So I've been trying to stock my main display but I can't seem to keep my fish alive in quarantine. I've had 3 chromis and 1 purple fire fish die on me. The chromis were put in at the same time the fire fish was in by him self. It's a Nuvo 8 tank that's been up and running for 6 months I have the ammonia alert badge and it read no ammonia. It was started with water from a 2 year old tank and seeded with pond matrix. The chromis made it the longest and stayed alive for about a month the fire fish made it about a week. I tried drip acclimation and floating for the chromis. with the fire fish I floated and set the salinity in my qt to match the water from the lfs. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, the chromis actually made it through 2 rounds of prazipro and were about a week into copper fire fish didn't make it to the first treatment. All fish were eating and seemed healthy. The fire fish actually would hide most of the day but from what I read that was normal. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, any help would be appreciated
Fish keep dying in qt
- Thread starter rgodoy22
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
You may not be doing anything wrong. Chromis and Firefish are both notorious for high mortality rates. If you ever see a large school of chromis in a LFS it isn't unusual to see one or 2 dead ones that they haven't removed.
juicemanatx
Active Member
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I had a lot of trouble keeping Qt fish alive until I started using ammonia reducing sponges in the hob. I think in that small of tanks, there are still slight ammonia spikes that we don’t see on the indicators.
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Agreed. Unfortunately it can be somewhat difficult to get some fish through quarantine and copper — but those losses pale in comparison to those you’ll lose in a display that gets grenaded by velvet. Been there and done that. More than once, as embarrassing as it is to admit!
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
I wouldn't get one that I haven't seen in a store for at least a week or two. Unfortunately, they rarely last that long.
Another option would be to see if one ever comes in stock on Live Aquaria Divers Den section. They keep the fish for a few weeks prior to sale so you have a better chance avoiding fish hurt during capture and/or transit.
I agree with Brew12 and I would not buy a new arrival, usually those fish are stressed to the max and haven't adapted to captivity yet. I usually ask my lfs about the arrival date, whether the fish is eating or not and (important to me) what is the fish eating. My preferred lfs is kind enough and feed my desired fish...
If your lfs isn't very far from your home then you could go there and check on regularly base and in case they don't have the fish you like you can have a look at their fish, coral and invertebrates or restock your salt - foods - additives and things like that. On the other hand my preferred lfs has some nice cafe's and restaurants around and that makes most my visits worthwhile
cheers
If your lfs isn't very far from your home then you could go there and check on regularly base and in case they don't have the fish you like you can have a look at their fish, coral and invertebrates or restock your salt - foods - additives and things like that. On the other hand my preferred lfs has some nice cafe's and restaurants around and that makes most my visits worthwhile
cheers
Instigate
Valuable Member
I've seen purple fire fish at Aqua SD a few times now. And they will order you whatever. Just ask, they're super helpful and friendly there.
Oldsalt01
Well-Known Member
The only time I have ever lost fish in my 5.5g QT was when I was relying on an ammonia badge which was giving me totally bogus readings (0ppm vs 20-30ppm when tested with kit). That was two years ago. I haven't lost a fish since. Yes I have to stay on top of water params and do more frequent water changes, but with 5.5 gals it's no big deal. I just don't trust the badges. JMHO.
That is actually were I purchased it from. They were the only ones to have a purple one. I don't think there is that great of a selection of lfs here in SD or maybe I've just had bad luck but I do visit most at lest weekly some more than once a week. I may have to resort to online purchases
That's what I was thinking from what I've seen most people set up small tanks with air stones, but I was under the impression ammonia badges were the only way to go in qt due to medications such as copper giving inaccurate readings
Instigate
Valuable Member
For sure. I wish there were more options. I've been meaning to check out Reefer's Garage in Vista but never made the time.
I agree with Brew12 and I would not buy a new arrival, usually those fish are stressed to the max and haven't adapted to captivity yet. I usually ask my lfs about the arrival date, whether the fish is eating or not and (important to me) what is the fish eating. My preferred lfs is kind enough and feed my desired fish...
If your lfs isn't very far from your home then you could go there and check on regularly base and in case they don't have the fish you like you can have a look at their fish, coral and invertebrates or restock your salt - foods - additives and things like that. On the other hand my preferred lfs has some nice cafe's and restaurants around and that makes most my visits worthwhile
cheers
I actually live in the South Bay which technically only has one store and they haven't been to friendly with me so I try to avoid them. SD seems limited in lfs compared to what I see online from other areas
Velvet is what actually cause my first tank failure which was a 30 gal, that's what lead to me upgrading to the current 50 gal that I'm trying to stock and my 2 qt tanks. It was definitely a hard lesson learned
