Help - what's wrong with my firefish?

[Kurt_Nelson]

It's a Fluval Edge, and I'm assuming it has the stock lighting. Not sure how many Watts, but I think it's just a single halogen bulb. And if I'm not mistaken, I count three anemones in that photo of the tank?

Not to steal thincat's thunder, but where he's going with this is that anemones need stable tank parameters to thrive, as well as adequate lighting. A month old tank, with the stock halogen bulbs has neither of those things. I know you said your anemone is thriving, but its only been in there a week or two - it hasn't really had time to either thrive or not thrive. Right now it's just trying to figure out how to survive. Small tanks (6g) are really tough to do for saltwater and keep stable water parameters, and a tough intro to saltwater.

Regarding your original question about the ich... even though the fish is dead, you still have an ich problem. Once a fish with ich has been in a tank, the ich parasites take up residence in the sand bed, rock work, etc and your entire tank pretty much has ich. Can't recall if you have anymore fish in there, but the only way to really rid yourself of ich is to leave the tank fishless for at least 6 weeks which will break the life cycle of the ich. At that point, new fish can be introduced - preferably after a 4 week quarantine period to make sure the fish is healthy before introducing it to the tank. Those links Melosu gave you will tell you more about ich.

[thincat]

+1...I got caught up with tank maintenace and could not get back sooner.

[mrg02d]

Thats one way to deal with a dead fish! Maybe we all should have a nem for that purpose.

The things youll see happen in a marine tank...

Better look into some PC lighting for that tank. How long is it?
Matt

[Newbie1]

Thanks everybody for your comments - sorry for the late delay.
Kurt - you are correct about the stock lighting - but I swopped the standard halogen for LED's- used MR11 bulbs - equivalent to 20w output. The stock halogens were bleaching the live rock - and I noticed a big difference with the led's. Am now looking for strip lighting for moonlight - hopefully if not longer than 15cm, I'll just attach to the existing fixture. Do you think I need more than that? Eventually, I am aiming for some soft corals in there.
I got the anemone on 10th April - and although I'd only ordered 2, there were 4 larger ones, with 3 stragglers - tiny little babies. They've all grown quite a bit since I got them - the pic on the cowrie shell is of one of of the stragglers- was a small 5mm across when it came in! So in total, I now have 7 in there - yes - I do know that's too much - I just haven't got the heart to just throw them away . Hubby suggested asking LFS if they wanted them - hmm.
Will take your advice and leave the tank fishless for now.

mrgo2d - yeah - never thought of anemone for that purpose! However, when I got home on Friday, actually found the fish (somewhat devoid of color) under an overhang of rock - the anemone obviously spat it out!

So I did another testing this morning, salinity is 1.023, nitrates still at 160
More water changes?
Shrimp moulted this morning- seeing as I've only had him a week - isn't that too quick? Should I be worried?
What a worrywort I've become!!!
Seriously, guys, thanks for the comments - keep them coming!

[thincat]

The shrimp should be okay. You really don't know when it last moulted anyway. I would advise that you feed the anemones (to compensate for the lack of light) frozen smelt. Just cut in half or a size that the ones you have can eat. Remember that food goes in and out of the same openning, Your husband is correct about taking them to your LFS and either sell it to them or ask for store credit.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by Newbie1

Kurt - you are correct about the stock lighting - but I swopped the standard halogen for LED's- used MR11 bulbs - equivalent to 20w output. The stock halogens were bleaching the live rock - and I noticed a big difference with the led's. ...

I'm not familiar with using halogens with reef tanks, and I'm also not familiar with the LED replacement bulbs like you're talking about. But from what I can tell, I think you've actually decreased your light output as far as corals are concerned. The Watts are one thing, but the spectrum (color) of the light is another thing. Those Fluval Edge tanks really aren't set up for saltwater (difficult access) so I'm thinking that Fluval wasn't really too worried about getting high power lighting in there.

Also, I don't think the live rock bleaching had anything to do with the lighting. Coralline algae will do that when exposed to air, even briefly. So most likely it was a delayed bleaching from your aquascaping or transport. Or from the cycle.

[David S]

Hi newbie 1
Did you actually let your tank go through a cycle before you added anything??

if so how and how long did it take?

[ccCapt]

Edit: sorry, wrong thread.

[Newbie1]

Hey Kurt - see My 6 Gallon Fluval Edge - Office Tank - Nano-Reef.com Forums
Just seen another link there for a corlife 50/50 - I will look into that.
Cleaned up the filter yesterday, and another water change- nitrates now down to 80 Getting there very slowly...

[Newbie1]

David: Cycled for 3 weeks - used live rock and live sand. Added 3 red leg hermit crabs and 4 turbo snails. Then 1 cleaner shrimp.
Lost the first cleaner shrimp in water change -entirely my fault. Have since lost the turbo snails- they were lying upside down and crabs keep attacking them. My daughter saw 1 snail come out of its shell and try to climb into another (live) snail's shell! Go figure!
Am thinking of replacing the turbos with bumble bee snails. But until my water's back to normal, am wary of changing anything in there!

[mrg02d]

Wow, I didnt know snails could come out of their shells! I thought they were attached to them like turtles.

Just keep doing PWCs to bring down nitrates. If nothing is alive in there, do a massive one.

MAtt

[thincat]

You need to add extra sea shells so that as your Hermit crabs grow they have larger shells to take over. Otherwise they will attack and kill your snails for their shells. Just go to a hobby shop and get some nice looking sea shells for them. Rinse them out first before adding to your tank.

[David S]

I got some larger shells from a souvenir shop near the beach while on holiday,cleaned it up and put them in,within 2 hours both hermits changed shells quite a strange process but cool

[thincat]

Cool, but as they grow they need bigger shells to go with their bigger bodies. At least you have hermits with shells that look good to you.

[mrg02d]

My hermits seem to prefer the nicer looking shells...
Matt

[thincat]

Designer Crabs!!!!lol

[mrg02d]

Yeap, with all the food available to them (well, not that much, plenty of detritus though) they can focus on the finer things in life.

Matt

[thincat]

To much detritus is not good. Do you do your PWC from your main tank? You more then likely need more movement in your tank by means of more PH's ror redirection of the ones that you have.

[mrg02d]

I do PWC each week, yes. Detritus build up could also be from the fact that I dont have any more sand bed snails and only 5 or so hermits. The hermits spend their time picking at my rocks. Yesterday, I got a small fighting conch to help with the sandbed. After acclimation, he buried himself and is just staying still with one "eye" out seemingly watching everything around him rather than eating.

I need to start sucking the detritus out when I do my PWCs.

Matt

[thincat]

You can also get a Gobie or a psuedochromis bi-color to help stir the sand. or any other fish that might suit your fancy that stirs sand.