So upset!

[AdamK1]

I'm so upset. Have made a mess up which I knew was a bad idea, but did it anyway.

I put two clowns in when my tank was cycled. 2 nights later they were both dead. I knew there was illness involved. Couldn't have been anything else. I figured as they were gone so quickly I was safe enough to continue stocking. I went to another shop and over a good period added some lovely healthy fish. All went well for a few weeks.

I then went back to the other shop and saw a fish that I really wanted. Looked perfect, and was in a different system to the clowns, so I went for it with reservations.

Within hours it was slammed with whitespot. My acclimatising process is spotless. General moving stress, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is my first tank for a few years, but a few years ago I kept large sps reefs and the lot. I'm not a newbie. By the next day it was obviously more than whitespot on this fish. Either brook or velvet, and now it's spreading. I'm literally watching my fish get sick and die 1 by one, and it's horrible. 4 down already, who knows how many more to follow.

Simple fact, either the clowns or the tang brought this in. Every other fish from the other shop was doing so well. I should have known better. I know I should be quarentining everything, but realistically I don't have 2 tanks to achieve this. I'm so angry, and this shop has cost itself thousands in purchases I would have made!

So do I have any options, aside from taking everything out, treating it, fallowing the tank, then putting it back? I'm now running UV, carbon, the usual stuff.

How about future stock? Of course I'll be adding nothing swimming any time soon. Will this ever be gone if any fish survive this illness and don't get taken out of the tank? Will this attack every new, slightly stressed fish forever until the tank is fallowed for 3 months?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[ReefingDreams]

If you don't run an appropriate fallow period and treat the fish, your tank will always have the disease. And it is likely that any stressed fish (nearly all new fish) will be afflicted.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I'm so upset. Have made a mess up which I knew was a bad idea, but did it anyway.

I put two clowns in when my tank was cycled. 2 nights later they were both dead. I knew there was illness involved. Couldn't have been anything else. I figured as they were gone so quickly I was safe enough to continue stocking. I went to another shop and over a good period added some lovely healthy fish. All went well for a few weeks.

I then went back to the other shop and saw a fish that I really wanted. Looked perfect, and was in a different system to the clowns, so I went for it with reservations.

Within hours it was slammed with whitespot. My acclimatising process is spotless. General moving stress, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is my first tank for a few years, but a few years ago I kept large sps reefs and the lot. I'm not a newbie. By the next day it was obviously more than whitespot on this fish. Either brook or velvet, and now it's spreading. I'm literally watching my fish get sick and die 1 by one, and it's horrible. 4 down already, who knows how many more to follow.

Simple fact, either the clowns or the tang brought this in. Every other fish from the other shop was doing so well. I should have known better. I know I should be quarentining everything, but realistically I don't have 2 tanks to achieve this. I'm so angry, and this shop has cost itself thousands in purchases I would have made!

So do I have any options, aside from taking everything out, treating it, fallowing the tank, then putting it back? I'm now running UV, carbon, the usual stuff.

How about future stock? Of course I'll be adding nothing swimming any time soon. Will this ever be gone if any fish survive this illness and don't get taken out of the tank? Will this attack every new, slightly stressed fish forever until the tank is fallowed for 3 months?

Thanks for any advice.

You need to be seriously budgeting for a QT system. Does not need to be complex or expensive.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm so upset. Have made a mess up which I knew was a bad idea, but did it anyway.

I put two clowns in when my tank was cycled. 2 nights later they were both dead. I knew there was illness involved. Couldn't have been anything else. I figured as they were gone so quickly I was safe enough to continue stocking. I went to another shop and over a good period added some lovely healthy fish. All went well for a few weeks.

I then went back to the other shop and saw a fish that I really wanted. Looked perfect, and was in a different system to the clowns, so I went for it with reservations.

