Dead fish please help

[deeporl]

I had my golden rim tang die today. He has been in my house for 4 or 5 days. I put him in a tank that had a p. clown and blue spot damsel for ove a month and cycled for almost 3 before any fish were added. It has a Seaclone skimmer. A power head. it is a 40 gallon long tank. It had 10 pounds of live rock for 3 months and 3" bed of live sand over a 2" bed of crushed coral a 100 W heater. it has the thing that gives dead water space underneath the crushed coral. It had another 10 pounds of rock added with the tang. total of 20 pounds of lr. feed him twice a day with brine shrimp plus formula. No signs of problems on the outside. he was stand offish at feeding time. only lights are 2 factory florecents.

[caja]

What are your water params? Are the other two fish okay or do they appear stressed or ill? If you added more live rock you may have caused another cycle in your tank from die off on the rock. Check your levels.

[MKramer]

Keep in mind that tangs aren't the hardiest of fish. A lot die shortly after purchase because they were captured using cyanide, or were handled poorly between the ocean and the fish store. At that point, you're lucky if you can get one to live. But more than likely, the stress of repeatedly switching homes is the last straw, and they can't take it.

 

My point: It's a sad loss, but it's quite likely nothing is wrong with your tank.

[zizmans]

I agree with both caj and mk. Could be either. I added like 2 lbs of rock and got a mini-cycle, so 10. Also, I have read some brutal stories in reef mag's about Tangs in general, how they are caught and transported, lenghthy time in shipping, etc. Plus they are prone to many diseases, and after that kind of stress, yikes!

You may want to ask your LFS how long they quarintine their fish for, where they're from, get the name of their distributor then do an online check the way they do business. Most of all, I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sure the people here can sympathize with a fish being more than that, it was a pet.

 

On another note, I highly recomend upgrading your lighting, th money you spent on fish could have taken care of that. I'm no saint mind you. Your water params would help us alot in helping you. And giving your fish a varied diet is commendable. Personaly though, I feed my fish one thing at a time (maybe I misread your meaning) I do brine one day, #2 the next, then mysis, etc...I found when I mixed they go for one thing and the rest floats. Kind of like giving a kid candy and vegetables. Doing it this way they feed on what I put in every time.