why did my emerald crab die & why is my angelfish hiding so much

[PETRIXXX]

This is probably the last post about my crab, shrek (if you didn't know he was an emerald crab that died after 2 days of keeping him) and possibly the only advice post about my bicolor angelfish, knuckles. Knuckles was doing great the first few days, leaving his skull to eat algae with my blenny named beef, but after we went on a road trip & got my sister's friends to feed the fish he's been constantly hiding in the skull, only leaving 1-3 times a day, I'm pretty sure he eats sometimes  because I saw him briefly come out of the skull & peck on said skull 

here's all the attributes of my tank:

Tank Size: 30 gallons

Tank Age: 2 months, 1 month of having fish

Tank status: dirty

Salinity: no clue (hydrometer doesn't work & refractometer said it was brackish before breaking, if it was brackish my fish would be either stressed or dead)

Phosphates: estimate of 1.5 ppm

Nitrates: estimate of 15 ppm

Calcium: no clue, never tested

Dkh: probably 8, testing that one is weird

Time since last water change: 13 days

 

Current Livestock:

Ocerallis Clownfish (Nemo IV) (purchased may 7 2022) (origin of purchase: petco) (yes I know that's a chain store but all of their fish except their blue tangs are healthy)

Red-Lipped Blenny (Beef) (purchased may 7 2022) (origin of purchase: petco)

Bicolor Angelfish (Knuckles) (purchased may 29 2022) (origin of purchase: petco)

 

Former Livestock:

Emerald Crab (Shrek) (purchased may 29 2022) (2022-2022) (origin of purchase: petco) (my dad theorized the worker injured him putting him into the bag which is plausible even though I saw him walk once)

 

Planned Livestock:

A blue colored Damselfish (Mordecai) (will probably be purchased this weekend)

Six Line Wrasse (Quandale) (will probably be purchased this weekend)

some quirky little inverts (will likely be purchased months from now)

[PETRIXXX]

oh yeah btw is it safe to use distilled water for water changes and/or recovering evaporated water? my mom bought 4 unused jugs from kroger yesterday instead of ro water

[Tamberav]

Distilled is generally fine. Don't buy the stuff with minerals added for taste though. 

 

Well if the salinity is off then... that would kill shrek.

 

The Tangs share the water with everything else at Petco (all tanks are linked, most LFS are actually). So anything they have, your fish can have. Regardless if you can visually see it or not.

 

The angel should be eating, was it eating before? I mean eating frozen food you offer, not pecking. Bi Color angelfish are actually not for beginners IMO. They can sometimes be more difficult to get eating then some of the more common dwarf angels. 

 

You should purchases a new refractometer and calibration fluid ASAP. Fish can live in hyposalinity conditions but long term exposure can pose an issue. 

[PETRIXXX]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Distilled is generally fine. Don't buy the stuff with minerals added for taste though. 

 

Well if the salinity is off then... that would kill shrek.

 

The Tangs share the water with everything else at Petco (all tanks are linked, most LFS are actually). So anything they have, your fish can have. Regardless if you can visually see it or not.

 

The angel should be eating, was it eating before? I mean eating frozen food you offer, not pecking. Bi Color angelfish are actually not for beginners IMO. They can sometimes be more difficult to get eating then some of the more common dwarf angels. 

 

You should purchases a new refractometer and calibration fluid ASAP. Fish can live in hyposalinity conditions but long term exposure can pose an issue. 

yeah before we left for vacation he would be out very frequently and would often eat the algae, i think he even pecked some off his skull today, i even saw him eating nori crunched up into the size of fish flakes

[seabass]

Not that this is the problem you are asking about; but you stocking plans sound a bit ambitious for a 30 gallon tank.  That angelfish grows to 6", and needs about twice that space for swimming and grazing.  And I wouldn't be adding a damsel to the mix.

 

You definitely need to figure out salinity ASAP (for any invert,as well as your fish).  But don't raise it too quickly.

[Tamberav]

8 hours ago, PETRIXXX said:

yeah before we left for vacation he would be out very frequently and would often eat the algae, i think he even pecked some off his skull today, i even saw him eating nori crunched up into the size of fish flakes

 

Was he eating frozen or pellets though?

 

or just off the rocks and some nori?

 

It sounds like he probably needs more food. What have you tried feeding him? 

 

Not saying this explains the behavior change but if the fish isn't eating prepared food, this is a red flag. At this point, you have only had him about 2 weeks sounds like.

[PETRIXXX]

11 hours ago, seabass said:

Not that this is the problem you are asking about; but you stocking plans sound a bit ambitious for a 30 gallon tank.  That angelfish grows to 6", and needs about twice that space for swimming and grazing.  And I wouldn't be adding a damsel to the mix.

 

You definitely need to figure out salinity ASAP (for any invert,as well as your fish).  But don't raise it too quickly.

well I heard that dwarf angels can live in 30 gallons & I've presumed the main reason some people say they need 50 or 70 gallons (even for smaller ones like the CB angels) is that they graze off the rocks (even though most tanks have enough live rocks) but I mainly got him because I was gonna get the wrasse but my dad thought he was too small and thought the bicolor angelfish was cool (he is) and I got him with shrek, it's not like he's a very active swimmer (even in the first few days of having him)

 

also I'm very confident in getting a blue damselfish

1. they're cheap

2. they're the hardiest saltwater fish

3. some look like blue tangs (such as the yellowtail)

4. if you add them last they're way less aggressive

5. I already have a name for the one I'm getting

6. people treat them like they're the scourge of humanity and will cause a nuclear war just because they're semi-aggressive

7. there's been a "no damsels?" meme going around, and if someone uses this meme on me I will just show them and destroy them

 

I will most likely get the last 2 fish tomorrow & then fix the salinity a few days from now, if I had to guess the salinity is at 1.020 and the refractometer was faulty

[PETRIXXX]

6 hours ago, Tamberav said:

 

Was he eating frozen or pellets though?

 

or just off the rocks and some nori?

 

It sounds like he probably needs more food. What have you tried feeding him? 

 

Not saying this explains the behavior change but if the fish isn't eating prepared food, this is a red flag. At this point, you have only had him about 2 weeks sounds like.

basically what I do is feed the fish twice a day with a schedule, it would be pellets/nori followed by pellets/frozen shrimp followed by pellets/2nd serving of pellets

 

oh yeah btw I did a water change last night and knuckles is noticeably more active, not as active as when I first got him but he leaves the skull and I think he's eating the nori & shrimp I feed him but idk yet