fish dying

[rd64]

i set up my tank a little over a month ago when my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate read zero I put 4 yellowtail damsels all died one of which i have yet to find. my tank is a 55 gallon main tank with a 30 gallon refugium. Went and bought the last yellowtail my LFS had went to another and picked up three fourstriped damsels. One was doa the other two ate good replaced the one that died it died and another one died is there something else that could be causing death. oh yeah salinity is 1.023 ph 8.4

 

[Fish Keeper82]

How arw you acclimating them.... or are you just theowing them in the tank?

 

[rd64]

floating bag for 15 min then 1/2 cup of water every 4 min tell bag is full dump half out and filling again once I do that twice I net them and put in tank and dump the rest of the water

 

[lonbrat]

Hm... it frightens me that one was DOA, it may just be the LFS.... check the salinity of the LFS water with your instument. Also parameters... yours and theirs... they may be sick, and the transfer could be the final stress they needed to die.

 

[e048]

A month to cycle... Did it go through all the Normal algae blooms?

 

[FortyFour]

Might be unrelated but I try to make sure a fish has been at my LFS for 2 weeks before buying it. I also make them feed it so I can see if eat (or not eat). I'm always sceptical where and when I buy.

 

[rd64]

I had a small algae bloom before I put fish in. once i had fish in for three days on the 4th day i got a big algae bloom. I also associate that bloom Because I made rookie mistake of overfeeding. The funny thing is I got a small clean up crew (12 snails) and all are doing fine. Will algae bloom possibly kill fish.

 

[CoralFragAddict]

im guessing new tank shock , for the month before you added the fish what did you use for substrate / base rock or live rock. I know getting the bennificial bacteria level right is important to a new aquarium. If I remember correct for my first tank experience it took about 3 months before the ammonia nitrite nitrate cycle was complete but I'm sure the time could be lowered if you had enough live rock which I started with a very small amount. How did the fish look at the pet store?

 

[rd64]

I started the tank with about 35 pounds live rock and around 25 pounds dry rock. the yellowtail damsels where fresh inventory he hadent even put them in the tank to acclimate. all of those died I did get one a few days later and fingers crossed he is doing well. the fourstriped damsels where crazy swimmers and when I got home later that night I feed them they ate. Maybe it is new tank shock I thought since my ammonia nitrite and nitrates where zero it was time for fish beginners mistake

 

[Scubaken]

Leave the tank for another 2 weeks, feed the tank a little each 2nd day, you CUC will take care of the food and complete the cycle.
Yellow tail damsels ? I would give them a miss, mean and nasty fishes, if you really want them in there I would do 1 last

 

[Sk8r]

Damsel species fare better in a 100 gallon tank in general, and only one of a kind. Try blennies, gobies, etc, and corals for a 55, with just one damsel, and you'll have an easier start.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

How did you mix your saltwater? I mixed some up years ago and had too much salt in it and took a lot of the water out and put fresh water back in. I couldn't get anything to live because of that. It gets the proper balance off. I'm sure others are familiar with this happening. Just a thought.

 

[gone fishin]

Really hard to say one way or the other the cause.

Could have been tank not cycled completely, acclimation issue, aggression among the fishes, parasite or disease, or a combination.

 

[jason2459]

Did you test ammonia levels after noticing the fish dead. Did you check ammonia levels before adding more fish? May have been to much bioload at once. Take it slower. Could have been some parasite or infections. QT. To many damsels. One could have knocked out another causing a chain reaction of ammonia spikes.

 

[goliwala]

I'm probably gonna get a good beating for saying this here but get a bottle of BioSpera from Amazon or elsewhere, put that in and add the fish. I've done that on couple of different occasions and had success each time.

 

[chimmike]

damsels are among the most aggressive small fish you can buy. Putting multiples in a 55 may be recipe for disaster.

 

[rd64]

Did you test ammonia levels after noticing the fish dead. Did you check ammonia levels before adding more fish? May have been to much bioload at once. Take it slower. Could have been some parasite or infections. QT. To many damsels. One could have knocked out another causing a chain reaction of ammonia spikes.

Yes before i would add fish I would check my ammonia nitrite and nitrate. And when fish died I would check I even took it to LFS and they checked as well