my first dead fish

[stan450z]

i got my tank in Jan. got new fish a week after 6 damsels. and a yellow tang a month after and a protein skimmer a few weeks after. water is near perfect, very clear. had a bit of a problem. water was always 76-80. Hot weekend in NYC and my tank went to 88 over the weekend. its hard to keep my apartment cool in the summer since it gets really hot being all glass. I added a few gallons of RO water, and lowered it to like 86 and think i will have to find some method to change out cold water cuz i cant afford a 500 dollar chiller just now. I also have cut back a bit on the lighting of course. i found a dead damsel this morning lying on its side on the bottom of the tank. all other fish fine. was it a temp issue? or just maybe it finally gave in from all the cycling it had to go thru, and the high temp finally did it for him.

what effect does too warm water really have on a fish just for educational reasons? I have not read much on this subject. I remember from chemistry that oxygen can be depleted, but thats mostly an issue in open water. Weird thing was that only one died not everybody. I hope I dont have this problem all summer or find more dead fish when i get home from work now. I assume these fish come from waters in the equator so 90 degree water shouldnt be too bad, as opposed to water being too cold.

 

[melosu58]

Is your tank still cycling? If so you need to remove the fish. Why subject a fish to that kind of treatment. Read this to know what`s going on.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/3/1/Cycle-your-salt-tank/Page1.html

As far as the heat, blowing a fan across the surface will work wonders as far as bringing the temp down.

 

[stan450z]

I would have done the raw shrimp cycling had I seen your post before getting my damsels for cycling.

my tank should be done cycling its been nearly 4 months now and 3 months now with my current livestock in it. water level has been safe for 2-3 months now. I think I have this damsel which has been very stressed as soon as I got it and just always sat around in the corner while the rest were more social and active.

Current livestock, 1 yellow tang 3 blue with yellow tail damsels (1 has died - there were 4) and 2 black and white. 1 blood shrimp, 2 hermit crabs and a few snails.

I do have one very aggressive black and white damsel. He is so much larger than the other black and white (both were the same size when i got them) and tends to chase the other fish very often. What should I do with him? get rid of him? maybe the small damsel that died was a result of never eating because of this big guy or he might have been attacked or bothered him too much causing even more stress?
As I write this, another blue and yellow is either hiding in the rock, or something, after being chased by this black and white guy. I'm thinking this is starting to become a problem.

Also, am I feeding enough, I feed them once a day. I know they are algae cleaners and always pick away at my rock and artificial coral so they cant be hungry, epsecially when I see one black and white damsel nearly 2 times as big as the other black and white.

Anybody know the proper color for this fish? I notice they are much blue-er than normal almost purpleish. I remember seenig one that was very purple - I dont know if its the one that died or one that is still living that is very nice and blue. It looks like its a sign of good health? Anybody that knows the specifics fill me in...

Will make 1 more water change to bring the temp to 80. I think yes I will have to make frequent cold water changes to keep the temp down. Seems like the best way.

 

[melosu58]

As far as the heat, blowing a fan across the surface will work wonders as far as bringing the temp down.

This will work

 

[CaptainAhab]

When you are adding cold RO water to cool it down are you just topping it off or removing some of the warm water and replacing what you removed?

What are your water parameters?