Good things never come without a price...

[dgasmd]

Well, I am pretty upset right now. I have 2 dead fish and 2 more to join them by tomorrow for sure. Let me give more history. About 4 weeks ago, I bought a 360 gal tank set up used. I wanted to trasnplant my 125 into it. The 125 had been thriving and the fish were healthy, growing, and eating well. The corals had colored up pretty nicely and all the frags were growing. I figured the bigger tank would be nothing but a huge improvement to an excellent stock.

 

While the set up was being done, the contents of the 125 were put in a 100 gal rubbermaid tub under NO bulbs. This lasted 2 weeks!! At the end, all the corals remained alive but had turned poo poo brown in color. 2 of the fish died: mandarin and a citron goby (hated him anyways for eating my acropora polyps). All the contents were moved to the new tank. Everything looked great. Going from 960 watts of VHO to 1200 watss fo MH with 20K bulbs was a great move. Corals are already coming back in colors and some are developing new colors they never had. The fish were doing great, so I had the stupid idea of adding some more fish since the tank was new with much more room, better skimmer, and all. Got a flame angel and a hyppo tang. They looked very healthy and were eating well. I had never quarintine fish although I know I should.

 

What happened next? An outbreak of an angry case of killer ich!! My flame angel has not been seen in 2 days (presumed dead inside the rock work), my gorgeous powder blue dies today after getting coated so bad overnight that it looked like I coated him with south down sand, my naso tang and hippo tang are likely to be dead by tomorrow since they are both coated and already show body errosions and opened sores. I tried getting these guys out for treatment, but getting even these dying fish out of a 360 gal tank with about 400 lb of rock is only wishful thinking! :angry: On the other hand, my yellow tang, clown, blenny, royal gramma ( which I now realize I haven't seen in 2 days either), and 6 line wrasse look as if nothing is going on.

 

I still don't know if it was the new fish that brought it in (very likely ), the shock of the move that brought it on, the larger temp swings with the lights on, going from deep sand bed to dead DSB, the rise in nitrates from constant 0 to about 15 PPM, or what the f.... In any case, I am extremely upset. I loved these fish and this is a huge loss for me. I had had kept freshwater fish for 12 years before and never lost a fish once. Not even when I was collecting the rare, disease prone, and expesive goldfish. I had never had a disease with saltwater or even lost a fish until now.

 

Needless to say, I am not buying any fish for a couple of months. Even then, quarintine and treatment before they make it to the main tank. I guess lerning the hard way is the stupidiest and worst way for some of us. Sorry for the post, but I had to vent somehow.    :(

[dgasmd]

Well, they did die. All is left now is the clown, yellow tang, and 6 line wrasse. :(  I need a drink ???

[Guest bferris01]

Sorry to hear the bad news :(

 

Hope things start to look up for you soon.

 

Brian

:(

[Guest DebC11]

So sorry ..and know what you just went through.  I've a 10G that I've had setup for two months now, all the SPS frags are doing well and my BTA is happy.  But in the last month I have lost two different sets of clowns from Ich. One pair lasted 7 days, the second only four days before they were covered and fuzzy.  LFS tested my water and said it couldn't be better, I asked for the salinity on their tanks and it read 1.024 and they ran copper.  So now what I've got left is a cleaner shrimp that is cleaning the BTA and I am afraid to put in any other fish, only to watch them die.

Really sorry for your lose.

[eddi]

I am going through a similar situation in my 360.  I will recap; please note that I waited at least 2 weeks between adding fish.

 

I set up my tank with 300 lbs of SD, 25 lbs of live sand and 300 lbs of live rock.  I let it cycle until all my parameters were 0, then waited two more weeks.  I started adding fish:

 

1) 4 chromies - no problem

2) 4 more chromies and a long nose hawk - no problem

3) 2 lobsters, a blue and a spanish, I had in another tank - no problem

3) a pair of cleaner, pair of coral banded and a pair of gold banded shrimps - no problem

4) a scopas and naso tan - no problem

5) a pair of lamark angers - no problem

 

then I ordered a pair of Japanese Swallowtails from the Marine Scene in California and all h*ll broke loose.  I acclimated the fish as I always do and they hid for two days.  Did not worry much because they were active.  One morning the male showed signs of ich.  I tried to catch it but could not; the next day the female had it.  I almost climbed in the tank but caught them and removed them to a QT tank; they both died.  

 

Within 8 days I lost the lamarks; within three weeks I lost the naso.  I made two large water changes within a week (about 100 gallons total), waited three weeks and added an atlantic blue tang.  It died in three days.  The remaining fish and crustaceans I are fine.

 

I have made another large water change, about 60 gallons, waited three more weeks and I just added another atlantic blue two days ago.  So far so good.

 

I don't know whether it was caused by stress, or the shipment, or something in my water. I don't know if it is a bacteria that has taken root in my rocks and will always be there.   If this atlantic blue dies I am seriously considering emptying it and starting over.

 

Sorry about the long post but i wanted to let you know you are not alone.

 

 

Eddi

[dgasmd]

Thanks for all the sympathy.

Eddi:

I am going to actually do a 100 gal water change tomorrow. Then, I am going to wait for 2 months before I add anything else and will quarintine the h*ll out of it before I add it to the main tank. I ahve so muhc rock, hiding places between the rocks, and so many corals that it is impossible to get them out once they are in the tank. My other clown fish died and my yellow tang is also severely sick too. The only fish that shows no signs whatsoever is the 6 line wrasse. Then again, he is the only fish left besides the moribund yellow tang.

 

Alberto