Help! 2 Fish dead in 48 hours

[Wildorca]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a pink bar goby and within 48 hours, he went carpet surfing. We do have a lid on our tank except for a small opening in the back. Needless to say, the small opening is covered now.
We then added a purple firefish yesterday, and found him half eaten this morning! :sad1:
What on earth is going on with my fish?
I have a small ocy clownfish, a green clown goby, a small arrow crab, a few snails, a few scarlet hermits, and at least two emerald hitchhiker crabs in my 26g Bowfront tank.
I tested my tank and all the levels are perfect.
I'm afraid to add anymore fish right now because they keep dying.

 

[GimpyFin]

Sorry to hear about your fish. Hard to guess what did the fire fish in, but the cleaners were most likely just cleaning up after the fact. Were the new fish QT'd before adding them? If not, the fire fish might've had something coming in.

 

[Wildorca]

Could my emerald crab or arrow card have killed him? The bigger emerald crab is known for harassing fish. If I ever catch him, he's going to live in the mantis tank! :-/
No, I don't have a QT tank yet. I know I should. I'm going to look into getting one.

 

[GimpyFin]

I've personally never experienced emerald crabs attacking fish. I'd be pretty surprised if he went after the fire fish, unless the fish was dying or dead. Not 100% sure about the arrow crab, but I'm still leaning towards something other than the inverts killing the fire fish. A QT is a good idea because it gives you a means to observe/treat the fish before adding them to your main tank.

 

[cheucklate]

I've had the worst luck with firefish in my tank. This is mainly when I use to drip acclimate from my lfs salinit 1.015 to my tank 1.025 in a few hours. The salinity swing coupled with stress in a new environment usually killed them in a few days for me

I now QT to match lfs salinity and let slowly evaporate to match my salinity

 

[mcgyvr]

Arrow crabs will ABSOLUTELY go after fish...
They are the devil.. get it out now..
I made the mistake once and it "speared" 2 of my fish.. One right in front of my eyes.. It immediately went in to the trash..


Seems like the problem is not water related at all.. Just aggression and jumping

 

[Sk8r]

When fish go airborne, it's often to escape a predator.

 

[Wildorca]

Thanks. Needless to say I'm really heartbroken right now. We have lost 4 fish in the last month. Two gobies that went carpet surfing, one azure damsel that was killed by a six line wrasse (six line went back to the LFS), and now the firefish.
We thought the first goby jumped because of a hitchhiker mantis shrimp. He now has his own tank, so that problem is fixed. Now I just need to figure out which crab is being a butthole. I saw both the emerald crab and the arrow crab harassing the 2nd goby that jumped.
It's really disheartening too lose so many fish in a short amount of time, especially when you are new to the hobby. Not to mention, it's expensive!!

 

[mcgyvr]

more than likely its NOT the emerald crab they are usually quite peaceful...
Arrow crabs are the devil..

 

[fishchef]

Yes, hard lessons. Some LFS will sell you anything. Crabs in general are a bad idea when mixed with fish and inverts. Even clowns are jumpers and the nylon netting is something fairly new, like 5 years or so.

 

[Wildorca]

Should I try another Firefish or a royal gramma perhaps?

 

[TauntingBeef]

get both, I love my gramma and firefish