Urgent help needed Fish keep dying after a week or so!!!Plz HELP!

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Hi everyone,

I have a Juwel Lido 120 L tank with about 8kg's of live rock , live sand , HOB skimmer , factory fitted filtration.
Water params - Amonia - O Nitrite - O Nitrate - very very little to 0
PH - 8.2 Temp 26 degrees C.

I do a 10 - 15 % WC once a week.

Stock 2 Occelaris Clowns , 1 Fire Goby , 1 cleaner shrimp , 1 coral banded shrimp , 2 turbo snails , 2 hermits (blue and red legged) , 4 - 5 various other smaller snails, 1 Frog Spawn coral , 1 BTA , 1 Brain Coral , 1 Zoa colony , 1 Clam , some shrooms and a rather large leather coral.

My question is this all my corals are doing GREAT and growing (except for the BTA but Im working on him). MY fish are active and eating (and hosting the BTA :thumbup: ) but everytime I introduce a new fish it lasts for about a week then keels over :(:( I am currently losing my Yellow Tang that I bought on Sunday.

What am I doing wrong?? Any fish I put in the tank other than the ones already in there seem to die within a week maximum 2 weeks I've lost 1 regal tang , 1 yellow wrasse , 1 six stripe wrasse and now the yellow tang...:(:(

We also have quite a bit of coraline growing in the tank so I think everything is fine...?

Please help out!!!

Thanks!!!
 
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Sounds like you might have some disease or parasitic infection, do you notice any outward or strange syptoms, like rapid breathing, spots or marks on the fish, loss of appetite, loss of colour, etc?:(

How long have you had your tank?
 
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Hi I have had the tank for 7 almost 8 months now.

Thanks for the quick response!

Could a parasite infect some fish and not others? eg. the fire goby and clowns seem fine for the last 6 months now?
I really have no idea what could be killing my new fish :(

I do see some rapid breathing with some of the fish who have died...hope that helps?

I appreciate all the help!
 
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You keep a tang and regal together with all the other stuff in a 120 l tank.....??????:whistling:(Or tried to). That is mistake number one !! Your bioload to my knowledge is waaayyyyy too much for that size tank. I am no expert but if one of the BIGGER and more experienced guys could maybe assist here. But IMO you have too many corals, fish ect for that size tank. Maybe post some photo's of your tank???
 
What is your acclimatization process? How long do you drip them.

Are you sure by the time you release them that the salinity of the bag the fish are in is the same as the tank. Remember that the fish holding tanks at the LFS always have a low level of 1.019 or even lower.
 
Hi Zandy, thanks for the reply!

I did not keep them together:) I got the yellow Tang after the regal died :(
 
Hi Riaan,

thanks for the help,

I usually float the new fish for about 45min in the tank then start adding some tank water to the bag for about 30 min after the 45 min floating process.

After about 30min of adding a little water to the bag I release them. Am I doing it wrong?
 
Yes, some fish are more susceptible to disease more than others. I always use my tank as an example, I have white spot, with occasional outbreaks on my regal and fox face, all my other fish stay clear, including three types of wrasses, emperor angel, eibli angel, copperband and six clowns, but all my fish HAVE WS, without a doubt.
The best is always to have a quarantine tank where you can place new additions in to treat any disease over a six week period. I have just started my QT, decided I was sick of stressing about WS, and since I am starting a new tank, I want to create a disease free system. @RiaanP is an expert in this field and he is a great believer in QT systems, PM him if you have any other queries.
 
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We are looking for a Red Sea Max 250 at the moment and the idea is then to use the Juwel 120 as a QT...
Hopefully this weekend I will find one :) But I really don't want to watch my fish dying every week :(
It's sad to see the little dudes keeling over for no apparent reason.
 
regal tang , 1 yellow wrasse , 1 six stripe wrasse and now the yellow tang..
I assume you did not buy all these fish at once, but rather it is different purchases who all died. Therefor the purpose of this thread.

How long was the fish at the LFS before you bought them. Cyanide poisoning affects the fish 12 to 14 days after being caught. But that is more a problem on the Philippines shipments. The fish is all healthy and eats, just to die suddenly on you.

120L tank is a bit small for Yellow tangs, well most tangs. Unless really small and you plan on trading them in the future. But even that is not ideal.
 
I use a drip line. From hospital pharmacy to drip my fish. Using a small fish tank that I place inside my sump, or you can use clothing pegs to hold the bag against the side. Then After throwing about 50% of the water the fish came in away, I put the drip line in from display into bag. It should not run, just a very fast drip rate. Let it drip until bag is full, then empty bag again 50%. Let it fill again. Test salinity and if the same, release the fish, else go another round.

Reason why I use a small fish tank, actually more a spider tank, that I hold in place with my magnet cleaner is that I ALWAYS forget to check the drip rate. And always flood the bag, either bag flowing out, drop off due to weight, or drip out of the sump or some other thing to spoil my day. Now I place the fish tank slightly angled and just let it drip for hour or even more. Sump is dark. Just a small piece of eggcrate over to prevent jumping out. Due to the constant inflow, it does not really matter then if you over acclimatize the fish.

For inverts, the same, just half the drip rate.
 
Hi Riaan,
Yea I bought the 2 wrasses at the same time but all the other fish at different times.

I did buy a rather small yellow tang keeping in mind that I am going to upgrade to the Red Seam 250 within the next couple of months (as soon as it's cycled) .
 
I am not to sure how long they were at the LFS :( I will ask in future.
Could it be that I am messing up when it comes to acclimatization?
 
Could it be that I am messing up when it comes to acclimatization?
not sure, the affects would be faster, within a day you would have a dead fish.

Could also be different reasons everytime.

Ever tested the salinity of the water the fish came in?
 
Ok I just heard from my wife that the yellow Tang has also lost some of its colour and is now a more milky yellow and not such a bright yellow as yesterday...?
 
Try dripping instead of floating and adding water to the bag, what I do is empty the bag into a bucket and using the air line, I drip (very slow trickle) for 45-60mins. Also check that there's no hostility amongst the inmates?
 
just my 2c worth... as much as we all want to walk in and buy stock as soon as we see it, i believe a healthy relationship with the lfs will save u a fortune (and the lives of many fish). once u see what u want, make sure it's been in the lfs for at least a week or two n make sure u see it eating! once home, do as Riaan said 'religiously', and only add the fish to the dt in lights out/darkness!!in the morning they'll all wake up together n limited 'sparring' should occur.
 
What do you feed for tang? Nosi? or any aglae feed?

tang in 120L is fine. i have keep for close 2years, no problem.
 
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