New at this...Help

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rainey

New member
Hello everyone... I had a 29 hexagon fish tank set up for almost a year. Had blue damsel fish and 3 stripe black and white one... with scooter Blenny for a month...

I got rid of the damsel fish and upgraded to a 37 gallon rectangle fish tank.. I transferred over my live rock... 23pds.. 30 pds of live sand plus added 10pds of sand not live...

I have a 500 casacade pump and 200 over filter that came with new fish tank.. plus lighting that came with the new fish tank..

I brought in sample of water.. and fish store said it was safe to add new fish all levels were normal...

So brought 2 occelarious clown fish and 3 green chromis fish... I am hoping to have a peaceful tank.. last thursday brought in another sample and said everything was still normal accept my alkinaliy was a little high but was still in normal range... should of asked him what the number was... oh well

Sunday my scooter blenny was dead :( was very heart broken over that he was very comical to watch.. was all over my tank.. and 1 green cromis fish was dead too.... the other fish are doing fine... the heater that came with the tank didn't work and temp got down to 70 degrees.. before they died... it was about three days before they died... I have been looking and don't see ick or anything on any of the fish... not sure what I did wrong...

Would like to get another scooter blenny but some people have said they are hard to take care of... I want to have a peaceful tank.. also would like to get 6 line wrasse and a pair of firefish and watchman goby... or something to help keep the bottom of sand clean any input would be greatly appreciated... Haven't ventured into corals yet just live sand and rock... Also have a white bristle star that hitched a ride with the live rock I brougt before and a very small snail not sure what kind its is put long and pointy but very small. Any advice would be greatly appreciated... thanks rainey
 
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sorry kind of confusion my heater had guit working.. the temp got down to 70 degrees. Brought new one and set it at 76 degrees.. thats were it is right now... well about 3 days later is when I found my scooter blenny and cromis fish dead... but up to then they were swimming all over so not sure what happen to them... I have been looking for ich. but haven't seen any yet. nock on wood.. hope this clears up alittle about what I wrote earlier.. sorry... any input on fish to get would be greatly appreciated... thanks
 
I would go and get some test kits and do-it-yourself, I have bought fish that died for no apparent reason, I market it up as stress from the previous handlers, if you're tank is stable you should have no problems with the scooter.
 
Scooter blennies (dragonets) need ample amounts of live food. In the newly established tank I would assume he starved to death. Was he sluggish before his demise?

Were the chromis new? They are known to pick each other off. If they were new and the LFS happened to net two dominant fishies they would fight to the death. Chromis are a very hardy fish and can tolerate unacceptable water params compared to most.

Watch the parameters, and if you are still having flakey water throw em into the old tank if it is still running?

Hope this is of some help, AND fellow reefers correct me if I am wrong!
 
yeah my scooter blenny wasn't as active as he was in the old tank... I probably didn't have enough food in tank... was feeding him frozen brine shrimp and flakes to my fish... What is the best kind of food to feed the scooter blenny (dragnet.) Also I did notice that two of the green chromis were a pare and picked on the other one... so maybe they did kill the other Green cromis... The 2 left seem to be okay and are swimming okay with my clown fish too... are they going to hurt them too... but they seem to be getting along okay... thank you for all your help rainey... is a 6 line wrasse and fire fish good to get with this tank too?
 
Unless you are lucky (as we were), all dragonets require live food, mainly copepods and amphipods. They breed naturally in the tank (pods), and can be supplimented. There is a post on here now re:buying live pods, I'll make a feeble computer illiterate attempt at posting the link. This is why there is such a difficulty keeping these kind of fish. They can survive in a small tank, but a small tank just doesnt produce the amount of natural live food on its own to sustain their feeding requirements. Supplimenting live food may help (so I have heard), a refugium will help (wether it be in the tank or as a part f an external system). I got lucky. I have a spotted mandarin dragonet, tank raised, and all she eats is frozen food. Doesnt even touch the live pods and flatworms.

As for the chromis, we have two tank raised percs and 3 blue green chromis. The chromis battled for the first few days and then established ranks. We have a leader, follower, and straggler. They do not bother the clowns at all. They actually seem to get along quite well as they are both damselfish, but both are feeding on the same meal. all of our inhabitants are aggressive enough feeders to get fed, but some may have to watch for an unaggressive fish trying to eat at meal time. If they eat-there is no problem.

Hope this helps.
 
thanks for your help but still a little confused... what is copepods and amphipods... I did have my scooter in 27 gallon that was set up for a year.... with no one cleaning the bottom... he did such a great job getting all the sand white again... then we moved to new tank with new sand mixed with old so probably killed little guy no one told me he had a special diet... fish store said he would eat brine shrimp was this wrong? if get another one want to make sure have right food thanks again for you help in this matter...
 
