I need help

[M@_]

Hey, Great forum, this is my first post, and my first tank.

I just had two clowns die.

Ich was present, so I atleast want to wait long enough for all the ich to die before I add another fish.

I still have my 14" Brittle star. I was tempeted to let it keep the ocellarus.

I need some food for the Brittle Star, frozen shrimp dosen't satisfy his appetite , and I would like to know if there are any inverts I could add, and also what to feed them.

I have alittle hair alge, and coral-alge.

Thanks

[OrionGirl]

How was the tank cycled? Clowns are usually pretty hardy, so I suspect the tank was not well cycled when they were added.

Marine Ich is capable of surviving long periods without a host. I would leave it fishless for at least 6 weeks--and highly recommend using a quarantine tank for any fish down the line.

Serpents--I feed mine algae and sinking meaty wafers. He scurries to them, and will collect 3 or 4 to hoard. I feed mine every 3-4 days, unless it comes out and begs. I would remove the ocellaris--it will likely cause a serious ammonia spike, which would kill any inverts.

[M@_]

It may have not been cycled well, but levels stayed at 0 for Ammonia, and 0 for nitrite.

I had guessed that since I've got this time w/o fish I would need to feed the "Tank" something. I don't want to poisen the Star though.

Meaty wafers?

[OrionGirl]

Feeding small amounts to the star will help keep some bacteria going, but obviously not enough. I wouldn't add more food than it will eat though, or you will have a spike. When you go to add more fish, you'll just need to take it slow, and test for spikes as you go.

For cycling--there are many ways to cycle a tank. If you never detected any spikes, I would guess that you added cycled live rock and/or sand, which imported the bacteria colonies for you. Quite effective, and seldom causes a problem for the fish. Anything else that could have stressed the fish?