Sudden Death

[Northstar89]

My tank has been running for a good two months now and brown algae has taken over most of the sand and rocks and has grown on everything except the fish i put in there. Well 3 damsels were put in about 3 weeks ago, then 1 died....i replaces him with a clown fish...why i dont know. The clown looks very healty and he swims all day long and even when i turn off the light and go near the tank he is still swimming , i really dont think he rest one bit. However in the last 4 days i have lost 2 other damsels. Left is blue reef damsel and the clown. My levels for nitrate and nitrite and ammonia and all else are fine and test 0 . So does anyone know why my fishes are droping like flies?

P.S. I only have 2 snails and 2 hermits in there as we speak, what other clean up crew should go in there and am i ready for the crew to go in ?

thanks for an answers of advice

[salt creepette]

the only words of advice i can offer is this article. if your water 'tests fine' for ammonia and nitrite, and your salinity and ph are 1.023-5 and 8.0-8.2 respectively then I cant offer any words of advice except sit on your hands and wait it out for another month or two. hopefully you dont lose your clown. (read the article under Myth 15)

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.htm

[tdwyatt]

You didn't mention the size of the tank, but with the populations you've listed I would think that it is a 40 gal tank or so.

In that size tank, I would be suspect of the clown based on territorial claims, especially if it is a Maroon clownfish, and very especially if the tank is smaller. Many spp of clownfish are not good tank partners in general with damselfish in small quarters.

sorry, but hth.

[Geoff]

do the snails and hermits seem unaffected? how many of these have you lost, if any? how big is the tank? these are all very aggressive fish, could they be killing themselves off? do they look like they have torn or shredded fins? generally speaking inverts are more susceptable to bad water than fish, especially damsels.

G~

[Doug1]

There is the possibility that the damsels used during the cycle have some chronic gill damage from ammonia toxicity, adding the clown after the levels dropped into the safe zone, may have given it something of an advantage in the battle for territorial imperative.
Exact ammonia, nitrite and nitrat levels as well as temp,pH ,salinity etc will help narrow it down, but bottom line on a 2 month old tank I would add nothing more fopr the next month and let the tank settle,HTH