My saltwater fish keep dying!?

Question

Sigh, okay. Well I do no fully understand as to why they ALL die, but they do. I have been catching my fish from the ocean, (I understand that is stressfull in itself) but now I can't manage to keep any of them alive. When I first started my tank, everything was great. Those fish lived for say, a month or so. Then went belly up. I have tested everything in my current tank. It has been established for around 3 months, ALL tests read perfect. They keep getting stressed out, I think. What can I do?

Answer 1

Stop taking them from the ocean. It is clear u do not know what u are doing.

Answer 2

you are taking fish out of the ocean which is the first big no no.  there is tons of stuff dumped into the ocean, That expelled into your tank can contaminate it and keep recycling thru the tank,   I doubt you are acclimating it and the parameters are undoubtedly different, if you want a saltwater tank, cycle your tank, and buy fish like everyone else has to do.

Answer 3

Whoa whoa whoa!

Its because you're taking fish out of the wild, and putting them in a tank.. Thats why they die. They were born in the wild, they are not used to tanks at all. In the ocean they go everywhere, you have trapped them and took them out of their environment. They have nowhere to go, they cant get away. So they get stressed and die. Wild fish are not pets. Just because fish stores have wild caught fish sometimes, doesnt mean you should take them out of the wild yourself.

Buy saltwater fish from the fish store like what every one else does. dont take them from the ocean. Fish store bought fish have already adapted to tank life, so they will be used to it already.

Its like if you were to suddenly wake up in a country where you dont know the language, or people.. You'll panic, you'll get stressed, you'll want to go home but you cant so you try and adapt to it.. Well, in a fishes case, it will die.. But in a humans case, we'd get home sick and do everything to get home..

Answer 4

'Wild' fish aren't meant to be kept as pets. They're probably extremely stressed out.  They're used to be in the wide open, not confined to a little tank. If you want to keep Saltwater fish, I would suggest going to you LFS (local fish store) and seeing what they have in stock. They may be expensive, but it will save you alot of heartache and money (food, supplies) with fish that are staying alive.

I'm not too familiar with Salt water tanks, but I hope that help!

Answer 5

first off, just about everything in the salt water fish hobby is wild caught, yes aside from maybe the "nemos" just about every saltwater fish you see in a pet sore was living on a reef 2 weeks before,

now that that's out of the way,

the proper acclimation suggestion was a good one, also what is the temp of the water were you are catching them? for example, if your taking a fish caught in cold San Fransisco bay water and putting them in a room temperature tank they will die, what kind of fish are you catching ? what is their proper diet? are they eating at all in your tank ? another possibility is that the first fish that dies may have brought a disease or a parasite into your tank that is killing all the fish after it,

just a few suggestions