Acclimating new fish

[clownfish26]

I have had bad luck with my first coulple of damsels i am not sure what i am doing wrong if anything maybe i just got some not so healthy fish. The fish looked good in the lfs but after a the ride home and floating in the bag for 15 min the fish started acting funny. I did the drip method and the fish was not doing so good i put hime in the tank and he died within an hour. I don't think it was my water being that the fish started to die in the shipping bag.


The water tested

ph 8.2
amonia .5
nitrite 0
nitrate 5

 

[SALTY WATERS]

You have a 55g that you were converting to SW correct, and if I recall this tank has just been set-up in the last week or two?

I first have a few questions:

1) What is your tanks salinity?
2) Tank temperature?
3) Do you have LR and how much?

 

[clownfish26]

temp is 78-79
salinity is 1.020 recommended by the lfs to keep desease down
live rock about 21 lbs.

i do have one damsel and he looks great the and one lived for a day or two and the third i bought died right away.

 

[FroggyFox]

I think it is way too soon to be putting fish into your tank. Your SG really ought to be more up around 1.024, and your ammonia and nitrates should be 0.

I love the quote in SaltyWater's signature ""Only bad things happen quickly in a reef aquarium; good things happen slowly" (M. Paletta)". After only a few weeks of being set up you should be watching to be sure the parameters are perfect...and then maybe slowly add a cleanup crew...then after a few weeks add A fish. SW fish are way more sensitive than FW fish...and as I'm sure you've found out, more expensive...so you need to take everything twice as slowly as you would with a FW tank.

 

[SALTY WATERS]

1.020 is to low... your target range is between 1.023 - 1.025 for a health SW aqaurium
Your temp is okay, though I would probably put it down between 76-78

As well, your tank will still be in it's cycle and that shows in your perams that you posted. In no way is your tank ready to be adding any live stock in as of yet if it is this new.

 

[dbacksrat]

IMO a healthy damsel would have been able to endure that amount of ammonia and 1.020 SG. I would consider your LFS as a possible cause because the fish was on the way out while in the bag. Could have been a bad luck or a bad LFS.

 

[wayne]

It's the ammonia. It's not clever to be putting fish into tanks that are still showing test kit traces of ammonia

 

[wwest]

i agree with dbacksrat damsels are very very hardy fish and shouldnt be that affected by your ammonia and salinity, if i bought a fish and it looked strange when i get it home i would take it back. thats there water in the bag and there levels of salinity and ammonia. or maybe the acclimation was to quick or not done right. im not sure but after one hour i would grab that little bugger and took him back.. just my two cents

 

[shwnicus]

the only thing that killed my damsels were each other, and I moved them 4 times. the fact that they were acting funny after 15 minutes while temp regulating seems to me that they were heavily stressed before getting in the bag. perhaps they had not been in a QT at the LFS. jumping to conclusions here, but its tough to drop a damsel. I agree with previous statements that you should wait to add fish until the tank is stable, wholeheartedly agree. but I don't think thats what killed your damsel that fast. think it was suffering before it hit your tank.