sharon a
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have a 65 gal tank with a 20 gal underneath with all the filtration. Bio balls, bubble wand and power head for air and circulation. Fluval and skimmer. I do normal water changes. The levels are Nitrate (NO3) 2.5 Alk is normal range. Ammonia is 0-0.25 PH is 8.1 The nitrite is a pale pinkish color and I cannot find that on the chart to put a reading to. The salinity is normal. The water temp is a little high 84 degrees. I have 1 porcupine puffer, 1 koran, 1 coral beauty, 1 blue damsel, 1 blue hippo tank, 3 green chromis, 2 3stripe damsels, 1 raccoon butterfly, 1 choc chip starfish and 5 hermit crabs. The fish are all small (ranging from 1 inch for the green chromis with the koran being the largest at 4 inches) The fish look happy and are always swimming and active. They eat in the morning and at night. I feed them Mysis shrimp and frozen sponge in the morning and flake at night. The puffer eats mussels and the other fish eat the small pieces that he spits back out. The hermit crabs eat whatever the fish dont. This morning I woke up and found one of the raccoon butterfly almost dead and floating on top. He was breathing hard so I took him out just in case he had something. I put him into a QT tank and he looked fine. He died. No white spots, no slime. I didnt see anything wrong. He did not have any sores. Is is normal for a fish to just die??? I have had the tank set up since June and fish in since July. The tank has been healthy so far. It is the first dead fish that I cant figure out why. The two raccoon were bought together as tank mates and were in there for about 3-4 weeks. He was fine last night and ate the flake food and was active and happy. Are my reading normal??? Is there something more I should be doing??? I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks Sharon