where do dead fish go???

[robertgiants]

My tank is 175 gal with about 15 corals 12 fish about 16 or so hermits, 8 snails, 7 brittles and forgive me on my forgetfulness on the names of fish, but here goes.

1 purple tang
1 yellow tang
2 clown
2 fox wrath ?
1 purple fluorescent fish :?:
1 neon
1 Gobi
2 small blueish fish(lol)
4 cleaner shrimp (2 different kinds)

I had 2 fire shrimp-----died
3 blue fish died
and a fish that a cant recall, but its a bottom feeder and has a psychedelic look to it. It kind of has a beak so to speak, but he died also. The weird thing is that the are just missing and never recovered. Are the brittles, shrimp, snails and hermits eating these as they die or what?

ph is 8.1-8.3
salinity .024
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

All the other fish are doing great with no signs of anything wrong. Thats what is weird with the other fish that died. They had no signs at all of something being wrong, they just disappear from my tank.

What the he@# is going on with that. The guy at the saltwater store says its just a weird coincidence giving my water parameters and he knows my tank, because I do all my business there.
My tank is about 4 months old. I have a crushed coral bottom and about give or take 200lbs live rock. I had the live rock in the tank for 1 month before I put anything in the tank. It cycled nicely.

Everything has gone great with the exceptions of these disappearing fish. what do you all think?

[pilotrob]

well im not sure about your other blue fish but the one that looked psychedelic was more than likely a green mandarin. they require a specialized diet that only an established tank can provide and considering yours has been up for 4 months id have to say that even though it is large it still probably doesnt have a large enough populaton of the copepods and critters these fish eat. if you want to try one of these fish again id say hold off until you have enough of these - maybe a year or so.

As far as where they go - who knows you have a pretty big tank and lots of liverock. there are thousands of little nooks and crannies that they could end up in. very likely these fish could have been ill or too stressed to begin with so its not a problem with your tank, they were just doomed from the beginning. i learned this the hard way so id recommend trying to find as healthy and responsive fish as you can at the LFS and ALWAYS quarantine them for 3-4 weeks first. that should cut down on your losses. by the way id love to see pictures of the tank!

just by chance where the blue fish damsels?

[robertgiants]

Thank you and I guess i need to figure out how to post a picture here??
About the blue damsels, that doesn't sound right, so i don't think so. I know they are cheap, $5 each but a nice addition to the tank. They didn't seem to be stressing when I first introduced them to the tank. They all ate when fed and the way that I acclimate them to the tank is this: I get them from the fish store in the bag, I get a 5 gallon bucket and pour them in the bucket and add a little bit of my water to the bucket. Then about 10 minutes later I add a little more ect. I do that about 4 times before adding to the tank and have had great success with that.
Ill try and add a picture of the tank.

[FishinInTheDark]

blue green reef chromis?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=115

Are you adding LFS water into your tank? If you're not netting the fish out of your bucket to put into the tank, you should start now. LFS water is a great way to add parasites, protazoans, bad bacteria, etc. to your tank!

I don't know where your fish are going. I'd bet your cleanup crew takes care of the remains. As far as why they're dying, either there's a sickness in the tank or you have a (dreaded) mantis shrimp. Keep an eye on the individual fish, and peek in at night with a red flashlight and look for a pretty, ornamental shrimp. Listen for popping noises.

Good luck,

Conni

[robertgiants]

No I don't add the lfs water, I net them out of the bucket. Would a mantis shrimp possibly be a hitchhiker? I know I haven't purchased one. What is this popping sound you talk about? I do have a green emerald crap that hitchhiked on one of the corals, and I believe hes eating on my Zenia.

[FishinInTheDark]

See here:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/msubpestmshrimp/a/aa110498.htm

Most people get mantises as hitchhikers. The article explains much better than I ever could, especially since I haven't had one yet. . .

Emerald crabs can be bad news for reefs. Personally, I'd choose the Xenias over the emerald!

TC,

Conni

[FishinInTheDark]

Dang, weird error message says, "this isn't supposed to happen," so I try over and over and my post is there again and again! Sorry all!

Conni

[robertgiants]

Thanks again fishin, That was a very helpful article. Im gonna have to check my tank tonight.

[FishinInTheDark]

YW! :wink: