Picking Fish For My Aquarium

SuperNarwhal46

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Sorry for the misleading title, but I accidentally pressed enter before I could change it. But anyway…….
Throwback to about a week ago. I had my water tested at my local store, and all signs looked good. I was excited to finally get a fish after my cycle, and I heard clownfish are good for beginners and are hardy, so I picked one out. I brought him home and was careful to acclimate him, but I think I made a mistake here. I ended up dumping all the water from the bag into my tank. Oops. I didn’t realize it until I saw signs of stress in my fish: hiding under rocks, not eating, etc. I performed a water change to decrease the amount of ammonia, as it spiked greatly. Then, today, as I got home from school, I found him dead. I am lost as to what to do now. I took him out, and buried him already. I want to figure out if he was a right fit for my 10g tank, or if he died from disease, and what to do next as far as cleaning the tank and getting more fish. Let me know what you guys think.
 
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SuperNarwhal46

SuperNarwhal46

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Sorry for the misleading title, but I accidentally pressed enter before I could change it. But anyway…….
Throwback to about a week ago. I had my water tested at my local store, and all signs looked good. I was excited to finally get a fish after my cycle, and I heard clownfish are good for beginners and are hardy, so I picked one out. I brought him home and was careful to acclimate him, but I think I made a mistake here. I ended up dumping all the water from the bag into my tank. Oops. I didn’t realize it until I saw signs of stress in my fish: hiding under rocks, not eating, etc. I performed a water change to decrease the amount of ammonia, as it spiked greatly. Then, today, as I got home from school, I found him dead. I am lost as to what to do now. I took him out, and buried him already. I want to figure out if he was a right fit for my 10g tank, or if he died from disease, and what to do next as far as cleaning the tank and getting more fish. Let me know what you guys
Sorry for the misleading title, but I accidentally pressed enter before I could change it. But anyway…….
Throwback to about a week ago. I had my water tested at my local store, and all signs looked good. I was excited to finally get a fish after my cycle, and I heard clownfish are good for beginners and are hardy, so I picked one out. I brought him home and was careful to acclimate him, but I think I made a mistake here. I ended up dumping all the water from the bag into my tank. Oops. I didn’t realize it until I saw signs of stress in my fish: hiding under rocks, not eating, etc. I performed a water change to decrease the amount of ammonia, as it spiked greatly. Then, today, as I got home from school, I found him dead. I am lost as to what to do now. I took him out, and buried him already. I want to figure out if he was a right fit for my 10g tank, or if he died from disease, and what to do next as far as cleaning the tank and getting more fish. Let me know what you guys think.
I was also planning on getting a fire fish goby a little later down the line, but I am just wondering what kind of fish to start out with once my test levels start leveling out again.
 

BostonReefer300

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Many LFS will let you buy a damsel and then return it for partial credit to help you cycle your tank. They are cheap and very hardy fish, but they are mean and likely not suitable for a tank your size long-term if you put other fish in there...so you'd definitely want to return it or give it away before adding other fish
 

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dumping the water was a mistake, but I'm sure many have made that mistake, including me. Thats not what killed your fish, the fish was fine in the LFS water before, so adding LFS water didnt kill it. You say you had finished your cycle, but there is ammonia in the water, there shouldnt be ammonia in the water, and again, really doubt the ammonia came from the LFS water
 

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Sounds like disease got him.
If there was something in the bag that bad, it would have died in the bag, not diluted in the DT.

The problem being is if this is what killed him, it’s still in the tank ready for the next fish so go slow on additions, see if you have any further issues.
 

CMMorgan

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A little clown is fine - not a bad choice but make sure everything is ready. Checked all your numbers, not just ammonia. What was the temp, the salinity.... etc etc?
Do you have live rock and sand? How long has the tank been cycling?
Keep in mind that a 10 gallon tank can go sideways in a blink of an eye. Were you topping off daily? If not, your SG could get very high.
If you want to get a fire fish down the road, make sure that you have good hiding places for it, as they are very skittish. Also, do not get one until you have a lid - they jump.
 
