Help !!! I think my Royal Gamma is on his way out!!

cj96ss · 02-05-2008, 09:40 AM

Ok so i am new to this and just started I read all these books and read all these forums, Anyways my tanks is 5 days old. and I am doing the cycling of the tank with a few fish in it... I have a 90gallon I put in to of the Nemo Clown fish in and a Royal Gramma....

The nemos are fine very active and eat great .... The Royal gramma has this silky white thread coming out of his bottom and i swear when he actually moves he will start to swim upside down and leans on the glass when chillin in the corner.. I got him from the same pet store as the other 2

Suggestions I dont thik hes eating eithier

cj96ss · 02-05-2008, 06:11 PM

He died..

Loman · 02-05-2008, 06:25 PM

cj96ss,
I am sorry to hear that you lost this fish. I really like royal grammas. I have had a couple and they seem to have a lot of personality. Based on your posts you are fairly new to keeping a saltwater system. I suspect given the system is 5 days old that you are experiencing cycling issues which is most likely the root cause of the royal grammas demise. For a little while it will seem like there are too many things to learn but once you put together a few fundamentals most of the stuff builds on one another so it is fairly easy to put together. If you would like some help in deciphering what is going on if you post the water parameters of your system and a description / history of things me may be able to offer some friendly advice about where we believe you are in the process and what actions we would recommend.

cj96ss · 02-06-2008, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loman

cj96ss,
I am sorry to hear that you lost this fish. I really like royal grammas. I have had a couple and they seem to have a lot of personality. Based on your posts you are fairly new to keeping a saltwater system. I suspect given the system is 5 days old that you are experiencing cycling issues which is most likely the root cause of the royal grammas demise. For a little while it will seem like there are too many things to learn but once you put together a few fundamentals most of the stuff builds on one another so it is fairly easy to put together. If you would like some help in deciphering what is going on if you post the water parameters of your system and a description / history of things me may be able to offer some friendly advice about where we believe you are in the process and what actions we would recommend.

Thanks I honestly had a bad feeling when i saw the fish reaction when he was bagged from the pet store... The clowns where and are still fine and full of energy something i could see with the other just wasnt right and from the second i had him in the tank i knew he wasnt gonna make it,, I was hoping he was gonna recover but hey .......I will keep you all posted if any other problems occur

CBRrider · 02-11-2008, 09:19 PM

The tank is 5 days old??? The only time you cycle your tank with fish in it is to have them die and create a base culture of bacteria to give the nitrifying process a jump start. Five days is not even near close enough to expect anything to live.. Patience and research are a huge part of this hobby.. I suggest you do a little more reading.. We're all here to help, so ask us if you need some info.--CBR

Loman · 02-11-2008, 09:47 PM

Where have our manners gone?

Quote:

The tank is 5 days old??? The only time you cycle your tank with fish in it is to have them die and create a base culture of bacteria to give the nitrifying process a jump start. Five days is not even near close enough to expect anything to live.. Patience and research are a huge part of this hobby.. I suggest you do a little more reading.. We're all here to help, so ask us if you need some info.--CBR

While this is probably related to the fairly active debate regarding the merits of fishless verses fish in cycling, IMO this response does not help the poster and does not make them at ease to post future questions. I too am a proponent of fishless cycling but to be blunt you do not know from these quotes the full history of the system. When I set my tank up using pre-cured live sand and pre-cured live rock the ammonia and nitirite levels were to zero within 5 days

. In short I hope we all can quite jumping to conclusions and offer helpful suggestions for the situation a person is in instead of scolding them

. Most people get to this place based on what I would consider poor advice from the LFS where they started but , however they get here we should help them rather than essentially make fun of there lack of knowledge.

CBRrider · 02-11-2008, 10:10 PM

Your right loman... maybe i should have worded things different, i didnt want to come off sounding to brash, sorry cj96ss. I just feel that there are forums and books that help with pre-planning for the complexities that exist within the hobby of marine aquariums. I not going to say that I started off the best way either. Again I'm sorry and i hope that cj96ss will continue to find his information from the knowlegeable folks here at FishTankForums.com-cbr

cichlidgirl · 02-11-2008, 10:36 PM

I agree completely .
CBRiders statements not only will make the poster feel bad but are filled with some of the myths and miss information i have been trying to dispel. I am not promoting fish in cycling (i actually would recommend fishless to all new people) but really see a need to educate people after the fact.

