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02-11-2004, 10:01 PM
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#1
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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Disappearing fish??
Hi. My 90 gallon is just about finished cycling. In the last 2 days, one of my Green Chromis and my Scooter Blenny have disappeared. Since we only have about 10 pieces of LR right now, my wife picked up every piece of rock looking for them. Only thing that has changed in the last couple days was on Sunday we added a long spine urchin. Could the Urchin have eaten the fish? Thats the only thing I can think of. Neither of the fish looked sick or acted any different than normal before they disappeared.
I don't have any hitchhikers on the rock that I have seen. Anyone have any ideas?
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02-11-2004, 10:29 PM
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#2
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Blacktip Shark
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Middleburg, VA
Posts: 2,113
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I wouldn't think so, could the be stuck in filters, pumps? What about jumping, i only found a fish that jumped 1 month after he jumped! 
__________________
Austin
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want
He who fears the thorn, should never crave the rose.
-favorite TRT quote
Forecast for tonight: dark, continued dark overnight, widely scattered light by morning
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02-11-2004, 10:32 PM
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#3
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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I checked all that. Its a RR tank, so the glass tops are sealed. Checked the overflow. Don't see anything in there.
Although... I did add two AquaClear 4000 powerheads on Monday. Didn't really look like a fish could get sucked into it though. I'll go check those. Thanx
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02-11-2004, 10:34 PM
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#4
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Blacktip Shark
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Middleburg, VA
Posts: 2,113
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Sry to hear it, i just lost a fish also, although from starvation....  Maybe someone else will know more about urchins.
__________________
Austin
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want
He who fears the thorn, should never crave the rose.
-favorite TRT quote
Forecast for tonight: dark, continued dark overnight, widely scattered light by morning
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02-12-2004, 01:18 AM
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#5
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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Well, I checked my power heads. No fish in there.  |
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02-12-2004, 02:17 AM
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#6
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TRT Staff The Mominator
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: Just South Of Seattle
Posts: 10,493
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If your tank hasn't finished cycling yet, it wasn't ready for fish yet. They may have died due to conditions in the tank.
Wait a little while longer before adding more fish. The fish will thank you and so will your wallet.  Scooter blennies are dragonettes and should be placed in mature tanks with lots of amphipods and copepods available for them to eat.
__________________
 "A BRW Original"
Only Dead Fish Go With The Flow... 
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02-12-2004, 02:46 PM
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#7
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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Thanx for the reply. Thing is, even if the fish died, shouldn't I see them somewhere? I bought the damsels to cycle the tank before I found this website, so I didn't no any better.
But if there is a dead fish, I need to remove it so it doesn't hurt the water conditions correct?
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02-12-2004, 02:52 PM
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#8
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Blacktip Shark
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Middleburg, VA
Posts: 2,113
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Can you test the water? If there isn't a spike in Am, NO2, or NO3, and you can't find anything, than you don't need to do a WC, but my motto is, when in doubt, do a WC(water change)!
__________________
Austin
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want
He who fears the thorn, should never crave the rose.
-favorite TRT quote
Forecast for tonight: dark, continued dark overnight, widely scattered light by morning
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02-12-2004, 05:38 PM
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#9
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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I've been doing water tests every other day until the tank is finished cycling. Ammonia has been at zero for 2 weeks, nitrite is going down. It was .2 today. Nitrate is starting to go down as well.
I was going to wait until next week to do a water change (driving back and forth to the LFS for RO water is a pain). Maybe I will do it sooner. Thanx. |
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02-12-2004, 05:40 PM
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#10
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Blacktip Shark
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Middleburg, VA
Posts: 2,113
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If it's that much trouble, you can just wait
__________________
Austin
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want
He who fears the thorn, should never crave the rose.
-favorite TRT quote
Forecast for tonight: dark, continued dark overnight, widely scattered light by morning
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02-14-2004, 02:33 PM
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#11
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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Well this morning the other green chromis was missing too.
In my years of keeping cichlids, if a fish died, it floated at the top of the tank. Do saltwater fish not do that?
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02-14-2004, 02:37 PM
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#12
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Blacktip Shark
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Middleburg, VA
Posts: 2,113
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Apparently not...
__________________
Austin
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want
He who fears the thorn, should never crave the rose.
-favorite TRT quote
Forecast for tonight: dark, continued dark overnight, widely scattered light by morning
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02-14-2004, 03:16 PM
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#13
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Little fish in a big pond
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Canton, GA USA
Posts: 5,890
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There are two separate issues here, IMO.
One is that the tank was still cycling. The fish may have died from ammonia/nitrite poisoning OR they might have been picked off by a nuisance crab(s).
The other is that the bodies vanished -- cause of death notwithstanding, that tells me that there is a predator or scavenger in the tank.
Take a tall drinking glass, bait it with some shrimp or other smelly fish food (if you still have fish, do this at night when the fish have gone to sleep). Lean the glass upright but with the rim of the glass against the live rock. The crab(s) will smell the bait, find it, jump into the glass to eat it, but will not be able to get out.
Then you can either sump the crab, take it to the LFS to be used as trigger food, or whatever you like... but you've got it out of your main display.
Man just left here a moment ago who was losing fish in a similar fashion - he caught 2, quarter-sized hitchikers in his glass.
HTH
Jenn
__________________
Member of the "J" Crowd & the BRW Crowd!
LFS Owner: Imagine Ocean
Just keep skimming, just keep skimming, just keep skimming, skimming skimming! What do we do? We skim, skim, skim!
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02-14-2004, 04:21 PM
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#14
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 52
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I'll try that tonight. Well, depending on what you mean by fish food. Actual fish? Since it's only damsels, I haven't gotten any food beyond flake yet. I have some frozen blood worms for my cichlids. Would that work?
I really wish I knew about cycling a tank with rock instead of fish before I got the fish. Could have saved me a lot of money by curing the rock in the tank. Anyway, thanx JennM. I appreciate the help. |
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02-14-2004, 04:38 PM
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#15
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Little fish in a big pond
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Canton, GA USA
Posts: 5,890
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Get a raw uncooked shrimp at the grocer... after the person at the seafood counter gives you a funny look, you can usually get a single for free... I used to do that for my anemones (and once for my CAT... long story  ). Use that to bait the glass and see who you catch
Cheers,
Jenn
__________________
Member of the "J" Crowd & the BRW Crowd!
LFS Owner: Imagine Ocean
Just keep skimming, just keep skimming, just keep skimming, skimming skimming! What do we do? We skim, skim, skim!
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