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Old fish ok. New fish dying.

25 9:28:46

Question
I have had a 35g fish/invert tank established for 5 months now. Shortly after cycling I added a Midas Blenny, Lawnmower Blenny and two Clowns. Also Sally lightfoots, camel shrimp, tuxedo urchins, purple lobster and to this day they are doing great. On and off for the past couple months or so I have been trying to make new additions and nothing will survive. I've lost 2 angels, 3 sets of damsels' two spotted goby and a butterfly fish. My question is I why are the first additions doing well but everything I've put in recently not surviving? My wate quality is great. I have a nice fugue with a sock filter so I would say water quality isn't the issue but I'm not an expert lol. It's trivial because the successful fish swim in the same water as the ones that have died. For example: my lemon peel angel survived over a week and was eating well. He looked real happy but this morning I woke up to him floating. Sometimes they'll show disoriented behavior ect. like usual stressful behavior and sometimes die without warning. None have laste dmore than a week or so. Could I be not acclimating them right? I figured if thAt was the case they would die faster.... I understand a fish may die but this is getting quite expensive lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
Sean,  The biggest problem I see is you have loaded your tank much to quickly. These system's are very delicate and the slightest imbalance in water quality or stress from adding to quickly is very detrimental to your reef system.The next thing is the type of fish you are adding. Damsel's though related to your clowns have a nasty disposition and will smack your blennies and shrimp around with their tail. Your angel is aggressive and will make quick food of your shrimp. They are not for small reef tanks. I am going to give you my honest advice your tank is WAY too small for something like an angel. If you can get a couple shrimp and clowns in there and some blennies leave it at that. Your big swimmers for instance your angel's they need room. I would not recommend less than 125 gallon tank. Big filtration. This fish does not like being confined to small spaces. You have a nice small salt tank...not really a reef system so to speak it is not planted but, has the perfect fish for a small tank. Don't add anything else or you may crash your tank. If you decide to go bigger and you have question's about what goes well together I am here or if you have any other questions please ask. Good Luck, Tina