mysterious chromis deaths

yothereyo

yothereyo

just fishing
Nov 18, 2006
208
1
0
UK, England, Hampshire
in the past 2 weeks I have had 3 chromis die on me. The first two went in together, and a couple of hours later one of them died. so I left it one in there for couple of days and bought two more, when they went in they where fine. although the old one use to boss the two new ones around, then a week later I woke one morninig to see the hermit eating something, to a closer look and it was one of the chromis. my first thouht was the first chromis as the cultprit, so after good hour and half I managed to take him out and put him in a qurrantine tank. woke up this morning to find another one in the mouth of a peppermint shrimp. what is going on. I have two clowns which have been in there for over a month, one cleaner, two peppermint shrimps, three unknown hermit crabs and 10 snails. does anyone know why this is going on. it starting to freak me out.
 
how old is the tank, and what are your levels, and what are you NOT testing for?
 
tank is nearly two months old,

Ammo - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 10ppm
ph 8.2
SG - 1.023
temp 24.6c

It's is FOWLR tank, iam using tap water(will be getting a RO unit soon)

water looks clear, other fish and inverts are looking healthy.
What else should i test for?
 
Same thing happened to me. I bought 3 chromis and two died a week and a half later. All of the other livestock is unaffected and parameters seem in line. I have yet to figure out what happened so I'll be watching this thread.
 
If yours were recent introductions I'd suggest that it was a collection issue. Lot of times collection and importation causes a great deal of strees on fish a number of them are treated with fish tranqs or even cyanide to ease their capture. They often times have a very low survival rate . I would always look at fish a couple of times unless they are from the U.S., Austrailia,Japan, or one of the territories of one of these countries ,"what sucks is more often than not the lfs doesn't have clue one where the fish is from".
Look for lethargic fish; fish that won't eat; swim slowly;
Know your fish!
Bright colors are often a sign of cyanide poison. I wrote an article on collection and care issues in the marine section of the articles forum if you are interested give it a read.
Cheers
Max
 
How are you acclimating them?

Sometimes they just get a bad batch of fish, which is why most people recommended watching the fish for awhile to make sure they are eating and active. If they have internal parasites, not much you can do.
 
Last edited:
iam acclimating them in the normal methods, ie addding water bit by bit, and trying to keep it dark as possible.

Also i thought bright colours was a good sign., but how wrong i'am.

Max, can you please give me a link to that article you worte, thanks.
 
how long are you aclcimating them for?
id use the drip method. it is much better than just adding cups of water. easier on the fish.
how are the clownfish acting towards them?
but i am still guessing it is an acclimation issue
 
Good reading, thanks!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom