What's Wrong with Me?

Strike three... I've managed to kill two clowns and a starry blenny in about two months. They've been in my 10gal which is a little over three months old. False perc died about three weeks after I got him with ich I suspect, first casualty. Starry blenny was in the tank with him but was showing no signs of ich so I thought I was in the clear, then he started breathing heavily and not attacking his food like he used to, number two. I went up to the LFS and was like "Hey what gives?" and got my water tested. All params were fine. He asked if I thought any chemicals were getting into the tank, so I stopped using spray-on deodorant, added chemi-pure activated and waited two weeks. Went back and bought a melanistic oscellaris, he was acting like a linebacker going for food so he was my first choice. Put him in the tank and he was looking awesome, then he started getting ich. I got some live brine shrimp with garlic extreme and he was back to his old self, even last night he was attacking the eye dropper I use to spot feed. When I woke up he was looking fine and everything was good, temp wise (another issue I had with the first fish). My dad came in the room and was like, "uh-oh looks like your fish is dead." I told him to stop joking like that because I'd seen him swimming around an hour ago. Sure enough, he was looking belly-up. I'm so fed up right now I could scream. I really want to be able to not kill everything in my tanks at some point but it's EXTREMELY frustrating. I've got a 75 I'm working on but I don't know if I really want to do this if I'm cursed. Ugh thanks for letting me vent - this sucks.

 

10 gallons are hard to manage. even if a little bit of chemicals get in there it could be game over. a 75 will not have these problems because the water will delute it. are you using RO water? try and get that 75 set up is all i can say.

 

You should get your own test kit. Maybe there is something wrong with the ones the LFS is using

 

Hello Croc, no need to fret, let's figure this out. Post your entire set up. Do you have; Live rock, what type of substrate, filtering, everything that is in the tank, do you use tap water or RO/DI etc. We will get to the bottom of this.

 

Yeah. Don't worry about this. Those ten gallon tanks are very difficult to keep. If the fish are not used to it, they go down for the count. I have two 10g tanks and the fish have been there for ages (a mated pair of f. percs in one and a single damsel in the other). You cannot have more than two small fish in a 10g....and you HAVE to have flow to keep it oxygenated. It is a must.

 

You are only as cursed as any of us are...

I've lost more fish than I'm willing to share on this board... due to anenomes, (i had an giant aiptasia that ate 3 fish, one was 2"+) incompatible tank mates, moving stress (had to move the tank 2x in a week span), and I dont even know.

Fish die, people die, you're gonna die someday... it's no big deal... in the mean time focus on having hardy fish... and know the limits of your tank... for now i'd say maybe a damsel or two or a chromis and a firefish may be all you can put in there right now...

a clown would do alright by himself probably in that size tank... but they are peculiar too...

I have a six-line wrasse in my tank right now, and he terrorizes everything i put in there... and due to the small size of my tank (20g) he's very territorial and aggressive.

he's a killer.

 

Well I would say If you had ich and didn't wait the 6 weeks fishless then that could be the cause. And yes 10G are pretty hard to keep all the params in check. But don't give up!!
Absolutely no one in this forums have made no mistakes. " if you are succesfull the first time try to hide your eyes of astonishment" Albert Einstain.

I lost more than 6 fish for stupid mistakes. But i haven't gaved up.

 

I've got 4# LR, 3# Base, the black live sand (I can't remember the name off the top of my head), I've got a HOB filter (an Aquaclear 30 I believe), RO only, Koralia 1, Nova Extreme T5 on an 8hour timer, 50watt hearer and a 300watt set to 75 just in case. My salinity has been steady at 1.026 or 35ppt, and temp at 79-81. Water change every week. Actuall, I did a water change from a different bucket of salt last night. The salt was really cloudy for about 30mins but it may have something to do with it?

On a good note, it got a fire under me to get working on my 75. Almost finished with the sump and going to do the plumbing tomorrow as well as finish off the baffles.

 

you probably still want to get the 10 going well if for no other reason to use a QT for your 75. you might want to let the tank set fishless for about 6 weeks to let any possible ich die out, maybe bump the temp a little to speed up the process. Im not sure about the life cycle of marine velvet but may explain the sudden death, i think it acts much faster the ich targeting the gills.

 

What the heck is that? And I do plan on keeping it up, if for nothing else then as a frag tank when I go off to college.