red fire-fish question

how tempermental are red dart fish. I had 4-6 red dart fish in my tank for a while. friday I went and bought 6 more. now I'm down to just 4-5 in the tank. they slowly died one by one over the weekend. cal/alk/mag, all in check. ph 8.3 ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 2.5 temp 76. having 2.5 nitrates wouldn't have killed off 6-8 fire fish that fast would it?.

guy at local fish store told me aggression of males in two different school did it. I guess i learned a pricely oops. (75-85 bucks after tax).
this is right as i got a 75g setup (minis lights, sand, and rock) to up grade too. :( boo.

so what got the fire fish? what are some hardy schooling fish i could put in the 75? one where i could have a good school, and not just random fish going all over the place.

Green chromis make a nice hardy school Joey. Even looks better if you can find some blue reef chromis.

the blue chromis, or the blue-green chromis.

are dispar anthias or any anthias a schooling fish, and hardy?

You know those fire fish are the only ones i have had the same issue with. I got one by its self and it was fine for a while then vanished. So i got three more and slowly one by one after two weeks they were gone. No idea. My tank had screens on top so they couldnt jump. The musta got eaten, I have a couple of chromis and they are cool. If you want a really nice docile fish look at the fathead anthias. they are not aggressive at all. I have three and they are stunning. But not sure what your budget is. These at the lfs were 80 each but are amazing looking and have great personallity. Lyretail anthias are nice too. Or the pajama cardinals or the bangai. Just a few ideas

I look at the cardinals they are nice too, but getting pricey.. 20-35 dollars each.
I've seen anthias. they are real nice, what about the bartlett's ? or maybe pink square? maybe dispar?

or some type of chromis. the sunshine/pink chromis look really nice.
do we have any saltwater stores as are sponsers on here?

I ended up getting some 3 line damsels to help cycle the tank.

If you plan to add other fish you need to ditch the damsels. They get super aggressive. If you look online liveaquaria.com is a great site to order and also learn a little about each fish. I prefer shopping at one of the two nicer shops in Richmond. I like to see the fish and see them eat. Especially when spending $50-$100 per fish. But liveaquaria I have heard a lot of positive things

Will they be okay by them selfs they are in a 75g the only other fish are a lawn mower blenny and two red fire fish . I could reset up my 45g and put a little bit of live rock in there.... I was looking at pj cardinals but was told they aren't hardy.

you bought fire fish and they died? then you bought more and they died or mia? then you say you ended up with damsels to help cycle the tank? this why your fire fish died.
fire fish are NOT aggressive at all towards each other or other tank mates they are easy to keep under good/normal water params. your LFS guy is an idiot. let your tank cycle and marinate before adding more fish your tank not being fully cycled in and adding more fish even small ones can tip the balance on your bio load real quick and it's not in your favor. btw Bangaii/Kaudern's Cardinal, Anthias, or PJ's are not the fish to get if you can't keep Fire fish alive. Blue reef chromis are good hardy fish, blue/green or pink chromis are another good option they are non aggressive and hang together and can tolerate less than perfect water quality.in the future if you want Bangaii I would suggest paying more and getting only tank bred they are much hardier then the wild caught but a bit more expensive. LA is awesome I use them all the time. what tests are you using and how do you acclimate?+++++1 Damsels are nothing but a pita...

my 45g was cycled and I had it up for 4-5 months, and bought a 75g from a friend. he gave me water out of his tank.. I bought 6 fire fish and had them in the 45g for a good while... and they slowly died off... I only had the lawn mower blenny and the what ever it was... I went and got the damsels because i knew they where hardy. and was going to go throw a mini cycle adding more live rock to the 75...

I was told that red fire fish can be in groups but only if in a big enough tank. my 40 was not long it was a cube...

the normal reef test, along with going to the lfs for the cal/alk test and all with in check. ammonia -0 nitrite - 0, nitrate - stays 5 or lower... I now have just a pj pajama cardinal and a yellow tang (small) in a 30g with some frogspawn, hammer clove paly and daisy, fushy mush rooms, and the regular mush rooms...

what gobies could go with the blue green chromis?

I pour out half to 3/4 of the bag, then pour the bag water with fish in to a small bucket..... and use one of the drip pumps, and let tank water drip in to the bucket for an hour - two hours.

Gobies and Chromis go fine with each other and who ever told you firefish need a bigger tank then your 40 fed you a load of BS. when you acclimate 1-2 hours in a bucket how do you keep the water in the bucket from cooling? why don't you just float the bag that the fish came in right in your tank then use a turkey baster to add some of your water to the bag do this for 15-20 mins then release the fish.
sounds like your fish are getting stressed before they ever make it to the tank.
where are you buying them?

cwhip wrote:

Gobies and Chromis go fine with each other and who ever told you firefish need a bigger tank then your 40 fed you a load of BS. when you acclimate 1-2 hours in a bucket how do you keep the water in the bucket from cooling? why don't you just float the bag that the fish came in right in your tank then use a turkey baster to add some of your water to the bag do this for 15-20 mins then release the fish.
sounds like your fish are getting stressed before they ever make it to the tank.
where are you buying them?

i float the bag in the tank, then do that... I think i got a turkey baster some where that i was using for fish.
local fish shops. neptunes cove, dallas north aquariums, the fish gallery, and aquatic design.


I've bought some chromis and frog spawn from petco before too. but that was all that was in the tank.

cwhip wrote:

Gobies and Chromis go fine with each other and who ever told you firefish need a bigger tank then your 40 fed you a load of BS. when you acclimate 1-2 hours in a bucket how do you keep the water in the bucket from cooling? why don't you just float the bag that the fish came in right in your tank then use a turkey baster to add some of your water to the bag do this for 15-20 mins then release the fish.
sounds like your fish are getting stressed before they ever make it to the tank.
where are you buying them?

yea thats an odd way of acclimation and i agree.. if your having trouble with fire fish getting anthias and cardinals or just about anything other than damsels is a big risk and draining on the pockets....on a different note if your tank parameters are right and everything adding 6 + fish at once is alot in a small tank...they could have been sick and your tank will only support so much life regardless of how much you put in it. i learned that the hard way in my 55 i could only have about 5-6 fish the biggest being the female maroon clown