General Advice Needed, lost two fish in two days

Yo. First post any salt H20 forum.

I lost two fish in two days and am looking for some advice, if any is needed. My question to which someone might be able to spread some light... Am I that much of a noob and i'm doing something wrong or am I just that unlucky? Or maybe I tried fish that were too hard to keep too soon in my newer tanks? Either way I have had many hobbies in my lifetime, and methodically control them to precision, so im looking for what to blame.

Any constructive crit would be nice to help me out, since I am still very new in this hobby compared to some of you.

I have two tanks, a 55g and a 29g.. both FOWLR. The 55 is about 3 months old with ~60lbs LR and the 29 is about 2 months old with ~35lbs LR. Info about the tanks can be found at the end of the post. I maintain the water quality/parameters meticulously.

In the past week I have lost two higher profile fish. A blue hippo tang in the 55g and a auriga butterfly in the 29g. The blue hippo was battling ich and made a steep sudden recovery and then promptly plummeted three days later. Found it dead in the morning. I introduced the fish about 3 weeks ago. However, this was a very young fish, maybe the size of a quarter plus the yellow fin. Treatment included FW dips in which the h20 was the same temp and pH as display tank h20. Also bought a product called Ich Attack, at the recommendation of my LFS. No other fish I have kept in the tank has ever displayed signs of Ich.

The auriga was one of my strongest in the 29g and then outta nowhere one morning I found it swimming upside down struggling to leave the tank floor. Suspected swim bladder, stopped feeding. Left at 9am. Returned to my tank around 4:30 pm to find fish dead. "Medium size" fish, which I had kept for about 3 weeks. I do feed three times a day, but i feed slowly over a period of five minutes.

Now, tank histories...

The 55g was cycled with damsels. I started with four. Green Chromis, 2 3-stripes, and a blue devil. Green chromis stressed and died within 18 hours. The Blue damsel continually ravaged and attacked one of the 3-stripes who soon perished. The last 3-stripe made it 2 weeks before swimming upside down, only to find it dead 4 hours later. At the time the ammonia was only 1.5ppm, with 0 N&N. The blue damsel is alive and well to this day, and by far my most entertaining and strongest fish.

Since the tank finished it's cycle (I verified chemically with pure ammonia that it could turn over a tank lvl 2ppm of ammonia completely to 'trates in 24-36hrs) I had added two percula clownfish, and the blue hippo. The clownfish are alive and well. Eat actively and appear healthy. The tank maintains undetectable levels of ammonia and nitrite. Nitrate currently at 20. I do 20% water changes every 10 days on both tanks.

The 29g was fishlessly cycled with pure ammonia (Ammonium OH). It is a cycling BEAST which at the end of its cycle turned over an ammonia test level of 5ppm in just over 24 hours to 'trates due to an ammonia dosing error I made. At this time it maintains undetectable levels of ammonia and nitrites. Trates currently at about 10, but I just did a PWC a three days ago. Other inhabitants include two firefish, a small rusty angel and a tiny hermit thing i got from a LR by accident. guess he hitched a ride. They all appear lively and healthy, and surprisingly enough the firefish dont hide all day from the angel. Angel and the butterfly had gotten along fine as far as I observed.

55g parameters
Temp: 78 F
0ppm, 0ppm, 20
Skimmer meant for 100g tank
PH rated for 55-75g
hang on filter rated for 55-60g
heater
60lbs LR

29g parameters
temp: 79 F
0ppm, 0ppm, 10
SKimmer
PH rated for ~30g
hang on filter for 30g
heater
35lbs LR

Sooooo wtf am i doing wrong or should I rub it off and move forward instead of cursing at my hobby?

thanks

 

at first glance? (speaking strictly from a reading perspective as I just got fish a month ago in my first SW tank, but i read a lot! haha)

I'd worry about the damsel in your 55G, or even the two clowns. If such a small hippo wandered into their territory I don't think it would be unlikely for any of your other damsels to attack. Just getting over ich, he may have been vulnerable already.

In your 29G, from what I read the butterfly needs a lot of grazing so a well established tank. Perhaps not enough algae to graze and maybe not eating ( I know you said you fed over 5 minute period, but was he eating or just sucking it in and spitting it out? (my firefish did this for a day or two)). Also, seems like the 29 may have been a bit overstocked, firefish wouldn't be too territorial (except between themselves) but the angel may have been a meany when you weren't around. Can't say I have any idea why he was swimming upside down but some of the pros may have an idea.

So, from one noob to another, those are some thoughts after doing a lot of reading and alittle fishkeeping.

 

Thanks for the read.

Definitely possible the hippo took some abuse. Not really to my observation though.

Angelfish readily accepted prime reef flakes, formula two flake and frozen brine on a rotating basis. But yea the tank is fairly young so i can see the point definitely.

Firefish are a mated pair and in fact hid for over a week. They now swim freely with the others. Possible about the angel tho. Looks like he could be a bastard if provoked.

I do a lot of reading too, and from what I observed in my tank to what I read online the best guess I could figure is a swim bladder issue, possibly related to impaction potentially r/t overfeeding.

Thanks for the words, Tip of the hat to the fellow nub

 

no problem. Hopefully you figure it out soon!

 

The hippo tang was hit or miss. And I can bet that some harrassement from the damsel played a part in it. Just a little stress and ich will come right back.
There is not an over the counter product that you can buy that will effectively kill ich. It is just not that easy, and is just a waste of money. There are two choices to KILL it, formalin or hyposalinity. And to rid your display of ich it will need to remain fallow ( without fish ) for 28days. Formalin is very toxic and hyposalinity can be tricky so research is a must. Understanding ich's life cycle is a important if you want to treat it effectively.
Essentially your display has ich it will probably continue to pop up on occassion especially when acclimating tangs, or clowns. Butterfyl fish are just delicate and a newly established tank is just not ideal for them especially a smaller tank.
You obviously did your research, but I would just try some of the hardier fish for awhile. I would not cycle any tank with live fish and personally I would not add ammonia to a tank to initiate a cycle.
Also I would cut back on the feedings, your parameters look good, but you will always have a problems with nitrates if you continue to feed three times a day and prehaps a nasty algae out break as well.

 

As far as the cycling I will never use fish to cycle again. ever. too stressful.

With pure ammonium hydroxide solution it is fairly easy to control want you wanna do. But to your credit I even mentioned in my initial post that i od'd. I've been culturing and studying micro organisms and chemistry in the lab for the last four or five years, so culturing my own nitrifying bacteria is the one thing I really feel I had a grasp on for sure at home 8).

Before I put any fish in I had a saltwater tank that was supporting bacterial colonies that could turn over a considerable amount of ammonia, and trites to trates in a short period of time. No doubt that now I have long since stopped the fishless cycle and added fish, that my bacterial population has shrunk, due to the inadequate amount of food for them (waste for fish), but the colonies were definitely strong enough to support whatever I threw at them. That was my goal.

But like I said i've only been doing this stuff a matter of months, so maybe I went about it the wrong way