Frustrated with the tank now what...

[Magma]

My tank is coming up on its 2 year mark and my fish are growing and having a great time but the problem is I cant add more.

Every time I try to buy a new fish and add it, it ends up going into the rock work night 1 or 2 never to be seen again. Yet all my old fish are fine, no fighting, everyone eats and is out at various times.

What can I do?? Should I tear out all the live rock and rework the entire tank then try a new fish?? Do I need to remove someone who might be the silent bully?

I haven't bought new fish in a long time because I know from loosing some over a year ago that its just not worth the risk. But now im starting to slow down on the coral up keep and want more fish.


Stock List is as follows
(72x20x20 tank)

Foxface
Blue Tang
Yellow Tank
Yellow Eye Kole Tang
6 Line Wrasse
Yellow Tail Damsel
2x False Perc
Banggai Cardinalfish
Coral Beauty
Long Spin Urchin


Any tips would be helpful, I would like to add that the damsel and the 6 line are both great fish who dont seem to bully anyone over food or space from what I can tell and have been part of my tanks for over 4 years now.

[toytech]

you could try an acclimation box if you think theres a bully , some fish on that list can be aggressive . 6 line , or the tangs could be the culprit.

[Slyguy00]

Whenever I add new fish that get picked on I put a divider in the middle of my tank and keep my current fish on one side and the new fish on the other. After a few days things always seem to be OK. I had a copperband butterfly get picked on almost to death by my tang. Put in a divider for 3 days and when I took it out they were fine. However not everybody's tank is able to be divided. Like it has been said an acclimation box might also work. How big is your tank? That could also be an issue

[Magma]

Whenever I add new fish that get picked on I put a divider in the middle of my tank and keep my current fish on one side and the new fish on the other. After a few days things always seem to be OK. I had a copperband butterfly get picked on almost to death by my tang. Put in a divider for 3 days and when I took it out they were fine. However not everybody's tank is able to be divided. Like it has been said an acclimation box might also work. How big is your tank? That could also be an issue


125gal tank, I posted the dimensions ;)

I guess I will need to look for an acclimation box then and maybe try that out. How long should you leave a fish inside the box for?

[The Guy]

I've got a similar problem, My coral beauty passed on a month back and I replaced him with a beautiful flame angel.
The problem is my pair of clowns think he's a threat I guess because of his color and drive him crazy, the only good thing is he gives it back as well. I hoping they all get past the aggression, I think it's going to take some time though.
The acclimation box is a great idea but I'll never catch anything with all rock work so I'll just have to let it sort itself out.

[daplatapus]

I've read doing a re-aquascape will blur the territorial lines and start everyone off from scratch. Any way of moving a few things?

[reef-keeper]

You could also rearrange the rock work just before adding the new fish to cause the fish to loose their territorial boundaries and force them to create new ones.

[The Guy]

I've read doing a re-aquascape will blur the territorial lines and start everyone off from scratch. Any way of moving a few things?
Actually I just did a small rescape on the left side of my 90g yesterday so we'll see how that goes, maybe I should do the right side as well.

[Magma]

I've read doing a re-aquascape will blur the territorial lines and start everyone off from scratch. Any way of moving a few things?

I could, the tank has been setup this way since we started it so lots of coral growth but im sure I could find a way.

I was worried this might end up being an option, think if I am going to do its going to be a big change.

[asylumdown]

I've read doing a re-aquascape will blur the territorial lines and start everyone off from scratch. Any way of moving a few things?

I've personally never had any success with this method. The territories that the fish we have the most problems with (tangs in particular) have 'territories' in the wild that are dozens to hundreds of times larger than most people's tanks. Some don't even maintain territories.

I don't think it's an issue of most fish thinking "hey, this tiny pile of rocks is my pile of rocks", it's an issue of another fish with features or colouration that triggers aggressive tendencies in them being placed inside what they would normally consider their personal space and them not being able to get away from each other. Eventually they just used to one another, but I don't think re-arranging the rocks has much of an impact on their psychology beyond scaring everyone in to a corner while your arms are in the tank.

[Magma]

So would you recommend an acclimation tank then rather than changing up the tank layout?

[asylumdown]

An acclimation box where everyone can see each other is worth a shot. But have you confirmed that aggression is the issue? Are you quarantining your new fish? Even if it's not to treat them for disease, I have yet to see a fish in a fish store that couldn't stand to gain some weight, many are downright emaciated by the time you get them home. I use the QT period as much to get them eating and confident as I do to treat them for disease. Dropping a fish that's half starved and has just been flown half way around the world in a dark, tiny bag in to a tank full of healthy, aggressive resident fish is a rough way to introduce any new arrivals. If you've got low levels of ecto-parasites in your system like ich that your resident fish have all developed acquired immunity too, the combination of stresses would be enough to take out most fish.

If you're not already doing it, I'd recommend bringing your new fish home to a QT tank where it's just them and you can introduce all the foods they'll need to compete for in the big tank. Once they've visibly gained some weight, then I'd introduce them in an acclimation box and wait until your aggressive fish stop taking runs at it. My powder blue would have killed my copper band had the copper band not been in perfect shape when I put it in, but because of the QT process the copper band was able to defend itself AND compete for food until the PBT lost interest, which took about 5 days.

[Magma]

I will admit in the past I havent always used QT methods. I try to never buy a fish that is looking weaker I try to pick out healthy looking fish when I buy them.

But the last round of fish I tired out was 6 Bicolor Anthias. I had them in QT for about a week and saw them all eating and acting normal. I added them to my tank and they all went straight into the rocks like I was expecting them to. I would say in less than 20 days I went from seeing all 6 to not seeing any of them, almost like they are being picked off one by one. No abnormal tank spikes, all the other fish seem normal, corals are doing fine & the ones that lasted always came out quickly to feed.

Needless to say loosing 6 fish in a month really turned me off of anything for the tank in the last 8 months. Just been doing regular water changes and cleaning the glass, really frustrated with it and im slowly working my way back up to trying more but I dont want to be stung from something I might be able to avoid.

[Galizio]

Redoing aquascape works for me, add a second yellow tang and they were fighting at the point that the new one was hiding beyond a rock for a week or 2, I had to target feed the poor guy, so I move everything on my tank and now they swim together all the time,is crazy but that worked for me...

[Magma]

Sadly I think I have found the problem...the 6 line has started to be aggressive towards my larger fish, trying to chase them around the tank. I think the tangs find it fun because they seem to play along for a bit but when they are done they turn and stand ground. Seems he may have to go only problem is catching the little bugger...