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75 gallon tank

Sad day for the 29

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Came home today and was missing my little clownfish, Waggles. Looked all around and found him, turned into jerky, laying on top of the baseboard heater.

He was the third permanent (I say permanent because I didn't know any better than to follow a particular fish store's advice and used damsels to cycle the tank when it was first set up...sorry.) fish in the 29. (Purple firefish 1st-added Nov 8, 2008; Wheeler's Watchman Goby 2nd-added Dec 3, 2008 and Waggles was added Dec 13, 2008). He/she was always healthy and happy, would eat flakes from my finger tips, attacked the pipette when feeding frozen food, and was in general a joy to watch. Model citizen of the tank. Never bothered any of the other fish as long as they stayed away from his "tree" of xenia (first and biggest clump in the tank). He/she'd been with us for a while.

I guess I've been lucky to have gotten by this long with an open top.

So the fish tally isn't so good. In nearly 4 years I've had:
(1)Several yellowtail and one domino damsels (which required completely tearing all the live rock out of the tank to remove. Even without the concerns about how tough it is on the damsels to use them for cycling a tank, the amount of work required to get them out once the tank is cycled is not worth it. Do yourself a favor and use deli shrimp, ammonia, or one of the prebottled methods to cycle your tank. These fish all survived and went back to the fish store as trade ins (lowered price of firefish).
(2)A purple firefish: very entertaining and neat fish. Was with us for about 2 years (quit keeping good records after about 18 months). Just disappeared. One night he was there, the next morning he was gone. Never found any sign of him.
(3)Watchman goby: still in tank
(4)Waggles the clownfish: jerky, found today
(5)Flameback Angel (was supposed to be a Centropyge Argi - Cherub Angel, but fishstore sold it during the 2 week waiting period and gave me the Flameback for half price as a way of saying they were sorry, should have waited on another Cherub) 29 has always seemed too small for the Flameback - he constantly moves around the tank and chases anything that gets near him. Still with us. Probably will trade or sale him when I move to the 75. I don't want him to eat all the "sticks" I hope to put into the 75.
(6)Psuedochromis Fridmani - Orchard Dottyback: jerky, jump from tank and found cats playing with him in the last couple of months.

Not a very good track record, I'll admit. The clownfish was the reason my wife let me set up a saltwater tank in the first place. Maybe I'll get a pair for the 75.

Blake

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Categories
Tank Entry , ‎ Random Thoughts

Comments

  1. NeenahFoxxe's Avatar
    I'm really sorry to hear that I can relate to how you feel. A couple of weeks ago one of my clowns disappeared into the overflow... lets just say I was heart broken because I thought he was gone gone... I'm so glad that in my desperation to find him I thought of using a mirror to look at the back of the tank. I was soooo happy and nervous to have found him... I was scared to stress him out with the net. It took me about 30 min to finally fish him out... Had I not found him or killed him from net stress I'd be devastated. Again I'm really sorry for your loss
  2. melev's Avatar
    I always feel badly when a clownfish dies. I don't know why that is, but when one of mine died about ten years ago, I bought the remaining clownfish an anemone and still have that anemone to this day. That clownfish lived 12.5 years before dying all of a sudden overnight, and that too really bothered me.

    It sounds like you do a really good job caring for your fish. Hang in there.
  3. baker.shawn's Avatar
    im sorry to hear about your clown, my fish enjoy hiding on me and inducing mild panic attacks lol losing a fish is never fun....

    may i recomend a clear mesh top they sell the materials at BRS since i lost a cleaner wrasse 2 years ago ive always kept it on
  4. blakew's Avatar
    Thanks Shawn. I've seen the diy versions (buying the parts separately from one of the big box stores) but never knew actual kits were available. BRS definitely makes it easy with these kits. Maybe I can get one ordered and put together before I have another jumper.

    I'll definitely have one of these kits on the 75.
  5. joeogio's Avatar
    sorry for your loss man, i personally haven't lost any fish "saltwater fish that is" but id be crushed if something happened to my clowns or any of my fish. i have however lost plenty of coral and a couple of cleaner shrimp and that always sucks. hopefully the odds will be in my favor when i go setting up my new build, that during the transfer i dont loose any fish. anyways best of luck.