Everyone gets swings , yours is fairly large , but i wouldn't worry too much about it.

There are ways to minimise it , but they involve having a sump and lots of macro algae.

Hi Justine,

I'm not sure what your initial post about pot plants and sponges is about , but , yes to keep a mandarin you would need to get a pod culture on the go.

Get yourself over to Reefworks and purchase their copepod culture kit. It contains all you will need to start a culture and harvest the pods.

You never syphon off all the pods , always leave some and then they continue to breed. I have had my culture going for over 6 months now from the same original batch of pods ..

Link below.

http://www.reefworks.co.uk/default.asp?section=37&subpage=4341

or sort yourself out a culture vessel , and an old air pump and do it on the cheap ...

http://www.reefworks.co.uk/default.asp?section=37&subpage=4292

Possible that they are just sorting out their dominance.

If there are just two left , one will be male and one female. They'll settle down i'm sure.

Minimum size for a shoal of chromis they reckon is 6 in a tank , and they do better when fed often ( 5 or 6 times a day ! ) , this reduces the aggression and calms them down because there isn't such a tussle for food because it is coming regularly , they know that they will get some later. If they are just fed once a day , it becomes 'all or nothing'

The smaller one will probably be the next to die , they will hound it and prevent it from feeding . Then you will be left with a pair of chromis ( dominant pair ) and a pair of clowns , i bet nothing dies after that.

If you want to give the little chromis a chance , re-home him , either to another reefer or to the LFS.

Ah , i see .... so the angels weren't together ?

Chromis are notorious for picking off the weaker ones , they isolate it so it can't feed , and then when it dies they move on to the next one , until just the dominant pair remain.

Doesn't always happen , but does sometimes.

I wouldn't add anything else , and just monitor the stock you have now , keep the levels tip top and see how you go ....

Sorry , it's not much help , but it's all you can do really.

See how the surviving fish do for a few months , if anymore die , then we can think again . if they don't we have to just assume that you have had a run of rotten luck.

Just run through your stock list that you currently have please ?

One thing that pops out immediately , is that you had a rusty angel and a coral beauty in a 190L tank . Dwarf angels are aggressive towards each other , and in a small tank like that could have hassled each other to death .

No more than one dwarf angel per tank is the rule unless it is a massive tank ( there will always be someone who pipes up with the fact that they had 2 in a nano , but generally it is a no-no ) ...

6 lines are also notoriously aggressive , i had one and it was fine for months and then went berserk , hassling everything and i had to get rid of him.

I'm beginning to suspect that it was quite an 'aggressive' tank , and too small for the inhabitants to find territory away from each other , and the constant in-fighting probably weakened them to the point where they were susceptible to illness that normally wouldn't have bothered them , but in their weakened state , did them in.

Not done it myself , but i beleive Leggy ( another marine advisor ) has done it.

Bank it up at the back of the tank and cover with sand ...

It's a lot to be fair . Are they all from the same LFS ?

Do you buy sympathy fish ? something we've all been guilty of at times .... Ah ! look at the poor little guy , i'll give him a home ...

What i am trying to get at is could they have been weak sick fish when you got them ?

Are they stock you have had for ages dying or are they relatively new fish , that last a few weeks then kark it ?

Do you spray the glass cleaner on the glass or onto a cloth and wipe it on the glass ?

Do they die after you have polished the glass ?

You aren't seeing any obvious whitespots / disease or anything ? they are fine one minute and dead the next ?

Just racking my brains to try and think of something , sorry for the barrage of questions.

Tank water .....

Thought i might have Fish TB , as i was pretty wheezy on saturday night. All ok now though.

Don't have a pump or any new fangled equipment like that !

Honestly , after i saw you on saturday , i was sick. Literally made myself ill with the amount of saltwater i had swallowed doing syphons ....

Dehydrated all night , my lips are still chapped and sore.

I was in bed by 8pm.

Then the next day Dave ( the coral beauty ) , had some white spots on him and i was freaking out . I've never had WS in the system so couldn't work out what was going on and where it had come from.

They've all gone now , so i guess he was just a bit stressed , and / or it was debris sticking to him.

I've ordered an ember blennie which i'm going to pick up next week once i'm sure its all good.