2 Clown Fishes dead over 36 hours and 1 more acting weird! PLZ HELPP :(((

I just started a new aquarium...
i have a 30Gal tank with 18 lbs of live rock, I have a 50Gal AquaClear Filter...
a single Powerhead and my stats were all normal after running the tank fishless for almost a month: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate. my KH was really high but the fish store guy said fish can tolerate it and its all good.
so I bought 4 clowns, 1 blood redfire shrimp, 4 pijama fishes (school fish)since they were $5 only... I also bought 10 mixed snails for rock, sand and glass cleaning...

when I got home 1 of my clowns was away from the pack and moving with water current around the aquarium in shallow depth and breathing heavily...

long story short the next morning he died! then everyone else were normal and very active and no weird signs and they were perfect this morning when i left for work but when i came home I saw 1 of them dead on the sand with the shrimp on top of him drilling through his flesh! and another clown (the bigger one) is now breathing heavily with marks on his side swimming in shallow depth acting all weird like the 1st one that died....

I dont really give a damn about losing two fishes because I know the tank is new or they might have been sick or whatever you guys findout...
but I just wanna know what the issue is to prevent future problems...

thanks so much in advance

 

Well to start, shame on your LFS for letting someone brand new to the hobby by 8 fish, a shrimp and snails at once for a brand new tank! This is your problem. Even though your tank may have been "cycled", it was not even close to being ready for that many fish! I can guarantee there is ammonia present in the water. You should really return as many fish as you can, as soon as you can. Start off with 1 fish and the shrimp. And wait to add the clowns (max of 2!) last.

Then, after a month, add another. Repeat until the tank is stocked, which with a 30 gallon tank is going to be 4-5 fish total. Hopefully you see this as advice, and not trying to bash you in any way. I truly am sorry you have a LFS that would let you do this...

Edit: Also, you really should have at least 30 lbs of rock. And finally, in this hobby you really do need to give a damn about the livestock you purchase :/. Once you purchase them, you are responsible for their life! They are living creatures just like any other pet. I don't think you would say the same about a dog or a cat (or at least I hope not).

 

My guess..added too much fish + you didn't acclimate them. How did you put them in the tank?

 

I did what I used to do with my freshwaters.. left the bag in water for 10-15 mins and then fished them out of it! how was I supposed to do it...

 

Two popular methods that you need to research. One is to float the bags, add some tank water to the bags every 10-15 minutes while removing the same amount you are putting in. Do this for an hour or until the bag water matches salinity and pH of your tank water. Since you are floating in the tank, temp will be the same.

Second is to drip acclimate. Basically you dump the bag water and fish into a container, setup small tubing and siphon water slowly from the display tank into the container, while again removing the same amount from the container. Again you do this until all parameters match.

Unfortunately the way you did it is not at all advisable since the salinity & pH (among other things) could be far off.

 

That's good, you did it fine. Must have been the stock issue

 

just checked my ammonia and it's not high at all... 0.1ppm
so could you tell me any other reason why this is happening?? and why is it only happening to the clawns??
and by not giving a damn I didm't mean that I don't care about their lives, I do, and it really hurts that after all the wait this is happening... I meant it in a financial damn way...

 

the tanks that i chose them from all had 1-2 dead clawns at the bottom! or even one-eyed clowns :O
could that been the reason?! i should have gone to big al's instead of this cheap-ass asian place

 

So you probably introduced sick clown fish into a tank and now your tank has a disease in it that killed the other clown fish aswell..or they were all sick to begin with, not a good start.

 

ok what the F do I do then!!? -__-