Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please help. I am new to salt water. I have been doing fresh water for a long time and wanted to take a step up to salt. Got a 100 gallon tank. All live sand. 1 false coral cave. 1 live rock. and one statue for decoration and hiding. Tank is cycled. I have 2 powerheads and a Cascade 1200 canister filter. I have set up an all fish tank. No reef. I started out with a snowflake moray, some sort of tang, panther grouper, Lunare wrasse and a niger trigger. A few days ago my tank got too warm...way too warm. I came home and my house was hot inside nad the tank was around 90.. All my tanks were. My freshwater fish didnt seem effected by it. But my wrasse, tang, and niger trigger were all nose down, tail up spinning in circles. The tang died yesterday. The trigger is near death and the wrasse isnt far behine. They are both just laying on thier sides now not moving. breathing..but not going anywhere. I've been keeping hte house cool and the temp at around 78 since the incodent. I would say that was 4 days ago it happened. I go some new fish expecting those to die. A got a huma huma trigger, and I cant think of the name of the other trigger.. its very popular and pretty... alot of arching lines on its body, blue, black and white, and changes color as it gets older. Well, these guys are acting like poop too. Everything hides in the cave. Nothing eats. They act miserable. So now maybe it is not the temp effecting the other fish? The only thing eating anything in my tank is the eel. He seems fine. The grouper I used to see eat silversides the first few days I had him. But I havent seen him eat since that day I came home. he wasnt acting weird like the others. But he hides and doesnt eat..that I see. I am up all hours of the night so I know they dont just wait til night. Food just acumulates in thier tank. I was told to feed the aquadine. I also try throing in brine shrimp and sometimes bloodworms when I have some left over from my fresh water tanks. PH, salinity and amonia levels are perfect. Along with all the other nitrate and everything. No problems. I had an oily substance on the top of the water yesterday.. I dont know if it was from the dead tang or if some chemical got in there. I pulled the tang out that day. I also did a small water change. Prolly about 15% to try and get rid of the oily substance at the top. I dont know what else to feed these guys. Dont know why they are hiding. Dont know how to help my sick fish and keep my others from ending up the same way. PLease help in any way possible. Thank you.

The fish I could not think of the name to was not a trigger but a Emporer angelfish. An interesting thing I have seen in the Niger trigger is I put him in a big fish net and put food in. He has been laying on his side in one spot for the last 2 days. But now that I have him in the net he is swimming upright and eating the food in the net and acting fine..... Ok, so maybe I need more hiding places to make these guys feel more comforatble to eat? I have the antient temple statue thing, false coral cave, and one live rock with holes in it. But perhaps this isnt enough.... Is there any plants or anything else I can do to make these guys feel more at home? I dont want to do reef since I have critters like the eel and others that will tear it all up. I also tore up some shrimp and threw it in tonight. The huma huma looked like he might have been nibbling some. Still havent seen the angel eat. The wrasse is also still laying in the same spot.... I havent seen it eat either.

Have you tested your water? I would add more things many triggers like to wedge themselves into rocks when they do not feel secure. How much live rock do you have? Even if you only have fish I would have at least 50 pounds in there.

hmm, I thought I mentioed I tested my water? Everything was normal. Perfect levels... And now everything seems to be going good. Everything except the wrasse is eating.. I'm sure he eats too... I jsut dont see it.. he is always hiding,,,,,he doesnt bury himself though! When I bought him he was burried under the sand at the pet store.. they sai this was normal. But he doesnt bury himself here. He just hides behind rock. I DO need more live rock...more rock in general. I plan to get that next pay.
Now my only problem seems my huma huma is making himself right at home in here and thinks he owns the tank already! He chases the wrasse and Niger Trigger nipping at them.. no bite marks yet, but I'm sure its soon to come. All the more reason I need more hiding spots and rockwork. He even chased the grouper today when it went to get some silver sides. He wasnt even hungry anymore. He would just grab the fish nad move it so the grouper couldnt have it. I can't believe this greedy pig! Oh yeh, he also saw my snowflake moray stickinghis head out from his hiding spot and chased the eels head making it hide! He is getting too damn bossy.. What to do!? I read about them and it said that the Huma huma is one of the few triggers that should do well in a comunity tank.....not too aggressive.. whats the deal with him! Doesnt he know how he should behave?! lol
Good thing I did reading too! i was going to get a clown trigger..... not anymore! I usually read on everything before i get it. But they dont always work out like some people say. I hope this rock and plants help calm his agression.