What the? About to quit.

R

ReeferMO85

New member
I woke up to the weirdest thing this morning. All four of my Chromis are dead. My water conditions are perfect. All the Chromis were bought at different times. The biggest one, also the most recently purchased looked sluggish last night, but the three smaller ones were gitty as usual. What would cause all four, that were bought on different days, to all die the same night? My clownfish pair survived, and all my inverets, which include a skunk cleaner, purple lobster, hermit crabs and snails all survived.

I am seriously discouraged at this point and I am thinking about giving up if I can't even have Chromis survive.

Any advice would be great because I love this hobby.
 
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what are the water parameters? what else is in the tank? have you done anything different to the tank recently? it is impossible to guess what happened without some more details.
 
When you say your water conditions are perfect. Lets see some numbers.

Did you by all the fish from the same place ?

Were they eating ?

Could be a lot of things. Ask the place you bought them from if they have had similar problems with that particular type fish.
 
Yes all fish came from the same place. They were eating flakes and frozen brine, mysis, and algae. Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, are undetectable. pH is 8.2, water temp. is a steady 79 degrees. Nothing has been changed from my normal routine of 5 gal. water changes every week. (It's a 29 gal. tank). Every animal in the tank is listed in the first post. Other than that I have 44lbs. of Fiji LR and 40lbs. of LS.

The oldest Chromis was 1.5 months old, the middle two were 3 weeks old, and the most recent and the biggest was 1 week old.

How weird is it that they all died on the same night, but everything else survived?

I hope somebody tells me some good news because my girlfriend wants me to get out of the hobby, sell all my stuff, and get a dog.
 
I left a small piece of tilapia in the tank last night for my purple lobster. I have done this many times, and I take it out the next morning. Would that have anything to do with it?
 
Ya... I'm a poor college kid, hahah, and I think I'm done with this hobby until I am older and have a house and have money
 
You shouldn't give up over 4 chromis. I know it sucks to have fish die no matter the cost... but just to give up? You have to remember these are living creatures. And on top of that stoic living creatures. Sometimes they are sick and don't act it just to avoid being prey.

A million things could've happened that we don't test for. Your LFS could have different parameters and your fish couldn't adjust fast enough. They could've been sick when you bought them. They could have just been stressed. We don't know what causes fish to stress we can only assume.

Also you should look at vet costs. I assure you dogs are also expensive. More so if they get sick, get hit by a car, get in a fight, have allergies, have genetic disorders, the list goes on.

Don't 'give up'. Hang in there. We've all been through it (and are going through it).

If you don't want to do it anymore then so be it. But don't go from one animal to another if money is in short supply. Fish and dogs.... they are part of your family not possessions.
 
4 chromis? Man, you got off cheap. I lost 4 royal grammas & two Coral beauties last year. Some died because my refractometer lied to me, but others died to unkown causes. However, after just adding inverts & laying off fish for awhile, my new fish is fine..
Sometimes in Saltwater things just happen. I got discouraged for awhile too, but am back going strong. Plus, I'm the working poor, my budget is so tight Scrooge would flinch..

Matthew
Just be patient & give it time..
 
Three things I missed. What is your tanks specific gravety? What is your calcium level and what is your alkalinity level ?
 
Calcium levels don't matter when keeping fish. Also, alk isn't really too important either when keeping relatively hardy fish like chromis.

You must have done something or added something out of the ordinary to have this happen. You don't lose 4 fish in one night over no changes.
 
The tank has been set up for almost 8 months now. I just don't want to be that guy who losses $300 worth of fish. I know Chromis are cheap but the lesson they taught me is that no matter how good water quality is, and I'm telling you mine is pristine, anything can happen. I would rather lose $20 worth of fish and learn my lesson than lose $300. I just got back from my LFS and I had the owner check for everything. He said everything was perfect and sometimes these things just happen. Then gave me the stories how he losses fish everyday for no reason. He also said everything you guys are saying, and encouraged me not to give up.

For now, I'm leaving the tank as is. Not investing anymore money at the moment. And I DO love my fish, it's not an easy choice to make for me. But I just have to be practical.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7832847#post7832847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ironsheikh
chromis are like $3.50 arent they?
Click to expand...

IMO that doesn't matter. As mentioned, they're still living creatures, and, one wants to find out what happens before adding any more fish.

From what's in this thread, I don't have a good explanation for why they would all die at the same time, especially since they were bought at different times.

I have had times where fish die for no apparent reason, but not selectively like that. Usually it's just one fish is suddenly dead. The other scenario is where all of the fish suddenly die. I would watch the clownfish closely over the next few weeks.

Dave
 
No anenome, my clownfish aren't as active as ususal, but I figure that is because there aren't 4 Chromis darting around them all the time like before. This is how they acted before the Chromis, so I think all is well.

If my parameters WERE off, wouldn't my inverets be affected first. I know snails can't handle high nitrites. I though all inverts were affected by changes in water condition more than fish, especially hardy fish like chromis and clownfish, right?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7834226#post7834226 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferMO85
If my parameters WERE off, wouldn't my inverets be affected first. I know snails can't handle high nitrites. I though all inverts were affected by changes in water condition more than fish, especially hardy fish like chromis and clownfish, right?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. It depends on what the cause of the problem is. If you got something that interferes with the gills, for example, that could affect the fish without the corals being affected at all. That might not show up on the typical parameters.
We had a tank crash once where all of the fish in our 46g tank died within 24 hours (there were 7 or 8 in there at the time), but the corals looked as good as they ever had. We have some hypotheses, but we never really figured out why it happened.

As for nitrites, they're bad for everything, not just snails.

Dave
 
I would satisify myself your salt is correct - maybe its off to one side that affects fish and not inverts - how do you measure it - I've seen lots of threads pointing out those plastic swing arms instruments are not very accurate

did you recently do a water change around the same time
 
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