Problem with clownfish?

[Rizen]

My brother has a 38 gal saltwater tank that has been setup since January. He has 3 Green Chromasis, a firefish, a horseshoe crab, and some small hermit crabs. Every clownfish we put in the tank dies - he has had 3 False Percula clownfish and one black percula clownfish - some have lived for a month or two, the last 3 have died within a few days . The other fish are perfectly fine and active.

The tank has live rock, but no coral, it's not a reef tank. The only thing I can think that might have killed the black percula he just added was that he added more base rock at the same time, is that okay or not?

Any suggestions? He's only 12 and it is expensive for him to keep replacing 14 dollar fish.

 

[sinasster]

What is the salinity of the water. Are you carefully acclimating the fish??

Firefish do better in pairs, so i would recommend adding a second. The tank is very close to being overstalked. so be careful with how much you add. You should also get a protein skimmer if you dont have one already.

 

[Rizen]

Not my tank, so I'm not quite sure how they are acclimating the fish. I think they usually just float them to acclimate the temperature of the two waters. I'll have him test the salinity as well.

 

[dgodwin]

when acclimating saltwater fish, you need to do more than just float the bag to get the temperatures the same. The salinity and pH also have to be acclimated. I float my new purchases for a while, with as little of the store water as possible (enough to cover the fish/snail/coral etc) I then add a turkey baster full of tank water to the bag. I wait about 10-15 minutes, take 1 baster full out, and add another 1-2. I continue this adding and removing of water for at least an hour, longer for snails. I make sure not to get any store water in my tank, and add the fish. Hope this helps.
PS: I hope he is buying his clownfish from a good lfs, with health stock

 

[Rizen]

Yeah, he buys them from a local store, Barrier Reef. They are a good store, I would say the stock is okay although they have centralized filtration which I hear is not the best (disease can spread easily.)

I would get my bro some fish from the pet shop I work at but we don't do salt water

I'm going to take him to get a clownfish from a different local store this time around and see if it does any better.

 

[NTidd]

Not sure about the clowns, they are generally hardy, are they eating when they are added to the tank? Next time you add one don't add anything else with it, also is it really shy, or do they generally stay out in the open most of the time? I let mine sit in the tank for a while then poke holes in the bag, never had any problems this way.

 

[wayne]

Could be acclimatisation, could be built up nitrates. What does he read at, get a couple of independant tests. The established fish will be 'used' to it, but the newcomers will succumb as you describe. The solution will be a load of big water changes.
Setup as january is not very long really, make sure he's going slowly