My fish from my LFS keeps dying, what could be the cause, Alkalinity, Salinity or something else?

[Icryhard]

Hello . Are fish not stressed? In my opinion, if the fish jumps out, it is because of stress

Depends on the fish though. Some are jumpy fish. We kind of need to know which fish jumped out. We also need to know what his parameters are.

 

[enb141]

Depends on the fish though. Some are jumpy fish. We kind of need to know which fish jumped out. We also need to know what his parameters are.

List of fishes that jumped:

1 Damsel Azure
1 Damsel Yellow Tail
1 Ruby Red Dragonet
1 Chromie Viridis
1 Damsel/Chromie (don't remember its type)
1 Anthias
1 Molly

 

[areohen]

With all those fish that jumped, i hope you invested in a lid/cover of some sort.

Why do you need to increase your magnesium in a fish only tank?

 

[Dave1993]

is the yellow still attacking the powder blue put a mirror up

 

[hexcolor reef]

Don’t buy Petco fish

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Don’t buy Petco fish

This, at least in illinois case.

Every petco I have been to runs super low salinity. I bought my first clowns from them and they flipped out 10 minutes into drip aclimation, calmed down put into the tank and they absolutely panicked again. I was new so I thought maybe it was normal.

Read some posts on it, checked my salinity. It was 34ppt, went to petco after work the next day and asked what their salinity was, and the staff there did not know what I was asking. Bought a small rock to get some of their wayer, get home, 1 clown was dead and covered in webby looking stuff, the other was swimming around non stop at a strange steady pace. I tested their water, it was 1.016 sg.

I captured the other clown and took both back to petco, found out the return policy, and they still insisted all saltwater was the same and that I must have ammonia. Never went back.

I have since checked the salinity wherever I am going to consider buying from. All the chain stores run way low salinity, about 1.018 on average. All of the locally-owned shops run right around 1.023 to 1.025. Which is possible to drip acclimate.

I have adopted the match salinity in QT method anyway so it doesn't matter now.

So I think most likely salinity, but could be many other things.

 

[Icryhard]

This, at least in illinois case.

Every petco I have been to runs super low salinity. I bought my first clowns from them and they flipped out 10 minutes into drip aclimation, calmed down put into the tank and they absolutely panicked again. I was new so I thought maybe it was normal.

Read some posts on it, checked my salinity. It was 34ppt, went to petco after work the next day and asked what their salinity was, and the staff there did not know what I was asking. Bought a small rock to get some of their wayer, get home, 1 clown was dead and covered in webby looking stuff, the other was swimming around non stop at a strange steady pace. I tested their water, it was 1.016 sg.

I captured the other clown and took both back to petco, found out the return policy, and they still insisted all saltwater was the same and that I must have ammonia. Never went back.

I have since checked the salinity wherever I am going to consider buying from. All the chain stores run way low salinity, about 1.018 on average. All of the locally-owned shops run right around 1.023 to 1.025. Which is possible to drip acclimate.

I have adopted the match salinity in QT method anyway so it doesn't matter now.

So I think most likely salinity, but could be many other things.

Why would they run it so low? What’s the benefit of it for them? Especially if they know the majority of buyers are around 1024-1026

 

[enb141]

With all those fish that jumped, i hope you invested in a lid/cover of some sort.

I'm working on it, definitively I need a lid.

Why do you need to increase your magnesium in a fish only tank?

I also bought 2 tiny SPS frags.

 

[Schulks]

Why would they run it so low? What’s the benefit of it for them? Especially if they know the majority of buyers are around 1024-1026

Low salinity will suppress diseases. This keeps the fish from getting sick and dying at the store but once you raise salinity at home the diseases will proliferate.

Also, fish can handle drops in salinity but not raises so it is less for employees to consider when stocking new fish.