Majestic Angel is dead too! Im about to give up...

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courtneyclv

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
174
Location
Las Vegas
#$%$! I am about to give up and put goldfish in my tank. My tank has been my life for the last 2 1/2 months and I have had it....sorry about taking up so many posts but I am freaking out and crying over fish!

Majestic Angelfish was dead today when I woke up. Yesterday she looked fine and was swimming normally, same with royal gramma. Angel did always have some whiteness, cloudiness on her head. I thought it was just discoloration.

I DID notice that a lot of sand was moved and in some parts of my tank, down to the glass floor. Also, some of my plants on my LR are mysteriously on the sand too, like they fell off. Maybe there was a struggle?

Royal gramma did occasionally have 'sand' on her head but the next day it was gone.

DOES MY TANK HAVE ICH AND WHAT DO I DO NOW??? DID NIGER TRIGGER EAT ANGEL? (but angel was a bit bigger and I never noticed any nipping..maybe he got her while she was sleeping?)

I don't know what to do, please wb or send me a pm.

Thank you to all of you that have answered my millions of posts, I appreciate it!
:)
Courtney
 
I agree I don't believe the trigger is your problem. You said the angel had a cloudiness and the gramma had white spots. Without a photo of the fish with the spots, it's hard to say rather it was ich or sand. The angle though sounds like water quality issues. Some water changes may help. Are there any other fish showing signs of illness?
 
Ok, I am getting more upset now..at my BF

I did a PWC of 10 gallons (my tank is 80) a few days ago. My BF says that if my NO2, NO#, ammon, and ph are perfect..why change it. He says that I am messing around with my water too much. I have read to do a PWC every few weeks and that will help will nutrients, and brown algae. (oh and this was the first time I did 10 gallons. I usually do only 5-7 gallons) My water parameters are always at 0 and my ph is always 8.2. Is he correct?

Every few days I do scrub my algae and if there is a snail dead or turned over I fix it. He says that my angel was stressed and that is why I killed her.

The trigger does nip at the maroon clownfish here and there, but like I said, didnt notice him nipping at gramma or angelfish.

My royal gramma had like specs of 'salt' on her body. Then the next day they were gone.

Angelfish didnt have specs of salt, but rather, parts of her head were just ligher color, cloudiness patches random.
 
well, it was said before and I will reinforce it. You either do what you know is right to do, or suffer the consequences of listening to your boyfriend. I know that sounds harsh, but there is no other answer. A minimum of 20 gallons per month needs to be changed out. IMO that is the barest of minimums. You mention "if there is a snail dead"...are you finding a good number of dead snails? You shouldnt be. Dead inverts are a good indication something is wrong with the water. Have you ever tested the alkalinity?

You might also want to double check your readings with that of the LFS or get other testkits to verify. What type of test kits do you use?

(incidently, if you do goldfish correctly, it is still work)
 
Ich goes through stages. One of those stages is that the parasite will fall off the fish. This is temporary. The ich will come back ten fold. So, to say it didnt' have it is difficult one way or the other. There is an article on the articles section on ich that explains the life cycle.
The angelfish may have had a fungal infection. Not to sound harsh but, you really need to take care of this tank yourself and tell your BF hands off. YOU do the water testing, then you'll know for sure. Past post would lead me to wonder if he is reading the tests right. At this point all you can do is watch closely for signs of illness and hopefully catch it in time with the other fish. If you think the trigger is the problem and he's attacking all your fish, return it. If your fish are already sick and the trigger knows this, he may pick on them. Hey, it's an easy meal, can't really blame him for that. Any fish will do the same. How long has the tank been up btw?
 
I do all the work in the tank. All of the buying, cleaning, testing etc. I do this daily and test daily. I just tested today..again everything is at 0. Havent tested alkalinity yet.

BF just thinks he knows everything even though he hasn't put any effort in at all..except for putting his trigger in.
 
LOL..so funny!

But seriously..I don't know what to do. Since the two fish that died DID have weird signs (gramma with salt specs and angelfish with disoloration) maybe it wasn't the aggressive fish that killed them..since I never saw him pick on those two, just the clown.

Oh, and not that many snails have died, maybe a couple a week. I know that my one blue legged small hermit picks on them.

So..Even though I cannot solve this enigma, I need to do something.

Should I...

1. Get rid of trigger and damsels, just keep my clown and inverts and LR and add more fish?

2. Return all of the fish and inverts, remove all the water and start over?

3. IF there is something in my water, ich or a parasite etc..will my LR keep it alive? Will I have to remove my LR too?

Thanks for your advice. I wont give up just yet.
 
