Meet Fin, my first saltwater fish!

[Captain Quint]

Well, sad to say you were right . Came home from work yesterday and he was hiding in one of the caves in the live rock. Wouldn’t come out for anything. 10 minutes later he was upside down on the sand. Looking closer it looks like it was maybe a swim bladder issue or a bacterial infection. Lesson learned!

Any idea how things like this happen? My parameters spot on. He did really well for 3 days and then it all came so sudden.

Welcome.

I was happy for you, and now I'm sad. I'm sorry for the loss. Truly.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Exciting stuff. Just got my first, two clowns, a couple weeks ago.

Also just added a flame hawk and tailspot blennie. Both of those fish are really fun to watch

 

[HotRocks]

Swim bladder issues are out of your control.

I QT all new fish for at least 45-60 days for this exact reason. This hobby is difficult at times, fish are expensive and some species you won't stand a chance in keeping successfully without proper QT.

There is tons of great info on our disease forum, and if you are interested send me a PM and I will get you some links regarding proper QT etc.

Sorry to hear about your loss

 

[Mavric]

well we never can tell what might happen, i dont know alot about your setup but on very new tanks things can change fast, also a QT period is suggested to make sure there is no sickness, alot of the fish out there look great but after some time things show up, sorry for your loss but it is all part of the learning process

what is the details on entire system?size, hardware, testing equip. and everything else?

It’s a nano FOWLR setup at 13.5 gallons. No skimmer. Just a sponge filter with activated carbon and Fluval bio-max. Only thing added was a 240gph powerhead. Temp fluctuates between 79-80, salinity at 1.025, ammonia/nitrite at 0, nitrates between 0-5, pH at 8.2, other things not tested due to it being a FOWLR for now as I’ve heard these parameters aren’t too important with no corals. Been going super slow with everything, adding only one fish at a time. With a couple turbos for cleanup. I use an API saltwater kit for testing chemicals and an Instant Ocean hydrometer for testing salinity. Upgrading to a refractometer soon.

To be honest I didn’t know how important it was to have a QT setup for this reason. I’ve read some articles on setting up a cheap tank to run QT. May use an old Marineland 10g freshwater tank I used for my old betta back a few years ago. I figured since he was the only fish I could just dose the display tank directly but that was a dumb assumption because live rock and activated carbon are a no no in QT.

I think I’m going to focus on setting up a QT before I make my next fish purchase.

Would it be a good idea to dose the display tank with any meds since there was a possibly diseased dead fish in there?

 

[HotRocks]

It’s a nano FOWLR setup at 13.5 gallons. No skimmer. Just a sponge filter with activated carbon and Fluval bio-max. Only thing added was a 240gph powerhead. Temp fluctuates between 79-80, salinity at 1.025, ammonia/nitrite at 0, nitrates between 0-5, pH at 8.2, other things not tested due to it being a FOWLR for now as I’ve heard these parameters aren’t too important with no corals. Been going super slow with everything, adding only one fish at a time. With a couple turbos for cleanup. I use an API saltwater kit for testing chemicals and an Instant Ocean hydrometer for testing salinity. Upgrading to a refractometer soon.

To be honest I didn’t know how important it was to have a QT setup for this reason. I’ve read some articles on setting up a cheap tank to run QT. May use an old Marineland 10g freshwater tank I used for my old betta back a few years ago. I figured since he was the only fish I could just dose the display tank directly but that was a dumb assumption because live rock and activated carbon are a no no in QT.

I think I’m going to focus on setting up a QT before I make my next fish purchase.

Would it be a good idea to dose the display tank with any meds since there was a possibly diseased dead fish in there?

If you just allow the display to be fallow for the next 76 days you will not have much to be concerned about.

 

[Stonekeg]

Sorry to hear about Fin, but welcome to R2R! I'm sure you'll get everything smoothed out soon enough. It sounds like you do tons of homework, and are willing to put in the work. Good luck with whatever comes next in your tank!