed than keep doing things wrong. I'm not sure if I'm still considered a beginner, but seeing as I keep losing fish, I might as well be one.

I have a 29 Gallon BioCube with about 30 pounds of live rock, and a sapphire aquatics skimmer. I keep up with weekly water changes (about 6 gallons each week) (I use filtered ocean water from Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA which is a great Oceanography institute and comes highly recommended by many reef keepers in the area) and use RO water for top-off. I use SeaChem's ReefPlus and ReefComplete as additives twice a week (1 1/2 capfuls each time).
The tank temperature is about 78-80 constantly.

The diet for my fish is mostly Spectra pellets, with mysis shrimp every 3 days to feed my suncoral.

I got my tank in Feb in Chicago, and moved it to California in August. I had 2 black clownfish and a peppermint shrimp that made it with me in the move. They're still doing well from what I can tell.

Recently, I have attempted to add new fish. One being a yellow neon goby goby, and a dragonette I got from my LFS. Both of these died within 4 days. (I'm not actually sure how long the dragonette lasted since i never did find a corpse, I just stopped seeing him swim around)

I tried again, maybe it being a bad batch, with an order off Live Aquaria about a month ago. I got a blue neon goby [tank bred] and a green clown goby. Two days ago, I found my green clown goby had died. As of 10 minutes ago, the blue neon goby was swimming around and I saw him eat some food.

Could someone suggest some things I might be doing wrong? Or some parameters I might be able to check? How would it be that my older fish are doing well, but the new fish are not surviving?

Thanks a lot for your help / advice. These losses are very discouraging and I feel greatly responsible for the fish that I didn't take proper care of.

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

what are your:
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and SG readings?

how are you acculimateing them?

the dragonette prob. wouldn't survive very long in that size tank anyway as they mainy eat pods and a tank that small won't sustain enough pods for them.

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

also I would stop using SeaChem's ReefPlus and ReefComplete unless you are testing for what they are putting in the tank you may be overdosing them and not knowing it, which is more harmful then not dosing at all.

never dose anything unless your testing for it.

 

[NYIntensity]

If you haven't paid much attention to all the main readings as kau_cinta_ku asked about, it's possible that the older fish have become somewhat tolerant of any out of acceptable tolerance water condition(s) you've got.

 

[BangkokMatt]

It is essential that you test for the above and test, at least,weekly as part of your maintenance schedule. If you can't get all the kits straight away your local LFS should be happy to test if you take in a sample.
When you have your results put them on the thread

 

[hybridgenius]

You might want to wait until you establish a pod culture for a dragonet or it will starve. Test params like the guys mention above could help. Until then we really cant say.

 

[uscharalph]

I wouldn't try another dragonette till this setup is far more established.

 

[BangkokMatt]

It is highly unlikely a dragonette will ever be successful in a 29g (even a mature one)unless a fuge is added or the fish eats prepared foods

 

[jdmcivicek9]

this might sound like a newby comment but if your using filtered ocean water from a pier does it still have the salt in it?? and if thats the case...if you keep adding that water in wont the salinity go up since the salt never evaporates just the water does??correct me if im wrong just a thought...

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

filterd ocean water is still salt water just filtered from debrie(sp.) basically the same stuff you can but in the 1-5 gal. jugs at petco.

and he states he uses RO water for top off's

 

[Blown 346]

Like said above, a dragonette wont last long. They need a tank with alot of liverock far more than you can fit into your tank, and a mature system of atleast a year old that has a refugium to survive. They eat live food(Pods) and without them they will die. They are very hard to keep.

For the gobies, I also would liek to know how you have acclimated them. Also How did the fish look before you bought them from the LFS? Where they eating, breathing heavily, have any marks on there bodies?

ALso I wouldnt add any supplements to the tank. The only time you should add anything is if you have coral with high needs of certain elements. Even if so, you shouldnt add anyhting unless your tests show that you have to since the corals etc are using it up. All the essential elements are in the salt you use to make the saltwater or even buy it already made.
I have a mixed 90 gallon reef with LPS,some SPS, and softies and dont add a thing. The salt I use replaces what I need each month.