The Puffer Forum

Ok so i have 2 gsp's atm, and im going with mostly live rock. Ive made most of the base with dead ocean rock that has beed rinsed very well and the sg is at 1.023 - 1.024. I also have in there 2 blue legged hermits about 1 inch each. My problem is that we got 2 tomato clowns yesterday and we drip acclimated them before we added them and turned out the lights. Before we went to bed we took a peek to see how things were going. It was a good thing we did cause all 4 fish were basically belly up and barely breathing. So we took them all out and put them into a bucket with tank water an a bubbler. The tank parimeters are safe, no ammonia or nitrates. Temp is steady at 80 and there is a powerhead filter at one end and a hang over the back filter on the other. I will be getting a protein skimmer soon though. So once we revived the 2 gsp's then we went to the clowns, the bigger one was doing fine but the smaller one (male) unfortunetly died. No bite marks on it though. So then we put the 2 gsp's back in the tank along with the bigger clown. The clown ate but this morning she has bites taken out of her fins. What should I do? We have to go back to the fish place to return the smaller fish that died for the warrenty but I don't think it would be safe to leave the other tomato in the tank if my puffs are just gonna reck her fins or worse. What do you guys think, Im stumped on what to do here.

Your puffers will kill it. It is possible the puffers killed the other one from stress of trying to eat it.

There also must be something bigger wrong if all 4 fish were belly up. My first guess would be low oxygen, particularly because there is no protein skimmer and it happened after the lights went out. If you cant get a protein skimmer today, think about putting an airstone in the tank or a venturi on a powerhead.

Double check with the LFS to test the water, sometimes test kits can be bad. Ammonia would be my 2nd guess.

So heres an update on everything. Went to the lfs to bring in a water sample and the little clown that died. There was a major ammonia and nitrate spike that had happened over the course of maybe 1/2 day. I did a quick vaccum skim to suck up the poop and uneaten food 2 days ago on that day I also added the 10 ponds of dead ocean rock that was rinsed and scrubed with hot water. We are still trying to find out what caused the spike, Ive done a water change and will check in a day or so. My 2 gsp's are doing great and eating, the female tomato clown is also doing great and eating. We will be getting a male again though. On Monday our water will be tested at the lfs before we decide to pick up the male
(the lfs will only hold the other male till then) but they are helping us in fixing this ammonia/nitrate spike. I'll post more later this weekend. Any tips or advice is muchly welcomed Thank you in advance

Did you just put the live rock in there as well? You werent clear on this. If you did, theres your problem. If you just purchased the live rock it needs to cure and the tank will cycle with it in there for at least four weeks. All the die off from the rock will cause huge ammonia spikes, wether you scrub it or not. If you put fish in with new live rock its gonna kill them more often than not.

Ocean rock? Thats not what it is called. Live rock maybe, base rock for the stuff you seem to be talking about (less visible life but still teaming with it), but no unless its like this:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/brs ... -rock.html

Its not dead. You caused an ammonia spike by #1 adding rock and #2 adding fish when your tank was not cycled all the way (adding rock causes the tank to go through another cycle) Washing it with hot water made things worse because you killed any bacteria/life on it compounding the issue.


Why do people not seem to get that you really shouldn't add live rock to a tank with fish in it. If you are going to keep GSPs, acclimate them to full marine in one tank (1.025 no less), while cycling another tank for full marine with live rock. If there is no room for 2 tanks or no money, then maybe its not for you...

What to do from here on out? Just leave things alone. The tank needs to cycle. Water changes and ammonia remover is just going to make the cycle take longer. You can aid the fish by adding a air stone. If you going to add more rock to this tank you are going to have the same problems. If you must add more rock, setup a QT style tank for the GSP to live in while you add rock and wait for the tank to fully cycle before returning the GSP to the display.

If their is ammonia, you shouldn't be getting a new fish so soon. Maybe in a few weeks.

MeggyPuff25 wrote:So heres an update on everything. Went to the lfs to bring in a water sample and the little clown that died. There was a major ammonia and nitrate spike that had happened over the course of maybe 1/2 day. I did a quick vaccum skim to suck up the poop and uneaten food 2 days ago on that day I also added the 10 ponds of dead ocean rock that was rinsed and scrubed with hot water. We are still trying to find out what caused the spike, Ive done a water change and will check in a day or so. My 2 gsp's are doing great and eating, the female tomato clown is also doing great and eating. We will be getting a male again though. On Monday our water will be tested at the lfs before we decide to pick up the male
(the lfs will only hold the other male till then) but they are helping us in fixing this ammonia/nitrate spike. I'll post more later this weekend. Any tips or advice is muchly welcomed Thank you in advance

Nitrate or nitrite? Double-check that.

It's essential that you get your own high-quality liquid test kit for home use.

jdak wrote:If their is ammonia, you shouldn't be getting a new fish so soon. Maybe in a few weeks.

+1, my guess is it's the rock.

The rock that i put in is called ocean rock, I already have about 3 pounds of live rock in there for almost a month and a half. The ocean rock is my base to be seeded. Its dry and I bought it in bulk at Big Als, brought it home and rinsed it off in hot water while i scrubed it to get the loose stuff off.

I dont see 'Ocean rock' on big als....

There is 'Carib Sea Reef Rock'

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ct ... frock50lbs

Got a link to what you bought?

Mekong, you'd have to use the .ca version of that site.

still all I see is: Carib Sea Reef Rock

That is what was on the price sticker at the bin in Big Als, and that is what they called it. I don't kow why it's not on the site, maybe because I went into the Big Als store and bout it. The lfs that has our male tomato clown is gonna hold it for us till our water issues are resolved, which is really nice. One question, my gsp's have nipped the female clown a bit on her tail, but she doesn't seem to be bothered by them. She'll go and swim right up to them both while they are surfing along the one side and they don't mind to much. Will they get better after awhile? At the moment everything else is doing great.

it should heal, try some melafix (if you have a skimmer turn it off)