Copepods and amphipods are tiny crustaceans that most fish love to eat. Most scooter blennies only eat "pods" as they're called. I was able to train mine to eat mysis though. I would not get a sixline wrasse. I absolutely hate mine because he is so mean, he will not let me add any new wrasses or other small peaceful fish. As for the firefish, they would be good additons to your tank. By the way, the scooter blenny wasn't "cleaning" the sandbed, they just eat the pods that live in there but no the algae that grows on it or detritus. Hope this helps!
 
Oh, I just saw that you said the lfs said that a blenny would eat brine. That is mostly untrue, unless you are very lucky. Even if he did accept brine he would of starved anyway because brine shrimp is essentially devoid of nutrition. Buy some frozen mysis shrimp, because they are nutritious.
 
thank you so much for all your help.... now I feel bad that I killed my blenny... I loved that fish...Would like to try again... hopefully with better luck this time.... So would a scooter blenny and a watchman gobie be good with each other... don't have either right now.... and thanks for the warning about the 6 line wrasse. I will stay away from that... and get fire fish next... unless you can recommend something else.... by the way is brine shrimp bad for clown fish and green chromis... been feeding brine shrimp and fish flakes... thank again rainey
 
Brine shrimp isn't "bad". Most fish LOVE to eat it. It just doesn't really have any nutrition, unless it specifically says something like "enriched" on the package. It is good for an occasional treat.

Did you add any more live rock other than the 23 lbs. you moved over? If not, then you might want to hold off on the blenny. They really need more liverock to produce all of the food they need. A scooter and watchman would probably get along fine, but I would probably steer clear of the blenny. Watchmans are really hardy, and would do well for you. Good luck!
 
"I brought in sample of water.. and fish store said it was safe to add new fish all levels were normal...

So brought 2 occelarious clown fish and 3 green chromis fish..."


i would not add that many new fish at one time.
 
As was told to me a while ago, brine is like the McDonalds of fish food. Good to eat but offers no nutritional value. (your blenny may have eaten LIVE brine shrimp [sea monkeys] if available) If you feed a lot of brine, you may want to suppliment that with "SELCON" or the like, a fish vitamin type additive. A good addition for brine and others. i would suggest mysis shrimp, and also take a look at some of the fish food threads here. I plan to follow some of those instructions for my next batch of fish food.

As the old tank was established for a while, I'd assume it had enough critters built up over time to sustain it: until they were all gone. Next time you are up at night, point a flash light in your tank and you should see all the "pods" crawling around on the rock and sand. They are good food for those who like them and beneficial to keeping your system a little more clean. Fish eat pods, poop, pods eat poop, breed more pods, fish eat pods, etc. Another part of the symbotic ecosystem which is a SW tank!
 
...Also agree with kristen. Add slowly. You need your beneficial bacterias to keep up with your BIOload (fish poop). If you add too quickly you are bound to have nutrient spikes as the bacterias cant keep up. As said before, keep a close eye on your water params for the next few weeks.
 
I just want to thank everyone for there help on this friend... been doing alot of reading but can get confusing...just as simple as making mistake on the fish food...

How much rock would you recommend for a 37 gallon.... I think I heard someone say pound for gallon. Have 23 pounds right now... also I haven't added any new rock lately... transfered from old fish tank.
 
So do you use mysis, pellets, and flake food or is one kind better than the other for my clown fish and green cromis... thanks for all your help on this matter stricknine and ifbettas been very helpful... don't want to make anymore mistakes with feeding these guys...
:)
 
If pods eat detritus (poop for the ultra newbs) should I not be so diligent in getting the stuff out of my tank? I currently do it 2-3 times a week with a turkey baster.
 
Just a consideration, since you had the blenny awhile before moving to the new tank...

If I understood your post correctly you added more (non-live) sand? Did you put this sand on top of the old sand? If so, is it possible you covered up his immediate food supply? Not too familiar with whether or not this is an issue for pods.
 
I feed mysis primarily. When I bought my food, I got a large pack of mysis, small brine, and small ...plankton? I made two mixes; mysis/brine, and mysis/other. I mixed it all up in a bowl, added garlic and selcon, and pre packaged with a turkey baster and mini ziplocs. There are much better ways but all the same basis. My understanding is mysis is the best nutritional food and small enough the fish we have eat it- unless you want to do the blender or the food processor thing(that will be my next experiment). I added the other brine and plankton (i think) just for a bit of variety. I hear variety is good.

As for the pellets, my clowns will eat them but my chromis wont. Its a bit comical, I feed pellets to my clowns as a "treat" a few times a week and the dominant chromis will attempt to join in but cant quite figure out what the clowns are feasting on.

***One mistake I did make when I prepped the food is I didnt rinse it. When you have that food thaw out there is a lot of "juice" that is not eaten and just adds phosphates to the system. In a smaller tank that is a problem. I kind of narrowed down my hair algae and cyano problems to that. Now I rinse the individual packets which is helping, but a PITA. Only a 100 or so left.

Hope this helps.Clarify if it doesnt!
 
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