Back in Hobby after 15 years

[travdixon]

Hello everyone, I had a 55 gallon back in the early 2000’s, and back in March purchased a 100 gallon used tank to get back into the hobby. I spent a month having it plumbed and buying all the equipment, and for the past 3 months it has been up and running. Up until a week ago I had 9 fish (2 Picasso clowns, 3 Bengali’s, a longnose hawk, bluejaw trigger, foxface and kole tang) along with 4 coral frags and an anemone. The kole tang was the second to last fish added, and I ended up introducing velvet, which wiped out my fish. I now just have the tank running with a fire shrimp, snowflake anemone, some snails and the frags. To say I’m gutted is an understatement. Will be fallow until probably the end of August

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Welcome back to the hobby and glad to have you part of the team

 

[travdixon]

Thanks, wish I was in better spirits at the moment. Velvet sucks

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Were you able to remove and quarantine are you treating with anything?

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

@vetteguy53081 any advice for ich treatment to help this gentleman out.

 

[travdixon]

I spent all my $$ on the display setup, and now wish I had set aside for a QT, but I didn’t. I literally was working with a LFS that had QT tanks to transfer my stock, and even had an offer from Dr Reef to ship them over and they’d QT For me, but the very next day they were all gone, stuck to the power heads or swimming upside down. Once I netted the ones still swimming they immediately died

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

Oh i see well hoping for the best man keep updating and hope things get better

 

[travdixon]

Thank you. Me too. Hard lesson and not something I enjoy posting, but others need to hear the good and bad. Velvet literally took all my fish in a few days. Seriously thought about breaking the whole thing down, but I’m not going to give up. If anyone is local to SoCal it would be nice to have a local to bounce stuff off of.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

For sure try getting in touch with @Lost in the Sauce @NowGlazeIT couple guys from cali might be able to put you in the right direction

 

[vetteguy53081]

The question is velvet or ich.
With ich, you can generally count the dots whereas with velvet, it represents the solar system as in the case of your tang. velvet spots on the fish that are much finer than the spots seen in Ich making it harder to catch until in cases too late to treat.
Some behaviors associated with a fish with velvet are :
- Scratching body against hard objects
- Fish is lethargic
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Rapid, labored breathing
- Fins clamped against the body
- rapid breathing and mucus around the gills

Fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium. As the disease progresses outwards from the gills, the cysts then become visible on the fins and body. Although these cysts may appear as tiny white dots the size of a grain of salt, like the first sign of Saltwater Ich or White Spot Disease, what sets Oodinium apart from other types of ich is that at this point the fish have the appearance of being coated with what looks like a whitish or tan to golden colored, velvet-like film, thus the name Velvet Disease.
Remove fish from main tank and give them a FW dip or bath and then place them into a QT with vigorous aeration provided. Treat the fish in the QT with a copper-based medication. Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name as ich or ick treatments, carefully read the box to be sure it is specifically designed to target Oodinium. My choice is coppersafe at 2.25-2.5 therapuetic level at 80 degrees monitored by a reliable test kit (no api brand either)

 

[travdixon]

Yeah definitely velvet. After about a week in the tank, the kole tang looked like I rolled him in powdered sugar, and the next day my clownfish and trigger looked the same. 2 days later everyone was gone

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Thank you. Me too. Hard lesson and not something I enjoy posting, but others need to hear the good and bad. Velvet literally took all my fish in a few days. Seriously thought about breaking the whole thing down, but I’m not going to give up. If anyone is local to SoCal it would be nice to have a local to bounce stuff off of.

So Cal homie right here. Ventura county specifically. Imma hit you with some of my history real quick

April of last year:

April of this year:

What's the point??

It gets better homie. Velvet Rocked me to the core. Was extremely expensive, and I could have easily thrown it in then.

Super happy I didn't.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Thank you. Me too. Hard lesson and not something I enjoy posting, but others need to hear the good and bad. Velvet literally took all my fish in a few days. Seriously thought about breaking the whole thing down, but I’m not going to give up. If anyone is local to SoCal it would be nice to have a local to bounce stuff off of.

So Cal homie right here. Ventura county specifically. Imma hit you with some of my history real quick

April of last year:

April of this year:

What's the point??

It gets better homie. Velvet Rocked me to the core. Was extremely expensive, and I could have easily thrown it in then.

Super happy I didn't. Where are you located? Where are you sourcing your fish to replenish and more importantly, Have you looked into and decided upon a route to take for future quarantine?

 

[travdixon]

Nice to hear bro, I need some uplifting encouragement right now. I am in the Long Beach area so a bit of a drive from you, but nice to hear from someone relatively close to me that has experienced a similar issue!

 

[travdixon]

I bought all but one fish (the kole tang!) from Age of Aquariums. The Kole came from Ellis Aquatics. I wasn’t even gonna buy him as I was there for my anemone, but I was getting algae so I said “well I need a tang”…..big mistake

 

[travdixon]

I got a few gift cards for Fathers Day towards the fish tank, so I will probably use that for a small QT system when my fallow period is up

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Nice to hear bro, I need some uplifting encouragement right now. I am in the Long Beach area so a bit of a drive from you, but nice to hear from someone relatively close to me that has experienced a similar issue!

Here's my MAIN takeaway:

I got a few gift cards for Fathers Day towards the fish tank, so I will probably use that for a small QT system when my fallow period is up

If you wait until your fallow is up you will be on month and a half behind.. Right now while you are fishless is the perfect time to be building up the QT, sourcing your fish, and getting them to observation at least on harder to find models. Plan for a minimum 45 days in qt and so long as everyone is ready, they can dump in Healthy Day one of your tank being back open for Business.

 

[travdixon]

You’re right. I might look into that this weekend….I was just in shock for a bit. I’m assuming I will need to drop a sponge or something in my sump to seed the QT for cycling, and I don’t think I’ll go so extravagant as you! My wife is already rolling her eyes at a fishless tank 3 months in.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

You’re right. I might look into that this weekend….I was just in shock for a bit. I’m assuming I will need to drop a sponge or something in my sump to seed the QT for cycling, and I don’t think I’ll go so extravagant as you! My wife is already rolling her eyes at a fishless tank 3 months in.

Feel free to hit me up. I'd outlined most of my process in my build thread and I'm happy to Talk it over with you before you set everything up and get going

 

[travdixon]

I have read to continue to feed the tank. I have the shrimp, snails and anemone, so I know they need to eat