Frustrated!!!

[dpotts]

Well I'm at a loss...I keep losing livestock in my 90g. It's been up and running for 4-5 months now and I have taken things really slow. I started off using live sand from an established tank along with some of it's live rock and all the other live rock was cured. I added crabs/snails waited a week then added 4 peppermint shimp and fire shrimp and a cleaner shrimp. Well the fire shrimp and 2 peppermint shrimp are fine but the cleaner shrimp and other peppermint shrimp last about 2 weeks and then dissappeared. I waited another few weeks then added a baby hippo tang and lawnmower blenny....they are doing great! I added a GBTA a week later and while it's still moving around a little appears to be doing fine. My bubble coral and kenya tree are also doing great (moved them from my other tank). Well I have been waiting for my LFA to get a purple firefish and cromis in and yesterday they finally got some so I bought 1 firefish and 5 small cromis. I have never added that many fish at once but figured since they were so small and I have next to nothing in my 90g that it would be okay. Well I added them all to my 90g and things seemed to go okay. They all were swimming and eating all day yesterday and last night. When I turned off my lights last night the cromis "FREAKED" out and dived straight into the live rock (the firefish just kept swimming around). This morning I can only find 3 of the 5 cromis and the firefish is MIA. Now I kind of expected to lose some of the cromis but I'm really upset about the firefish, I waited so long for him (all other stock are fine). They were doing great yesterday...I'm so frustrated and I'm don't know what I'm doing wrong. I do weekly water changes and test my water once a week. Temp 78-79,Ph 8,Kh 9, nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, Ca 400, phos 0.5... any ideas? I don't QT even though I know I should :angel: and I acclimate my stock slowly to temp and SG.

[Aquarium masters]

It sounds like your setup is doing fine. Firefish and chromis are both a fairly high mortality rate fish and I would wait for them to live a week or two at the LFS before purchasing them. It may sound odd coming from an LFS to get advice on waiting to purchase a fish, but I have always wanted my customers to be successful and would prefere that they die on me instead of you. Since most people dont have a QT tank, in my store in CC I do, and in both stores the date the animal comes in is marked on the price tag so you know how long I have had them. I hope this helps.

[dpotts]

Thanks for the encouraging words. I kind of expected to lose some cromis but didn't realize that about the firefish. The problem I run into is that these fish get sold almost immediately at my LFS. I was so happy to get them yesterday...I'm so bummed right now!

[SABOB]

Are firefish considered jumpers?Is your tank open or closed on top?Check your overflow if you have one,livestock getting into them is common.

[Gseclipse02]

fire fish and chromis check behind your tank ... my always jump

[Mr Cob]

fire fish and chromis check behind your tank ... my always jump

I would jump too if I was in your tank! LOL!

Sorry to hear of your losses dPotts! I think that it's just part of the game with these two types of fish. I have had similar experiences with Chromis...they also like to kill eachother until they have the pecking order set straight...then the cleanup crew gets to the dead before you ever know something died.

Firefish are know to hide for months at a time if something is in the tank that it doesn't get along with.

[dpotts]

There is a chance that the firefish is hiding. I didn't have a lot of time to look for him this am as I had to go to work at 6am. I did look behind my tank and he wasn't there. My tank is covered but I have a 3 inch opening along the back of the canopy. He couldn't have made it into my HOB overflow because I had a problem with my hippo getting back there so I have it "meshed off". I'm really hopeing that he is hiding :bigsmile:. I love those fish and if he is indeed dead I will probably get another one! I've been doing this for a year now (also have a 29g BC) and the disappearing shrimp and these fish are my first losses....IT SUCKS!:mad:

[Big_Pun]

my purple firefish was hiding for 2 days then i came home and he was there waiting for food

[brewercm]

I've had to fish my firefish out of my overflow twice now. They are definite jumpers and the first time he did it I put the net into the overflow and he jumped right back into the tank.
Actually have had to fish chromis out of them in the past also.

[tony]

my firefish also liked to hide, they never jumped though

apparently its an odd breed, lol

[dpotts]

GREAT NEWS!! My husband just called and said that "your strange little purplish fish is out swimming around again" and he also spotted 3 of the 5 chromis!!! I'm a very happy camper right now!!!:) The little bugger must have just been hiding!

[Gseclipse02]

right now im missing 2 of the 5 firefish i bought last week .. im sure they will show up either swimming or stuck to a powerhead lol

[dpotts]

I didn't think that you could have more than one in a tank?:hypnotyized:

[PhilipB]

as long as you have the room for them firefish can be kept in pairs i have 3 that do well together

[PhilipB]

btw my chromis always freak out as soon as my lights go off. even with the actinics they are all weirded out.