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- Feb 21, 2020
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Hi all,
Brand new here so hello!
I'm hoping someone here can help me. We've never kept fish before but my father-in-law purchased us a 55l (14.5G) tank with two pieces of live rock and live sand substrate for Xmas as a surprise. He doesn't know anything about keeping fish either so purchased what was recommended in store. All in all, the store sold us two scooter blennies, two pipefish (one banded and one blue stripe), 5 snails and two seahorses.
The tank was set up in January and we started adding the fish (pipefish and blennies first, seahorses three weeks later). We completely trusted the store as they have a very good reputation and are more or less the only ones that sell saltwater aquariums and fish. Last weekend we lost 3/4 of the tank. The two seahorses, the banded pipefish and the male scooter blenny all died in the space of 48 hours. We brought a sample to the store who said it was due to over-feeding and recommended 30% water changes every other day to get he ammonia and nitrate levels under control. It was an extremely upsetting couple of days.
I've done some research since and posted on Reddit about the situation. From all that I've read and the advice that I've gotten, it's pretty clear we never should have been sold pipefish and seahorses as complete beginners let alone with such a small tank. The five snails and our blue stripe pipefish and female scooter blenny managed to survive the whole ordeal and we've managed to get the nitrate levels down from 50ppm to 10ppm through big water changes during the last week.
We did our last 30% water change last night and both fish seem a lot better the last couple of days, moving around, eating and looking for food. Do you think we're in the clear?
I know this is a very weird setup for a tank (one scooter blenny and a pipefish) but we want to do everything we can to make the tank the best possible environment for them. The whole experience has been extremely upsetting and the loss of the other fish hit us a lot harder than we could have imagined.
How do we proceed from here? My preference would be to take things as slow as possible and make sure what we have left is happy and healthy. Thanks for your help!
Brand new here so hello!
I'm hoping someone here can help me. We've never kept fish before but my father-in-law purchased us a 55l (14.5G) tank with two pieces of live rock and live sand substrate for Xmas as a surprise. He doesn't know anything about keeping fish either so purchased what was recommended in store. All in all, the store sold us two scooter blennies, two pipefish (one banded and one blue stripe), 5 snails and two seahorses.
The tank was set up in January and we started adding the fish (pipefish and blennies first, seahorses three weeks later). We completely trusted the store as they have a very good reputation and are more or less the only ones that sell saltwater aquariums and fish. Last weekend we lost 3/4 of the tank. The two seahorses, the banded pipefish and the male scooter blenny all died in the space of 48 hours. We brought a sample to the store who said it was due to over-feeding and recommended 30% water changes every other day to get he ammonia and nitrate levels under control. It was an extremely upsetting couple of days.
I've done some research since and posted on Reddit about the situation. From all that I've read and the advice that I've gotten, it's pretty clear we never should have been sold pipefish and seahorses as complete beginners let alone with such a small tank. The five snails and our blue stripe pipefish and female scooter blenny managed to survive the whole ordeal and we've managed to get the nitrate levels down from 50ppm to 10ppm through big water changes during the last week.
We did our last 30% water change last night and both fish seem a lot better the last couple of days, moving around, eating and looking for food. Do you think we're in the clear?
I know this is a very weird setup for a tank (one scooter blenny and a pipefish) but we want to do everything we can to make the tank the best possible environment for them. The whole experience has been extremely upsetting and the loss of the other fish hit us a lot harder than we could have imagined.
How do we proceed from here? My preference would be to take things as slow as possible and make sure what we have left is happy and healthy. Thanks for your help!
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