the werdest thing

[Pappageorgio]

i have a clown, cardinal, and angel fish in my tank. As of today it looks as if my cardinal is going to die. And i haven't seen my clown in 2 days. He usually hides in the rocks but I'm assuming hes dead as well. Naturally i can only expect my angel to go soon as well too.
I'm assuming its my water quality and will get it checked out tomorrow morning.
The really weird part is that my angel seems to be fine as of right now...at least its swimming patter looks good. However it keeps swimming sideways only at the bottom when there is a hermit crab next to it. Everywhere else its normal.....its as if hes trying to get right next to the hermit crabs. What the heck is going on.

 

[roka64]

He could be trying to get the hermit out of his "territory".
Get us some water parameters and we can go from there.

 

[melosu58]

Did you cycle the tank before you added fish?

 

[Pappageorgio]

Yes, the tank has been cycled a couple of times. I did it as soon as the cardinal died in fear that my nitrate levels were to high. The angel fish is doing fine. Still swimming on top of ther hermits though. It reminds me of when the shrimp jump on the fish and "clean them" do you think the angel fish is attempting to get the hermits to "clean" him?

 

[roka64]

I doubt it.....still waiting for the test results....

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yes, the tank has been cycled a couple of times. I did it as soon as the cardinal died in fear that my nitrate levels were to high. ...

I'm a little confused. So - your cardinal is now dead... the one that was alive a couple days ago? And you say you just cycled your tank again "...as soon as the cardinal died..." which would mean just within the last day or two.

Just so we're all talking the same talk - cycling is when you introduce an ammonia source, and establish a population of bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrites, and the nitrites to nitrates. It's something you don't need to do multiple times. I have a feeling that you mean water changes, and not cycling? Which brings us back to the question of whether or not the tank has been cycled? Test results for ammonia and nitrites would give us the answer...

 

[Pappageorgio]

ah sorry. Yeah i was just being an idiot for a second. Haha i do mean water changes and the tank has been completely cycled. I took the water to my local fish store to get it tested and they said everything looks good. Here is a video of the now only remaining fish i have doing the wierd thing i'm talking about. ANy light shed on the situation would be appreciated

 

[Pappageorgio]

this is the video.... does anyone know exactly what kind of angel fish this is too?YouTube - THE REAL REAL fish video 112

 

[sw-addict]

I am pretty sure it as a koran angel, they get alot bigger then the size of that tank will allow, perhaps it is killing things off to make room for itself. The markings on the fish tell me that it is a baby now.

 

[yetee]

just currious but do you have anything other than the air stone giving circulation in the tank? I say this because that angel seems to be breathing quite heavily, and when you pan up to the top of the aquarium it looks like you have almost no surface agitation. Im not 100% sure but they could have died from poor oxygenation. air stones dont work nearly as well in SW as they do in fresh. And SW fish and inverts can die quite quickly without propper oxygen levels. Saltwater really requires good surface agitation (through water movement) in order to keep propper oxygen levels.

 

[thincat]

Kurt, you make a very good point. I hate it when I hear that the LFS says that the water is fine! What is fine. In the future please have the Fish Store give you numbers so we can see what is really going on.
Yetee makes a good point also.

 

[Pappageorgio]

other than the Remora Protein Skimmer (which is not alot) it is the only other agitation i have.
I have another filtraton system i can add to it that agitates the water much more. I was just trying to avoid this due to the noise. If this is a strong recommendation is there any other solutions that are less noisy?

 

[black hills tj]

I'm not a salty dog...but in a tank that tall, you are going to need to place some good sized powerheads down deep to get your water moving. I'd also be concerned about your filtration.

Also...as previously mentioned, your Koran Angel may have killed the Cardinal and the Clown. There isn't much swimming room in there, and that Angel can be pretty territorial.

 

[CaptainAhab]

Assuming your tank is really cycled, what and how often are you feeding him?

Where is the skimmer? Is is pulling anything out of the water column?

That tank is way to small for him

 

[Pappageorgio]

I guess i'm a little annoyed then with my LFS. I was completely aware that the angel would become too big and would have to remove it in about 6 months. The tank is a 45 gallon hex and my LFS, who i suppose ignorantly assumed i could trust, told me this angel would be fine untill it became too big.
Is this not true? Even as a Juvenile it needs the larger tank?

I feed it once a day.
The skimmer is a hang on back Remora
This morning i added the other filter and the agitation has been maximised. A year ago, before i moved and had to take it down, i had this same filter running with a shrimp and two clowns. They did fine with it so I'm hopeful that this solves the problem.

 

[Pappageorgio]

so just to be precise. My operating system is...
45 gallon hex,
1 Remora C protein skimmer that hangs on the back.
1 peguin Bio-Wheel 1200 that hangs on the bacl
Air stone
Heater

Hermit Crabs
1 juvenile koran angel fish

 

[roka64]

2 things here:
We are here to give free advice and not make money like your LFS.
I don't buy anything that shouldn't be in my tank even if it is small now and will outgrow my tank later....try catching a fish in a tank full of LR...lol!

 

[CaptainAhab]

He just seems to be constantly foraging for food. I don't have an angel but I thought they were not exactly good neighbors with inverts and some other species. Not sure if that includes your two missing inhabitants.

I'm with Roka, I learned the hard way that if the adult won't fit it's just a big mistake to try and make sonny happy.

 

[Pappageorgio]

yeah its impossible to catch a fish with LR haha. Ive had to do it plenty of times before and the only way is to take it all out.

So i guess next time i feel like taking all the rock out i'll take him back.

Do we all agree that the aeration was probably the problem?

On a side note...with more agitation my water splashes a lot more and salt accumulates on the side more easily. Has anyone found an effective way to reduce this?

 

[yetee]

if you use powerheads to agitate the surface you will not have as much salt creep. The reason you are getting the salt creep is because your water is now splashing from the bio wheel. What you want are ripples across the surface.

I still think you need to find out what your water levels are exactly though. as everyone has said, they might say its fine but it might not be.