davelin315 February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 A few weeks ago I added several new fish and since I'm not a believer in QT I added them to various parts of my tank in different sumps. I had a minor outbreak of what I believe to be ich in the tank and lost one fish and then another, but these were the ones in QT. I didn't see any signs of brook or oodinium as the fish were not immediately and weren't showing any signs of rapid breathing or hovering at the top or bottom. This was a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, the fish overall started to improve again and were eating hardily and acting normally. Then I ignored the tank for close to a week due some family matters and then the losses started to come. The fish looked horrible and so I pulled some and medicated the main system. Over the course of 3-4 days I have slowly lost the battle to the point where I have about 5 fish left, none of which look like they'll make it. I am thinking brook or oodinium now because of how quickly they died but I can't figure out why it didn't take them out right away. Fish that exhibited almost no symptoms perished within hours while others that seemed to exhibit the symptoms lived on for a long time. There is no rhyme or reason to the order they are dying in, either, even a coral banded shrimp died out of the blue today. The list as far as I can tell so far: - Blue Line Tang (the most likely source of the infection) - Moorish Idol - Unicorn Tang - Powder Blue Tang - Yellow Tang - Blue Belly Regal Angel - Yellow Belly Regal Angel (assumed dead, no body found) - Flame Angel - Imperator Angel - Purple Tang (assumed dead, no body found) - Clarkii Clown - Lemonpeel Angel - Pink Skunk Clown Pair - Mysteri Wrasse - Solarensis Wrasse (assumed dead, no body found) - Lycopod (assumed dead, no body found) - Royal Gramma x 2 (one body found) - 3 Stripe Damsel (assumed dead, no body found) - Yellow Tail Blue Damsel (assumed dead, no body found) Fish that are still alive but not likely to make it through the rest of this evening - Dussumieri Tang x 2 - Pacific Blue Tang - Ocellaris Clown - Percula Clown - Copperband Butterfly - Clarkii Clown - Yellow Tang - Lawnmower Blenny Others? Can't remember and don't see any to be sure. None of this is making sense, though, as the fish should have been affected the same so it doesn't make sense that for instance one of the Clarkiis died that was looking far healthier and the other that I expected to die has been alive for 3 days like this. Also, given the fish that are in there, how is it that a percula is alive but a skunk clown dies? I didn't have the heart or desire to do a scraping and look under the microscope to pinpoint exactly what happened - too depressing. Also, treatments seem to hasten the death (formalin dips, copper, methylene blue, you name it, it seems to shock them to death when I treat them and the fish that were hospitalized went faster than the others). No lectures on QT, please, I chose my path long ago and with the nature of some of the fish I have kept, I would probably still have stuck with the same type of program based on their sensitivities to medication and overall stress. Kids are sad, wife is sad, we're all sad over here... next step is probably to tear it all down to try and rid the system of what ails it and think about starting completely over again... can't even sell any of the stuff in good conscience or give it away as I'm afraid that whatever knocked the system down will travel with whatever is left since even some inverts can carry these protozoan infections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Dave, that sucks. No other way to put it. I am very, very sorry to hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dano February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Hi David... so sorry to hear of all that death... I have been through three different recent losses related to moving (twice) and tank plumbing problem (once) and it is awful, frustrating, sad and impotent to experience all that death and finding more and being overwhelmed with what to do. I wish you and the family well and that you will soon be able to rebuild what sounds like a magnificent tank. Daniel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainRon February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Wow, that is absolutely horrible. No lecture on QT here - I've never QT'd anything. I guess I've just been lucky enough to dodge this devastating bullet. Do you think this experience will change your stance on QT at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 February 29, 2012 Author Share February 29, 2012 Wow, that is absolutely horrible. No lecture on QT here - I've never QT'd anything. I guess I've just been lucky enough to dodge this devastating bullet. Do you think this experience will change your stance on QT at all? Probably not, but it will probably influence where I shop. I don't typically buy fish that haven't been through the process at a store or at least that have been there long enough to know that they don't have something devastating like brook or oodinium, which I still don't know that my fish have/had. Tough call... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Dave, this is so sad to hear. If I had any livestock I would offer to help you rebuild the tank with it, but I am not there yet. How about I promise you the first cleaner or fire shrimps that I raise to maturity? It may not be much but your loss is such a shock to all of us who have watched your thread. Keep your chin up and keep going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando77 February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Sorry to hear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishie February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Omg this is horrific Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightline February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 wow so sorry been there before not on that scale but for lact of better words that SUCKS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainRon February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Probably not, but it will probably influence where I shop. I don't typically buy fish that haven't been through the process at a store or at least that have been there long enough to know that they don't have something devastating like brook or oodinium, which I still don't know that my fish have/had. Tough call... I know what you mean. Yours certainly isn't the first catastrophy we've hear of with a new fish addition yet there's some of us that just don't/won't QT. I have resolved to be more inquisitive about how long a fish has been in a system and to ensure / see them eating before I take them home. A friend from here lost a fairly pricely fish recently from a respected local vender - fish came down with a mega case of ich right after being introduced to the tank and was dead the next morning. Not nearly the level of your tank devastation but I think the similar precautions apply. In the end I know I'm more or less rolling the dice with each new addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Hang in there Dave. You've survived poop in your tank, you'll survive this too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 (edited) I'm very sorry to read this, Dave. I feel your pain and frustration. It sounds like what I went through several months back. I thought it was ick at the beginnig too. I treated for everything if you'll recall. At the end I was convinced it was velvet but I really don't know what wiped out 21 fish in 10 days. Some had signs others didn't. I'm very sorry for your losses. Edited February 29, 2012 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvreef February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 so sorry to hear this....I like you did not qt until I got a fish from a so called clean supplier and killed alot of my fish like you....I now do a qt on new fish just in case....let us know when you start looking for new fish and I am sure we as members will be able to come up with something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Wow, so sorry to hear about your loss!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcoop78 February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Hello, I am new here and would like to begin by giving my condolences to the OP. That was quite a list of beautiful fish, many of which I wish to one day have... Which leads me to my question: will a UV sterilizer help in a situation such as this one, or is that not a viable solution? It seems like too easy of a fix to be a good one, but I thought I'd ask for the learning opportunity... TIA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
collegeman February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 Sorry to hear about your loss! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amos February 29, 2012 Share February 29, 2012 So sorry to hear about the losses, Dave. Hope you are able to figure things out. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 Dave- sorry to hear. Let me know if you need some help with the tear down and rebuild. Any chance of an outside contaminant causing this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 Dave- sorry to hear. Let me know if you need some help with the tear down and rebuild. Any chance of an outside contaminant causing this? Same here, I can usually help on the weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 So sorry to hear that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 So sorry to hear Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 Sorry to hear the bad news! This sounds like theincident I had back in November when I got a group of fish from a source inHawaii that supposedly QT'ed them. Everything was fine for about two weeks thenI lost all fifteen fish in two days and the ones in the dip seemed togo faster. Then I went three days with no deaths but somehow I cross contaminatedtanks because the display showed the same signs as the QT. I had five more gowithin three hours and the only two fish that survived were my biggest fish,the 8" grouper and the 10" vlamingii. I was very much considering changing hobbies after that event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 Really sorry to about your loss. Same thing happened to me in December. Only fish to survive were a pair of hoovens wrasses. Funny thing is that I didn't know they survived until two weeks after the carnage and the tank was sitting in fresh water for a few days. No medications helped. Fish that infected my tank was from an online vendor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roni March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 Dave, Really sorry to hear about your losses. I'm going through a similar problem, though I do qt new arrivals. I haven't lost anything yet but will be losing fish soon and can only imagine what you're going through. If you tear down and end up restarting, I'm happy to give you what frags I have available. Sorry, Roni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjgr34 March 1, 2012 Share March 1, 2012 (edited) Sorry for your loss. I don't think I can offer any help, but keep the boards updated and I'll jump in if I can. Edited March 1, 2012 by tjgr34 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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