If that is the case, then your test kits are wrong, or are not being read properly because you would see ammonia or nitrite. You have told us that these are "perfect" and at zero. You have added an awful lot of fish to an unstable tank IMO.
 
your test kits are wrong, or are not being read properly because you would see ammonia or nitrite. You have told us that these are "perfect" and at zero.
I've been thinking for quite a while here....how can everything be "perfect" all the time, especially in such a new set-up, with such a huge bioload?
 
I agree with the rest. It seems you are adding too much too fast. You have to give the tank time to catch up with your bioload. Just take it easy for a while and enjoy what you have and plan for the future.
 
wow a couple snails a week?? I have 3 in my 55 right now and they all have lived for a few months now without any problems.
 
No no..the snails died because the hermits ate them. Not because of bad water quality.
I test my water every other day and have brought it to two LFS to be tested as well. I do partial water changes weekly with real ocean water or rodi water.

All of my parameters are always 0, ph is anywhere from 7.8-8.2. Salinity is always at .024-.025 temp, 78-80. Believe me..I am VERY meticulous about my tank.

My tank was cycled and it took over a month to do. Everything spiked, then went to zero. Now it is perfect and I do not ever see any ammonia or nitrite. You really think my tests are wrong? Wouldn't snails and inverts die if there was poor water before fish? All of my inverts have always thrived, my two brittle starfish are fine.

The only two fish that have died was the gramma which had salt spots and the angel which may have had a disease or was stressed. I also didnt have that much bioload. I never overfed my fish and gave them a brine gumdrop or two every other day so there wasnt too much waste and had a clean up crew.

hmmm...any ideas?
 
Wouldn't snails and inverts die if there was poor water before fish?
Inverts are generally more sensitive to poor water than most fish. I had two shrimp die, with no reason (well, there was a reason, but none that we could come up with, other than a bad molt). But my urchins were/are still healthy. and my tests read at 0.
You really think my tests are wrong?
If you got the same results at your LFS, then they are probably correct.
hmmm...any ideas?
Are you using any buffers?
After rereading your original post:
Angel did always have some whiteness, cloudiness on her head.
Not sure about Angels, but is it possible it was already sick, when you bought it?
In my own experience, my damsels stressed out my RG and I found it dead the next day, they went after him and then quit, then I found him under a shell.....
 
I think what I am going to do is this....
take out and try to catch my three damsels. Take out the Niger trigger. Return them to the LFS and get a credit. Clean up my tank a bit and do a big PWC of about 20 gallons. Leave my Maroon clownfish, firefish, inverts and snails in the tank. Let everyone get along happily for awhile with no aggressive fish in the tank at all..with no stress!

Then in awhile put another majestic angelfish and tang in there or some other kind of semi-aggressive fish. No more aggressive damsels or triggers.

The LFS and my friend that has a tank said that a stressful tank can harm the fish. They can get diseases and parasites more quickly..is that true?

Hope that will 'kill' whatever was in the tank, if there was ich or a disease, and will make my tank less stressed.

What do you think?
 
No no..the snails died because the hermits ate them. Not because of bad water quality.
Are you sure? It is very possible that the snails died do to poor water quality and the snails did their job cleaning up. Listen to the others. Get some new test kits, quit listening to your boy friend and, for goodness sakes, STOP adding fish. Your tank is far too young to support the livestock you put in it. We have cautioned you to be patient in the past for this very reason. Slow down, do your research and you will have much better success.
 
I dont know but from what I've heard it sounds like the gramma had ich. I dont know for sure though. The only way of getting rid of ich is to go fishless for 6-8 weeks. You could use meds but I wouldn't recommend them if you want to make that a reef tank. Yes it is more likely for your fish to get diseases if they are stressed out. However, if ich has been introduced into your tank already and you havent gone fishless then it could be that your fish have built up there immune systems to fight it off. When they get stressed then the ich takes over and ultimately kills them. All these fish being added into such a new tank isnt helping either. I agree with you that you should take back the damsels and the trigger. Leave your tank alone and dont add anything for a couple of months and let everything stablize. Its hard to wait. :) I know from personal experience, but believe me, save some time, lives , and money by waiting this thing through. In the mean time you said you have checked your test kits against two different LFS's and they both came up with the same results that you are getting? Just to be safe go to one more if you can and verify. If it is the same as the rest and as what you are getting then I'd say your tests kits are fine. Good luck and HTH!
 
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