First fish for both tanks!

Well Saturday I ventured over to one of my LFS and checked out their stock. I ended up going with 3 Banggai Cardinals, and a Purple Firefish. The three Cardinals are going in my 84G, while the Firefish is all alone right now in the 30G. It took a couple of days before the Firefish would venture 3 inches past his hideout, but now he seems to be comfy with the surroundings. The three Cardinals, which were bought in the hopes that they'd school, turned out a bit differently. All came in on the same shipment, from the same supplier, and seemed to swim together at the store (hard to tell in the 10G holding tanks). Once acclimated, 2 of the group took the left bottom corner, where there is little flow, and one made his way to the right corner. After about 6 hours, all three finally met in the right corner, and have claimed that as their spot. All went well on Sunday, all eating like champs (including the Firefish), but I noticed one, eating only about 1/2 the food I gave, and spitting 1/2 of it out. I changed the food for him (he was on the other side of the tank when feeding). It didn't seem to help. I mixed with garlic mix, still only ate 1/2 and spit 1/2 back. This morning I found him under one of my rocks, in a cave-like structure, upside down. I moved the rock, and he floated away, kind of swimming. He ended up in the corner near the other 2, still upside down. He was not breathing heavily, and no noticable wounds anywhere. I tested all params, and everything was normal (I'll post below). I fed again, hoping he would take...he swam awkwadrly near the food, but never took any. I left the room, to feed the Firefish. I came back, and found the Cardinal, being blown all over the aquarium by my powerheads. When I finally got him and took him out, he was breathing heavily now. I bagged him, and took him back to the store. I wrote down all my tests and brought them with me, along with a sample of water as requested by my LFS. They busted out the strips, and told me that my pH was low...never giving me a reading. The manager looked at the fish, asked how the others were doing, and promptly refunded me for that fish. I had never dealt with this particular store, so I wasn't sure how smoothly it would go. All is well though. I now only have 2 of the 3 stooges left, but they will have more Banggai's in this week, and I most likely will get another.

pH : 8.1 (Digital), 8.2 (API Test Kit)
Temp : 78 (Floating Thermometer and Digital Meter)
SG : 1.024 (Calibrated before testing)
Ammonia : 0
Nitrites : 0
Nitrates : 20 (tested twice)
Phosphates : 1.0

Not really wondering why he didn't make it, just assuming it was that fish. The other 2 are still doing great, eating like mad, hovering in the same corner while lights are on, and swimming all over when they go out.

I'd post pics, but all my camera will do is show blue (Phone), and no, I don't have a fancy macro camera.

 

Ph is fine. How did you acclimate them?

 

Floated...then Drip. Lights off for a couple of hours.

 

Alright, that's what I figured since you've been here for awhile.

I'm no expert but it sounds to me like he just got stressed and got sick because of it.

 

Bangaii are just that way. They are very prone to dying within the first couple of days. I love them to death, I just can't seem to keep them alive.

 

You never can tell with new fish, sorry to hear. Don't let it get you down.