Newbie Mistake Over stocked my tank way too quickly!

[Antaguana]

Would it help them catch the chromis if they reduce the water level? Don't, know just trying to think of practical plan.

You might not be able to remove every hide but a fish can not hide above the waterline.

I've seen people mention acrylic tank dividers for aggressive fish. Perhaps you could get those and trap the fish in an open corner and then net it from there?

Perhaps you can close off areas and then reduce the water level? (Obviously be careful with that. You can't keep a fish in very shallow non flowing water without any filtration etc for a long time.

There isn't a rush at this stage, can you train the fish to not fear the trap? open the trap put it in the water and feed near it so the fish gets used to it. Then leave it open and feed inside it so the fish gets used to going in, then close it and see if the fish will go in.

Combine all this with hunger and food. If when you feed it comes to the food you could pick an open corner, feed there and be ready to put dividers in to seperate off the corner. Or perhaps even food and then a big net. Like a manual fish trap. Perhaps you have already tried these...not sure just some ideas.

May want to reassess risking all future fish vs 1 chromis

I can understand the thought that, well this fish is fine so it must not have diseases. That's not necessarily the case. Like people some fish may be asymptomatic, they may get and have a disease or sickness but not have symptoms. They can then transmit to others who can die.

I think the suggestion made there (without saying it) is, if you have to, kill the chromis so you can fallow the tank and then start again rather than risk new fish.

I get that it is a pragmatic solution being offered in good faith, but I am glad you have not jumped straight to that thinking I've lost 29 what's another 1. To that one it's all it has. I would advocate more care for every fish. And as people have said patients is very important in reefing. If you had one diseased fish and 29 happy you might need to take drastic action to remove the one before it infects others... But you don't, so there is no rush at this stage.

Take the challenge. Spend the time come up with a plan and work out how to catch it. You have options.

 

[Antaguana]

you are spot on. writing some very informational stuff for being new. i struggle to write stuff very long and informational.

Thanks. I had a teacher that was surprised I got really low marks in english. My writing was/is bad. They said, you talk well, just write what you would say. It can help to record it and then just write it out. That's what I tend to do now. It makes my writing very long which is not always good

 

[SheldonC]

These are pics of the fish tank .. it has plenty of rock with hiding spots. I will probably stick with a couple of clownfish, a swallow tail, regal & a gem tang and that’s probably it. I will purchase them already quarantined.

So you nuked 29 fish and thought "I should probably buy some more without knowing what killed my other ones"? C'mon man. I agree with others there is no reason to beat the dead horse, but you're just being irresponsible at this point. QT or not, until you know how to properly care for fish, don't spend money to spend money. As others recommended, get a pair of clowns, and learn the ways of this hobby.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

Would it help them catch the chromis if they reduce the water level? Don't, know just trying to think of practical plan.

I was going to suggest this as well, If you have a container or go get some brute trash cans (can always use them later for a water change station) drain the tank until a few inches from the bottom. Works like a charm most of the time.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

So you nuked 29 fish and thought "I should probably buy some more without knowing what killed my other ones"? C'mon man. I agree with others there is no reason to beat the dead horse, but you're just being irresponsible at this point. QT or not, until you know how to properly care for fish, don't spend money to spend money. As others recommended, get a pair of clowns, and learn the ways of this hobby.

If there is no reason to beat, then why do it?

Did you not see that he is trying to go fallow?

 

[twentyleagues]

If there is no reason to beat, then why do it?

Did you not see that he is trying to go fallow?

But he is waffling. Thinking that he can leave that one vector in the tank and just get pre-QT'd fish and it'll be ok. Post 66.

 

[Antaguana]

FWIW: I lost near the entirety of my fish at around the 1-year mark to which I suspect was velvet. Three or four fish survived. I left them in there for 6 weeks or so before adding any more fish. I slowly started to rebuild. I started with some of the cheaper fish I knew I wanted to keep, one or two at a time every few weeks. No QT, because it's too much of a pain. No disease issues at that point, so I put my name on some of the more expensive fish at my LFS and observed over a week or two and took them home. Still no issues. Of course, all of that was a gamble, and a gamble that I was willing to take. Once at ~90% stocked and healthy, I started only purchasing pre QT'd from drreefsquarantinedfish.com <-- highly recommend.

But he is waffling. Thinking that he can leave that one vector in the tank and just get pre-QT'd fish and it'll be ok. Post 66.

Yes, I suspect they think that because they got advice that says that they can. How do they know if they should trust @twentyleagues or @TL1 ?

It's part of what makes this hard, there is a lot of advice out there and it is often contradictory. Some people are very careful and others not so much. And some of the people who are not as careful say it's worked fine for them.

It can be very tempting to take the easy road when people are saying it was fine for them and the hard road looks very hard and super complicated (sometimes it seems like it might be made out to sound even harder than it is)

The worst thing is, they can leave that one vector and get more fish, and it "might" be fine. They can also be very careful and they "might" still have bad outcomes. Risk management is like that. Unless you have a lot of experience with the same risk it is likely you will either be too cautious or not cautious enough. Both have their downsides. Although it is tempting to say you can't be too cautious, that is not entirely true.

They did say they are trying to fallow and having trouble catching the last fish. Again perhaps from lack of experience in techniques for catching. Let's help them find a successful way to catch and hopefully they decide this advice is easy enough so they are less tempted to under appreciate the high risk of following the "she'll be right, it works for me" attitude.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

I do appreciate good advice and help however, and I don’t enjoy wasting anyone’s time. I will donate to this forum. There is a lot of valuable advice and good people like yourself that are willing to help.

 

[randomfishdude]

Thanks. I had a teacher that was surprised I got really low marks in english. My writing was/is bad. They said, you talk well, just write what you would say. It can help to record it and then just write it out. That's what I tend to do now. It makes my writing very long which is not always good

I might have to do that. I gotta english essay coming up. English is my worst subject by a long shot. Usually in the mid 80s compared to mid 90s of other classes.

I've been using r2r as a place to practice some of my writing skills. Since I do everything on computer due to my disgraphia(handwriting looks like Arabic).






Anyway, I'm surprised I haven't seen a mod on the forum yet. But things are calming down.



As for catching the cromis. I cought one by sectioning off the tank. I'd start by dividing it in half then half that.. and so on. Until you have a small enough space to where you can catch the fish and qt it.
I did it with frag rack type stuff. You could probobly do it with some sort of reef-safe cloth like material? If you don't want to use something like that or can't. Your rockwork is way more open than mine was so I think you can do it. I don't know the requirements of what makes some cloth like that reef-safe? If you do that I would try to get the fish trapped in a open space of the tank so you have more room to place the walls.

 

[Ziggy17]

I agree. Too many times people clog up threads with comments that don’t answer the question and are 100% not required.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

I might have to do that. I gotta english essay coming up. English is my worst subject by a long shot. Usually in the mid 80s compared to mid 90s of other classes.

I've been using r2r as a place to practice some of my writing skills. Since I do everything on computer due to my disgraphia(handwriting looks like Arabic).






Anyway, I'm surprised I haven't seen a mod on the forum yet. But things are calming down.



As for catching the cromis. I cought one by sectioning off the tank. I'd start by dividing it in half then half that.. and so on. Until you have a small enough space to where you can catch the fish and qt it.
I did it with frag rack type stuff. You could probobly do it with some sort of reef-safe cloth like material? If you don't want to use something like that or can't. Your rockwork is way more open than mine was so I think you can do it. I don't know the requirements of what makes some cloth like that reef-safe? If you do that I would try to get the fish trapped in an open space of the tank so you have more room to place the walls.

That’s good advice, I will try adding a divider. This particular chromi is very smart though. When ever he sees me close to the tank he goes to the rockwork. It’s actually funny..

 

[Ziggy17]

I agree with your last response. I did want to get my reef/fish tank going as soon as possible, just like anyone else would in this hobby. I already beat myself over that many times, but it’s like beating a dead horse. Nothing good comes out of it. I’m the one that lost the money, time and effort so trust me, I did pay the price.

There are 3 more pages of comments so if this was covered I apologize.

May I suggest you try freshwater for a year or two and then revisit reef/ marine? I make this suggestion as I’m a new reefer, but I have about 35 years of freshwater experience. So many of the things I learned in fresh translate to salt. But there is far more room for error in fresh. Treating diseases, water quality, overall good habits for tank maintenance. You can buy many fresh water fish that look amazing, and plants to scape. The mistakes in fresh are far more forgiving.

Just a suggestion from a stranger on a web forum….

 

[southeastfishaddict]

There are 3 more pages of comments so if this was covered I apologize.

May I suggest you try freshwater for a year or two and then revisit reef/ marine? I make this suggestion as I’m a new reefer, but I have about 35 years of freshwater experience. So many of the things I learned in fresh translate to salt. But there is far more room for error in fresh. Treating diseases, water quality, overall good habits for tank maintenance. You can buy many fresh water fish that look amazing, and plants to scape. The mistakes in fresh are far more forgiving.

Just a suggestion from a stranger on a web forum….

That’s where I messed up. I had fresh water tanks my entire life. I walked in to the LFS looking for fresh water fish for my fish tank and unfortunately the majority of the fish were saltwater and I thought they were really cool. So I started looking at larger aquariums to make the switch. I spoke with the owner and he was very knowledgeable and convinced me to take the dive. He mentioned that him or his employees can install the tank for me and do the required maintenance so I signed up. I told him that i was interested in the Red Sea tank and he got me a discount and installed it for me. I was very grateful because it was a lot of work for the install. I purchased the majority of the fish from his shop, with the exception of a few. I’m still happy that I took the dive despite the circumstances. The coral appear to be thriving along with the inverts and the water quality seems great.

 

[Antaguana]

That’s good advice, I will try adding a divider. This particular chromi is very smart though. When ever he sees me close to the tank he goes to the rockwork. It’s actually funny..

It's amazing how smart they can be with their comparatively tiny brains.

They learn, does it come out when you feed? Often fish will be scared untill they realise you approaching means they get food. Then they come rushing out when you approach.

 

[randomfishdude]

That’s where I messed up. I had fresh water tanks my entire life. I walked in to the LFS looking for fresh water fish for my fish tank and unfortunately the majority of the fish were saltwater and I thought they were really cool. So I started looking at larger aquariums to make the switch. I spoke with the owner and he was very knowledgeable and convinced me to take the dive. He mentioned that him or his employees can install the tank for me and do the required maintenance so I signed up. I told him that i was interested in the Red Sea tank and he got me a discount and installed it for me. I was very grateful because it was a lot of work for the install. I purchased the majority of the fish from his shop, with the exception of a few. I’m still happy that I took the dive despite the circumstances.

Some may disagree but you did do alot right. Exept the fish. Slow is the name of the game. You also probobly should've qt? I've found a rate of 1 in 4 fish are infected with something.

 

[vetteguy53081]

1 Watchman goby

1 Flame angel

1 six line wrasse p

2 Clownfish

2 fire fish

4 cleaner shrimp

2 cardinal fish

1 dotty back

1 swallow tail angel

1 blue trigger (small)

1 regal tang (small)

1 scopa tang (small)

1 naso tang

5 blue damsels

1 coral beauty

1 Fox face

1 yellow wrasse

This is quite a list. You have the fish and the best you can do right now is 2-3 gallon water changes daily while allowing the bacteria to colonize and tank to mature. Add an air stone for added Oxygen and water circulation . Those water changes take under ten minutes and will keep ammonia-phos-nitrate in check.

 

[Antaguana]

I'm really surprised that they set it all up got nothing but zero ammonia in tests and then sold you 30 fish. That just seems against all of what I have read. And what we both know from tropical fish. Ammonia is not always 0 and nitrate certainly isn't (especially in freshwater)

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Some may disagree but you did do alot right. Exept the fish. Slow is the name of the game. You also probobly should've qt? I've found a rate of 1 in 4 fish are infected with something.

Yes, and that goes back to the freshwater fish. You rarely qt them and you can get away with adding many cichlids. Not the same with a reef tank. The good thing is that you can add a good amount of coral without too many worries. As long as the water parameters are good.

 

[Ziggy17]

That’s where I messed up. I had fresh water tanks my entire life. I walked in to the LFS looking for fresh water fish for my fish tank and unfortunately the majority of the fish were saltwater and I thought they were really cool. So I started looking at larger aquariums to make the switch. I spoke with the owner and he was very knowledgeable and convinced me to take the dive. He mentioned that him or his employees can install the tank for me and do the required maintenance so I signed up. I told him that i was interested in the Red Sea tank and he got me a discount and installed it for me. I was very grateful because it was a lot of work for the install. I purchased the majority of the fish from his shop, with the exception of a few. I’m still happy that I took the dive despite the circumstances.

Fair enough. As you already know, LFS are still a business, and sales drive business. Always best to go home and sleep on it before signing the paper. Especially with stocking. The Flame Angel would go to battle with the coral Beaty and the fire fish. Anything with red or orange is a potential foe for the flame. That has been my experience…. Even with a large 6’ tank.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

It's amazing how smart they can be with their comparatively tiny brains.

They learn, does it come out when you feed? Often fish will be scared untill they realise you approaching means they get food. Then they come rushing out when you approach.

yes, it eats quickly then it goes back to the rockwork ..