When fishless cycling, true hobbyist and and old time fishkeepers do not use the "sacrificial fish or throw away fish" anymore that he described to jump start the bacteria. By saying that putting the fish in to die will jump start the cycle it will make less educated people or unscrupulous people think they can get a couple fish and kill them willy nilly to accomplish the cycle faster.

By stating that anyfish put into a uncycled tank will die(IE:five days is not near close enough to expect anything to live)That is not correct either unless the person does not know what to do. Many LFS tell people to let the tank run for as little as 2 days up to 1 week, people go to the LFS when first starting out to get info and advice. This makes them often get the fish too soon . LFS will not usually mention fishless cycle to customers or actually say its a bad thing when its brought up to them.

I can tell you from personal experience that statement about all fish will die is not true either. I have over 40 fish , all of them went into the tank not on day 5 but on day 1! They are all undamaged healthy examples of fish that i would put up against anyone elses. The key is knowing what to do and staying vigilant when you find yourself in this situation. I realize that most would say if they did fishless cycle then they would not find themselves in this situation but at this point and time that is wishful thinking, as long as lfs continue to be un ethical to the customers .

BTW, i believe thin white feces trailing behind the fish, not eating and listlessness are a syptom of a specific disease, not toxicity from cycling issues!! The poster should be informed of the things i have been trying to teach people recently in similar situations so that the other fish they have not showing symtoms will not develop any discomfort or damage from toxic cycling levels.I am going to refrain from doing this so as not to be viewed as "promoting" anything. I know that sounds strange after the diatribe i just typed. Hopefully this will be the last time i repeat these things because i feel they are not welcomed here anymore, but i am going to be trying to respect what i have been told about not promoting fish in cycling by this site.That said i will let some other person advise them.

CJ : If you would like my advice on how to keep your remaining fish healthy feel free to contact me in a pm and i will tell you all i know.

Loman · 02-12-2008, 07:52 AM

I do nopt want to continue to hijack this thread so let me make a few closing comments on this episode and then we all can get back to helping cj96ss with the original post.

I appreciate the respomnse from CBRrider. I am also sure the initial post stemmed from the passion he feels regarding protecting life that may not be able to protect itself. I applaud that as well.

In re-reading my post a few clarifications are probably in order as well. I made this in public for two reasons. 1 - The original post was in public and 2- (which is really more important) I think that many people have forgetten the basic purpose of the forum. When someone has a question we should help them. Yes it is appropriate to advise them on alternatives to avoid the situation in the future but the response needs to be such that other people feel comfortable in asking what they perceive as the "stupid" question. Personally I do not think any question that is asked is stupid. The real measure in my thinking is that a person learns as they go forward. A friend of mine at work has a poster that is dived into two frames. The right frame says "good judgment comes from experience ". The left frame says, "Experience comes from bad judgment" I think we all have made some mistakes in learning up to the point we are at. We should share that information and experience freely in an open and friendly manner. If we need to continue this discussion I will be happy to do so but PM me so we can split this thread.

We will now return to the original broadcast!

cj96ss I think the correct response was in my initial post. If you would like some more advice and help we need to understand the situation a little better. What are the current water params and brief history of the set up.

cichlidgirl · 02-12-2008, 11:08 AM

CJ96ss,
I apologize for ranting on unrelated issues in your post, if i can be of help let me know and i will advise you as best I can , In the open forum if you want or pm, how ever you perfer. Open forum would allow others to learn also, but i will leave that to you. There are things you will want to do to make sure the fish you still have stay healthy, so get back with those water paremeters (water test kit results)so we can help you.

If you dont have a test kit, and it will be awhile before you do, a water change of 10-20 percent is a good start while you wait to get testing done. You can do these everyday and it will help to keep your fish from suffering. When you get a test kit we can tell you how to understand the readings so you can adjust the waterchanges if needed.