fish issues, coral issues....me being a beginner issues....

Well, we got our tank started in August and I'm having some success and some fails....

Here is my build thread
http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/first-reef-tank-build-75-gallons-137596.html

I have a shrimp and emerald crab and some clean up crew critters and they are all doing well.

My first fish was a royal gramma and we put him in the main tank (I didn't trust the quarantine, and my husband convinced me to put him in the main tank). Well that was a bad idea. I think something was wrong with him from the beginning because he didn't look right when we got him home from the store. He seemed OK in the store though. He went straight under a rock, and never came out. He died after 6 days. The candy cane and mushroom coral I bought with him are still doing well in the tank.

Second fish was a diamond goby. He went straight in quarantine. Well, he was doing great and eating up lots of food. We had a mesh cover taped to the top of the quarantine to keep him in the tank, but after 3 days he jumped out and landed on the carpet. We found him the next morning

We bought a new quarantine tank with a lid (it's a 10 gallon, but the first was too big at 30g). We went to the pet store, and they didn't have the greatest selection of fish I would consider starter fish. Mostly they had trigger fish, etc... Well, I saw a purple fish that looked like an orchid dottyback (relatively peaceful). It was in a tank with some twin spot gobies. I have really been wanting a goby and this was the only goby they had at the store. I was only going to get one fish, but husband convinced me to get the goby as well. We also got some corals. We put the fish in quarantine. Well, looked like the purple fish was dominating the goby. Did some research and it turns out I got a purple pseudochromis (not the same thing as orchid dottyback, and more aggressive). Did some more research and figured out twin spot gobies are harder to feed than most other gobies..... So I am kind of irritated with myself for having to learn things the hard way. The purple fish got some white spots on it the day after it was in quarantine, so I lowered the salinity of the tank (ph was stable). White spots are gone now, so I am slowly raising the salinity back up. I got a tank divider to separate the fish and I plan on putting the goby in the display when the salinity is back to normal as long as it still looks healthy (apparently gobies are resistant to most disease and do better with short quarantine). I bought several types of frozen fish food and goby started eating a little "marine cuisine" today, so that makes me feel slightly better. Purple fish eats a ton.

I checked my tank this afternoon before we went to dinner and all corals looked fine (got several little $5 frags at the store). Well, came home from dinner and my green star polyp frag had a large white hard area where the gsp used to be. I found a thin purple paper material (what used to be gsp) floating around tank. It has settled, so I'm hoping my gsp comes back??? Doesn't look promising, but who knows.

 

Those all sound like normal experiences.

The purple fish is probably a Dottyback, they are very aggressive. Hopefully in a 75 gallon tank he will not feel the need to bully everyone else. I would have add him last if at all but you have him.

Royal Grammas can be very very shy, they easily fall victim to bacterial infections. A hardy fish once established but doesn't deal well with transportation or acclimation.

All fish have the potential to jump, now you have a screen so that is good.

GSP is easily had so that should not be a huge concern, frustrating yes but I would not consider it too big of a loss.

 

I'd suggest if you're going to use a QT, ya may as well use it right. It sounds like you only lowered salinity till spots were gone, but I believe that it needs 4 weeks.
Here's a link i put together as a basic 101 of stolen ideas
http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/ich-101-noob-noob-128391.html

Good luck.

 

Thanks for responding. I was concerned about keeping the goby in quarantine for too long (has not had any signs of ich), so he could sift more sand and eat a little more. Now that he is eating some of the frozen food I am thinking you are right and I should keep him in QT longer and keep up with the hyposalinity until the life cycle of ich runs out. We did the shock ich method of instantly putting the purple pseudochromis in a small amount low salinity water for a bit while we slowly lowered the salinity in the QT. It seemed to work well at getting most of the ich off, and it has gotten much better. I'm somewhat impressed at the effectiveness (and happy my fish survived, it made me nervous). I just hope my fish survive the QT process and my goby starts eating more.

I'm thinking of changing my plan of having a "passive" dominated tank to a semi-aggressive tank (but hopefully nothing will eat my shrimp or torment my goby). I am going to add the goby to the DT a week before the purple pseudochromis. Thinking of later adding a pair of juvenile (captive bred) maroon clowns and a flame angel (few months down the road when tank is more successful).

 

FWIW, most SW tanks end up as "semi-aggressive", as the majority of fish eventually choose and defend a territory.

I wouldn't recommend a pair of any large species of clowns like maroons, tomatoes, etc; one will become aggressive enough with age, but a pair will have a stronger tendency to destroy anything that comes near their space.

 

If it helps, one of my first fish was a royal gramma as well. Mine died after just one day, and I was lucky enough to be able o take it back to the store. (with a water sample of course) I haven't tried to keep those again, but I've they are hard to move just as Corailline has mentioned. It looks as if you are going through the normal growing pains of a tank. Keep up the good work!!