Fish kept dying? Unsure what's happening.

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

Have a Reefer 425 that has been up for about 5 months. It has had a single clownfish in it for about 8 weeks now.

I have bought 2 grammas and couple chromis, none have made it.

Ammonia, Nitrite undetectable. Nitrate 15 or so. (hard for me to see the pink on the red Sea test).. pH is steady 8.1 according to my Apex. Salinity 1.025, also steady according to my Apex.

Tank uses RO/DI from a brand new 4 stage. Acclimation is as follows. Float fiwh, empty water and fish into bucket. Bucket is only used for new saltwater otherwise. Drip acclimate until volume doubles, than empty half and do it again. Tyiicall somewhere around 90 mins. Match temp and salinity as much as possible, almost always works out to be pretty close.

Tank was cycled completely back in September using Dr. Tim's fishless method. Clown went in fine and has done well. Has a couple LPS that have grown a bit in the tank. But other than my clown, I cannot keep a fish alive. I'm fairly certain he isn't bullying fish, but I can't be 100% sure. I've never seen him aggressively go for fish. I'm not sure if it's my LFS, or what.. any advice would be great. Thank you!

Oh and FWIW, I had my LFS test as well before I took home a gramma a couple weeks ago. Everything tested okay..

Tamberav · Dec 3, 2021

If corals are doing well but fish are dying it is probably a disease or acclimation issue.

Do you test the sanity of the bag from the LFS?

What do the fish look like or do before they die?

Do you see them eat at the store?

Dave1993 · Dec 3, 2021

Are your fish shipped or do you get them from store if delivered you should not be acclimating them the way you are

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

Oh and FWIW my

Dave1993 said:
Are your fish shipped or do you get them from store if delivered you should not be acclimating them the way you are

From a store.

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

Tamberav said:
If corals are doing well but fish are dying it is probably a disease or acclimation issue.

Do you test the sanity of the bag from the LFS?

What do the fish look like or do before they die?

Do you see them eat at the store?

My gramma from a couple of weeks ago looked fine. I did see him eat. He was out swimming. Came home, from work a couple days later and he was dead.

If it's an acclimation issue, what should I do to correct it? I'm unsure what else to do.

Yes, I do test the salinity.

GHOSTLY · Dec 3, 2021

Just drip acclimate longer and avoid putting your hand in the tank

Tamberav · Dec 3, 2021

Kurant said:
My gramma from a couple of weeks ago looked fine. I did see him eat. He was out swimming. Came home, from work a couple days later and he was dead.

If it's an acclimation issue, what should I do to correct it? I'm unsure what else to do.

Yes, I do test the salinity.

What salinity is the bag water of the fish?

Ideally 0.002 a day. When brought up too fast, they dehydrate.

Dcloser12 · Dec 3, 2021

I must be a heathen. I take any fish,float for 10 minutes then in the tank they go. Never lost one yet

vetteguy53081 · Dec 3, 2021

What test kits are you using and are you testing against the apex readings as my Apex has been known to be wrong (calibrate periodically)
How are you acclimating fish and for how long ?
Check for stray voltage ?

Lavey29 · Dec 3, 2021

Dcloser12 said:
I must be a heathen. I take any fish,float for 10 minutes then in the tank they go. Never lost one yet

I don't even float them.

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
What test kits are you using and are you testing against the apex readings as my Apex has been known to be wrong (calibrate periodically)
How are you acclimating fish and for how long ?
Check for stray voltage ?

I test my Apex against Red Sea for pH and a Hanna Salinity checker. (Which I calibrate every couple of weeks.)

Acclimation is float, then in a bucket, dripped until water is doubled, empty 50% and doubled again.

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

Tamberav said:
What salinity is the bag water of the fish?

Ideally 0.002 a day. When brought up too fast, they dehydrate.

Depends. I've tested salinity at 1.020 sometimes, 1.024 other times.

I don't think all their tanks are on the same system. So they can vary depending on which tanks you get them out of. However, it's consistent.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 3, 2021

Kurant said:
I test my Apex against Red Sea for pH and a Hanna Salinity checker. (Which I calibrate every couple of weeks.)

Acclimation is float, then in a bucket, dripped until water is doubled, empty 50% and doubled again.

Are you matching salinity to the tank ?

Reefin' Alaska · Dec 3, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
Are you matching salinity to the tank ?

Yeah. The gramma bag tested at 1.023. Doubling, removing half and then doubling again ends up 1.024. I usually let it go another 15 mins or so to reach 1.025. All tested with my Hanna.

Uncle99 · Dec 3, 2021

A single clownfish will assume all area when housed alone.
I’d think others are dying from his defending.

Lavey29 · Dec 3, 2021

Uncle99 said:
A single clownfish will assume all area when housed alone.
I’d think others are dying from his defending.

They are deceptively aggressive at times huh...when you are not watching.

Uncle99 · Dec 3, 2021

Lavey29 said:
They are deceptively aggressive at times huh...when you are not watching.

Had one mouth attack a gramma, tossed him around like a rag doll, surprisingly violent.

Tamberav · Dec 3, 2021

1.020 to 1.025 in 90 min would be too fast.

Chromis actually have pretty high mortality rates regardless.

What type of clown is it? I doubt it is the clown in that size tank unless you have a adult mean maroon or something. Even then, you can usually see injuries on the fishes body.

gd1985 · Dec 4, 2021

Dcloser12 said:
I must be a heathen. I take any fish,float for 10 minutes then in the tank they go. Never lost one yet

I had a tank 6/7 years ago & had very limited knowledge. Did the same, floated for a bit then the fish & water went in, didn't lose anything.

This time around I lost about 12 fish in the 1st couple of months, i've lost fish in QT dosing with cupramine. Makes you laugh doesn't it.

I haven't added anything for couple months now & I'm debating just floating & putting them in without the QT. That or i'll just observe in QT for a few weeks.