Fish are dying!

[blynch002]

I have been having a lot of problems with the fish I have been adding to the tank since I have started it about 6 months ago. Just recently, I added a coral beauty angelfish two days ago and now he is just laying on the bottom of the tank on his side. He has been nipped at by my hermit crabs and now has a chunk missing behind his eye and his tail is eaten up. Same thing happened to a clown fish that had been in the tank for about 3 months, one day the lights came on and he had been chewed on. Same thing happened to a mandarinfish. What the heck is going on? Any help would be great, I would like to save this coral beauty if possible. Thanks

 

[Virtuoso]

Can't really help with a diagnosis, but the smart guys who can are going to ask for details about your tank. Dimensions, filters, livestock, how long it has been running, all your parameters.

 

[Chris27]

Is this a sudden thing, or does the health of the fish slowly decline over the course of a few days? When the fish dies, did you note any tell tale signs of a disease? Things like white spots/blotches on the body, excess mucus build up around the body, cloudy puffy eyes, bloody fins/body? What do you feed your fish, and how often?

 

[LisaD]

do you go through a quarantine, or just add new fish to the tank?
how big is the tank, what kind of filtration?
what are all the animals in the currently in the tank?
water parameters? pH, specific gravity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temperature

sounds to me like fish are in trouble, dying, then get eaten on by the CUC
possible there is a mantis, but I'd look to husbandry and disease first

BTW, mandarins and angels should only be added to mature, established tanks. And most mandarins require live food. If your tank isn't established enough and mature enough to sustain pods, a mandarin would probably starve. Your tank doesn't sound established to me, especially if it has not stabilized as far as the fish living.

edit: I see from your public profile that the tank is a 55. Please post information to the questions so we can try and help you.

 

[blynch002]

Well I talked to a local guru today and he said that it appears that my large clown has become extremely aggressive due to his abnormally large size. He is around 4 inches long and is most likely the culprit. There are no signs of disease on the the fish. Seems like the easy fix is to quarantine the clown and add another cheap fish to see if he survives. Also, found that I had some stray voltage in the tank and im sure that didnt help anything.

Thanks for the responses though! :wavehand: