Tropical Fish Forums

[xstudio]

hi people pls do contribute as much as you can... I'm very new to marine fish and hence would like to learn more from everybody... Thank you... And hence my questions are: How to get started for marine fishy business? What are the things to take note of? And I had a Ocellaris Clown died 2 days ago when I bought him back and kept less than 18 hours I estimated. Air pump, marine salt, food petlet all provided but was puzzled over death.... And I also like to keep some lion fishy... Pls enlighten me thank you people....

[SLACkra]

were going to need a lot more information:
tank size
is the tank cycled if so how long was the cycle and how long ago?
current water parrameters:pH,ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,salinity
what type of tank: fish only with live rock, reef tank, fish only?

from what you have said I would presume you haven't cycled the tank and I would recomend you read:
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ciclo.php
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php

the cycle is basically where 2 different types of bacteria start to build up that are essential to oxidise the ammonia (NH4) to nitrite(NO2) and then oxidise the nitrite to nitrate(NO3). each of those 3 chemicals are toxic to fish however each is less toxic than the next ammonia being the worse nitrate being the least. fish can handle having nitrate to some extent(I would keep it <20ppm). so in the cycle the bacteria to oxidise the ammonia and then nitrite isn't there so you get a build up of first ammonia then nitrite. these "spikes" where the two chemicals are in abundance in the aquarium can kill fish or if they survive damage them permenantly.

what you do before adding any fish is to add a small amount of fish food which will rot and create ammonia, the ammonia levels will increase and the oxidising bacteria that turns ammonia to nitrite will build up to the point where any ammonia formed in teh system will almost instantly turn to nitrite. then the same sortof thing happens with the bacteria that turns the nitrite to nitrate. the nitrate is then removed from the system by doing water changes or by having a refugium(tank where you grow algaes to harvest thus removing nitrates ect)(also another way to remove nitrates is to have a very deep sand bed. at the lower regions of the sand bed it is anerobic(no oxygen) and a bacteria that turns NO3 to just nitrogen gas lives there in the oxygen free enviroment)

so your fish probably died from ammonia poisoning and possibly unless you aclimatized it to the tank properly shock from the changing water chemistry from the tank from the shop to yours.

I hope that helps sorry it so long

andrew

[FloridaBoy]

[xstudio]

thank you thank you.... slackra you have been a great help! OK here I have some other enquiries... possible to mix my puffer with lion, clown and some yellow tail in in? my puffer are GSP and they are quite healthy so far and was thinking to have new tank mates within....

[sirreal63]

The lion may very well enjoy any fish you add to his tank, if they will fit in his mouth he will find them very tasty.
_________________
Out on the road today...I saw a DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac...
Jack
110 Gallon DSA Pentagon

[SLACkra]

still haven't told us what size your tank is, current water paramaters (pH, ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, temp and salinity), what equitment is on the tank, what type of filtration ect. a picture of the tank would be nice also.

Jack is right, a lionfish will most likely view the other fish as meals. GSP if I remember correctly do nip fins. I had a small one in my 32gallon saltwater many a year back and their cute little fellows. just make sure your feeding them some sortof invertbrate now and then that has a tough shell to keep their beak sizes under control such as FW snails which my little fella used to love.

there are dwarf species of lionfish availiable but they will also see small fish as food!

andrew