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SuperNarwhal46

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For everyone that was wondering about my tank conditions: I got my water tested like yesterday before he died. Salinity was fine, nitrite was good, nitrate was good, pH was good, but ammonia was somewhere around 0.25. Again, the ammonia was 0 when I put the fish in the tank. I think at first I was worried about him not eating, so I think I ended up putting a little too much food in there. That might have caused it. But I have live sand and a live rock in my tank, and I cycled it for around a month with turbo start before I put him in there.
 

NoahLikesFish

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I see no issue in dumping bag water unless it’s like pet smart or petco. My theory would be that the tank hadn’t cycled at all. Most new keepers in freshwater test their ammonia day 1 it’s 0 then they add fish then they all die
 
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SuperNarwhal46

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Sounds like disease got him.
If there was something in the bag that bad, it would have died in the bag, not diluted in the DT.

The problem being is if this is what killed him, it’s still in the tank ready for the next fish so go slow on additions, see if you have any further issues.
So how would I get rid of whatever may be in there? Should I do like a 50 percent water change? Or will I have restart my cycle over?
 
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SuperNarwhal46

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I am pretty sure it had cycled. I had the live rock, live sand, and turbo start. Unless the turbo start bacteria died due to a lack of ammonia. And, thanks for the tip on temperature. I'll turn up my heater right now!
 

NoahLikesFish

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So how would I get rid of whatever may be in there? Should I do like a 50 percent water change? Or will I have restart my cycle over?
I’d do a 100% wc go get some filter media from someone and then get like 3 lbs of live rock with life and coralline algae. A testing kit would help too if you have the money, api master salt can work in a pinch but it isn’t super accurate. Do you also have a salinity measurer? Do you have live rock?
 
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SuperNarwhal46

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I’d do a 100% wc go get some filter media from someone and then get like 3 lbs of live rock with life and coralline algae. A testing kit would help too if you have the money, api master salt can work in a pinch but it isn’t super accurate. Do you also have a salinity measurer? Do you have live rock?
Ok. Could I borrow some in-use filter media from a LFS? Do they do that? Do I need to clean my existing sponge and bio balls? I kind of don't want to start over, but it is what it is.
And, I have about 6lb of live rock in the tank. I am thinking about getting some more dry rock to make more hiding places, but that is just what I have right now. I have a plastic salinity measurer but I imagine it is not super accurate, but my LFS has a electronic one and they said it was fine. As far as a test kit goes, is there any other more accurate test kits than API? From what I have heard they get a bad rap as far as saltwater goes.
 
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Uncle99

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So how would I get rid of whatever may be in there? Should I do like a 50 percent water change? Or will I have restart my cycle over?
If we knew it was ick or velvet, then going fallow for 6 ish weeks would break the parasite cycled, but, we don’t know if it was.

The water change would have no effect on a parasitical problem.

Usually we can “see” some evidence of infection, so the decision is rather easy.

In your case we do not know the cause.

Id certainly make a water change that never hurts, and it’s your call, try another fish and see what happens......idk....hard one.
 
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SuperNarwhal46

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In a 10g I’d mabye try a pair of gobies and a pistol shrimp then down the road 1 other fish. (I would do a skunk clown persona

If we knew it was ick or velvet, then going fallow for 6 ish weeks would break the parasite cycled, but, we don’t know if it was.

The water change would have no effect on a parasitical problem.

Usually we can “see” some evidence of infection, so the decision is rather easy.

In your case we do not know the cause.

Id certainly make a water change that never hurts, and it’s your call, try another fish and see what happens......idk....hard one.
He did show some signs of disease: his face what sort of pale, a tiny bit discolored, he gasped for air but only right before he died, and he had that white stringy poop that some people say is a bad sign. But I don't know if that means he was diseased or just stressed due to ammonia. I will get a test kit and see when my tests level out, then get maybe a damsel and return it like mentioned before. (If it lives, that is).
 

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You don't want to dump LFS water in because (besides disease) sometimes LFS use medications in their tanks and you do not want that in your reef. I use a rubber strainer to remove the fish after acclimation.

A clownfish is a damsel FYI.

Do not overfeed, try different foods each day but don't overfeed. It just pollutes the water. Fish often don't eat the first day or two anyways.

Ask the LFS to feed the fish in front of you before you buy. If it isn't eating, don't take it home.

75 degrees is fine but 77-78 is more popular and great for a mixed reef since LPS tend to be deeper and may like 75 while SPS might like 79. It is sort of that middle ground for everything.
 
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