all died

hi i`ve got a 24gal nano and it is 2mths old.
added 2 clowns about a month ago and they have been fine, and levels have been stable.
then added 2 shrimps last week and they are ok up to now.

on friday i added 3 yellow belly damsels, which had all been in the lfs for quite a while in the same tank, they were fighting when i put them in and also were fighting a bit with the clowns, but this seem to settle down, but yesterday all 3 damsels died with no sign of white spot, and today the 2 clowns have also died, but so far the 2 fire shrimps are fine.
any one know what has possibly happened and whether its safe to put anything else in.

temp 82/27 it has been this high always, strugggling to lower it.
salinity 1.023
ph 8.2 seems pretty stable.
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0.5

 

Humm nothing clicking here. Do you have LR or coral? Is ur skimmer working as it should? Check to make sure ur test kit isn't expired. Check for anything dead in the tank especially small frags or inverts.

 

Even tho there was no sign of white spot, have all the fish been eating well? Have they been scratching themselves on substrate or rocks? I won't advise you to put anything else in until you figure out what's wrong.

 

thanks siddique, i`m a bit baffled as to what has caused this, but no i am not putting anything in until i know whats wrong.

its a live rock setup with some filter wool and carbon, the clowns were fine until the damsels went in, and the damsels were not eating but it was only for 2 days.
i have no skimmer in this setup, i do 5-10% every 1-2 weeks.

i have been thinking along the lines of them causing each other stress and allowing some sort of parasite to attack them, but i dont know what.

 

That's 5 damsels in 24 gallons. They are fairly aggressive. I suspect there was substantial fighting and your above supposition is true.

 

I hate to say, but I think you rushed this. Starting to stock after 1 month is a little soon imo.

Your idea of stress is accurate, but that's not the cause of death - it would have led to disease and you would have seen the signs. Since you have seen these 3 in your LFS for some time, it sort of sounds like the suffocated. Do you have good oxygen supply?

I am sorry for your troubles and loss. If there eye's were not cloudy, not scratching, bloated/skinny, and eatting....I wouldn't stock anything in that tank for a while yet. Someone suggested old test kits, might not be a bad thing to check into.

 

thanks
i will try another test kit, but what would cause suffocation ?
i did think they looked as if they were suffocating, they found it difficult to swim and kept going on their side and upside down eventually ending up dead on the bottom, i also seperated the 2 blue damsels that were left but didn`t help.

 

Suffocation would be caused by poor water circulation and aeration. Things like skimmers that force air into water help with this as does breaking surface tension and circulating the water in the tank.

If it were fresh water you would use an airstone or something similar.

 

pcs333, did you even notice a cycle before putting in the fish? I'm with Crimson, I think you really rushed it. After the initial cycle, you should've tried a couple of snails and hermits first. Then after a while, go with some zoas or mushrooms, then lastly fish. It's a tough to see everything die, but you've got to be patient with this hobby.

 

there was only a very slight cycle due to using 10kg of very good cured rock. i added a snail and 3 hermits after 3 weeks and clowns after 4 weeks.
as i said the clowns have been doing fine up till now, i added them after 4 weeks because the levels were so good and consistent.
the levels are still very good now even with this problem.

any idea if the fire shrimps are likely to suffer as well ??