Baby Hippo part 2

[Anonymous]

He's gone. Just gone. I can't keep new fish. The fairy wrasse is still okay, he's out and about and brave now, but it's only been 5 days now. The hippo made it 8.

I really don't understand. My 4 chromis and my hawk are doing great. My corals are doing great. My numbers are great - no ammonia, no nitrates, no nitrites. My tank looks good. The hippo is the 3rd new fish in a month, maybe month and a half to not make it. I lost an orange bar fairy wrasse and a black capped basslett. The LFS is blaming collection methods, but why doesn't everyone else seem to have this problem?

 

[SPC]

Tan, sorry to hear about your hippo. I know this probably won't help you but I buy only tank raised fish now. I know, I know, the selection is limited, but it is worth it to me to narrow my selection but increase my odds of getting a healthy fish.
BTW, I told you that hippo was a bad purchase.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

I knew that too, but he really looked so good.
this is awful. Everyone I put in my tank looks great, eats great and then dies.

 

[Carpentersreef]

TG,
Sorry to hear about your loss.
What did he look like when he died? Fuzzy? Spotted? Thin?
Can you tell me about any stresses that he may have had?
I forget, but what size is your tank?

Don't get discouraged about new fish. Keep us posted.


Mitch

 

[Anonymous]

Tank is a 75g (I know, but he was just a baby, I'll upgrade eventually) and the fish looked fine. He was eating and looked great. Now he's gone. I saw him yesterday when I went to work, I came home and poof.

The bristle worms and whatever else made light work of the basslet when he died - can't believe how quickly they can devour things, so I'm sure he's gone by now.

 

[esmithiii]

I have had the same luck with a small hippo. I plan on biting the bullet and going with a large one next time (in a few months). The last one lasted a month, and that was over six months ago. Sorry for your loss.

Ernie

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

In New Zealand marine fish get a minimum three weeks holiday at a quarantine facility before they go on sale.

Prices of fish are higher due to the longer soup-train between the reef and the reatiler. However, short-term mortality rates of retail fish are vey low.

Perhaps you could ask your LFS to "quarantine" the fish for you for a few weeks?

 

[Anonymous]

I've tried that too - I ask them to hold it for a week (and the orange bar fairy was already there 2 weeks) and they died anyway.

 

[DKKA]

Tangirl, fwiw I don't think you're the only one experiencing the phenomenon of not being able to add any new fish to an established reef tank.

I wish I had answers for you, but I don't.
I wish I did, cause I'm tired being stuck with only two fish in my 55. But at least in my case I know the cause - my clownfish just won't allow any newcomers. Those he doesn't outwardly attack, suffer from constant pestering, and lack of territory. He's a real SOB. It's a good thing I've had him for almost a decade, otherwise I'd stuff him and mount him.

For a while I was down to just the clown in the 55gal. I was finally able to get him to accept a yellow Tang. But only after a move - where they were added at the same time when the tank was reestablished. And only because the he couldn't bully the Tang.

I've heard other reports of people having trouble even though no obvious aggression,like you(unless you have some bad ass Chromis....

)
So who knows. Anyway, just wanted to offer my condolenses.
Dan

 

[Anonymous]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by DKKA:
<strong>unless you have some bad ass Chromis....

So who knows. Anyway, just wanted to offer my condolenses.
Dan</strong><hr></blockquote>

Cute.

Thanks. I do sometimes wonder if it is me. All those fish can't possibly be dying.

 

[Anonymous]

Just got a wake-up call. Kirtis can keep fish alive.

 

[kirtis]

hey tangirl i know im new but could it be a certain kind of coral you have that isn't good for fish , my petstore owner foudn out that he couldnt' have the certain kind of coral

 

[VkeSu]

Hippo's are easily stressed! Are you sure your chromis aren't chasing the newbies! Are you rearranging your tank when you add new fish? That the only way I can add fish. I have hippo, sailfin, and 3 percs. I rearranged each time I added something new.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure he's gone? They are really good at hiding when they want to.

 

[Anonymous]

No, no one bullied him. He would actually bully them at feeding time.

He always came out for food. Until now...

Thanks Rover...

 

[SPC]

[ November 25, 2001: Message edited by: SPC ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I am new to this, so I don't know, but I've never heard of that before. And I would think if it was an issue, my chromis and hawk wouldn't be too happy either. Steve, do you have any input?

 

[JeremyR]

Ask your LFS if they know the origin of the hippo. If they don't, it's indo and probably just not a good fish. The only hippos I will stock are soloman island hippos, and believe it or not, I have a well over 90% success rate with them, the only losses I get are the occasional incoming DOA. It's not the species people, it's the ORIGIN and the collection, shipping, and packing methods your fish suffer through. Properly collected, hippos are a hardy fish in a healthy system. Soloman hippos eat day 1, they don't spot up with ich on me, and they don't die on the consumers. Only problem is I'm unable to tranship solomans on a regular basis, so I tend to not have them for sale more than a few times a year.

 

[JeremyR]

Also FWIW, most of the blackcaps are haiti, they do use drugs to catch fish there, and I have definitely seen a degradation in quality of carribean fish in general. Some importers you can't even buy grammas and blackcaps from anymore, because you lose almost all of them do to poor collection/holding methods. And the fairy wrasse was most likely indo.. we all know how they catch fish there. If you want a hardy fairy wrasse, try the scotts, marshall island (purple with a yellow side stripe), or the hawaiian flame wrasses.

 

[esmithiii]

Tangirl,

I think that the

was a sign of sarcasm. How many new fish have you lost? I have lost the last 3 ocelaris clowns, one to an overflow and one to cold shipping conditions and one to unknown causes. It is diheartening indeed.

Ernie