Within hours it was slammed with whitespot. My acclimatising process is spotless. General moving stress, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is my first tank for a few years, but a few years ago I kept large sps reefs and the lot. I'm not a newbie. By the next day it was obviously more than whitespot on this fish. Either brook or velvet, and now it's spreading. I'm literally watching my fish get sick and die 1 by one, and it's horrible. 4 down already, who knows how many more to follow.

Simple fact, either the clowns or the tang brought this in. Every other fish from the other shop was doing so well. I should have known better. I know I should be quarentining everything, but realistically I don't have 2 tanks to achieve this. I'm so angry, and this shop has cost itself thousands in purchases I would have made!

So do I have any options, aside from taking everything out, treating it, fallowing the tank, then putting it back? I'm now running UV, carbon, the usual stuff.

How about future stock? Of course I'll be adding nothing swimming any time soon. Will this ever be gone if any fish survive this illness and don't get taken out of the tank? Will this attack every new, slightly stressed fish forever until the tank is fallowed for 3 months?

Thanks for any advice.

Adding fish too soon was the main issue. You wanted to set up a quarantine tank and leave the other fishless for 6-8 weeks to allow any parasites to life off without a host fish which you can do now
Additionally, assure ammonia and nitrate has not risen
Treat quarantine with coppersafe followed by prazi pro monitoring water quality and adding aeration

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'm sorry for your losses. But there is a lot of info missing..... what size tank and how did you cycle the tank and for how long? Do you have sufficient rock and filtration? Tank pics always help.

The fact that you had fish for a few weeks and everything was fine and then they got disease and died, that puts a red flag in my head that something is off in the tank.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I am sorry this happened. It is disheartening to lose fish this way. I would bet that the last addition is to blame. Do you know whether the “bad” LFS keeps their fish in low copper levels? Some of them do so the fish look healthy there and then you bring them home and if they are carrying something it spreads like wild fire.

 

[AdamK1]

I'm sorry for your losses. But there is a lot of info missing..... what size tank and how did you cycle the tank and for how long? Do you have sufficient rock and filtration? Tank pics always help.

The fact that you had fish for a few weeks and everything was fine and then they got disease and died, that puts a red flag in my head that something is off in the tank.

300l system. Cycled with Red Sea reef mature kit. Cycle went perfectly. Nothing off in the tank. Piles of rock started dry, over sized skimmer, over sized uv, carbon reactor, roller mat. 10% weekly water changes. Very little algae, no3 about 7, po4 about 0.01. Running nopox and triton other methods flex 2 part. Corals doing well, fish doing well, until I added this tang.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

300l system. Cycled with Red Sea reef mature kit. Cycle went perfectly. Nothing off in the tank. Piles of rock started dry, over sized skimmer, over sized uv, carbon reactor, roller mat. 10% weekly water changes. Very little algae, no3 about 7, po4 about 0.01. Running nopox and triton other methods flex 2 part. Corals doing well, fish doing well, until I added this tang.

ah, you didn't mention the tang in the original post (if you did then I apologize I missed it). Tangs are known to get ick very easily....sorry for that.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I'm so upset. Have made a mess up which I knew was a bad idea, but did it anyway.

I put two clowns in when my tank was cycled. 2 nights later they were both dead. I knew there was illness involved. Couldn't have been anything else. I figured as they were gone so quickly I was safe enough to continue stocking. I went to another shop and over a good period added some lovely healthy fish. All went well for a few weeks.

I then went back to the other shop and saw a fish that I really wanted. Looked perfect, and was in a different system to the clowns, so I went for it with reservations.

Within hours it was slammed with whitespot. My acclimatising process is spotless. General moving stress, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is my first tank for a few years, but a few years ago I kept large sps reefs and the lot. I'm not a newbie. By the next day it was obviously more than whitespot on this fish. Either brook or velvet, and now it's spreading. I'm literally watching my fish get sick and die 1 by one, and it's horrible. 4 down already, who knows how many more to follow.

Simple fact, either the clowns or the tang brought this in. Every other fish from the other shop was doing so well. I should have known better. I know I should be quarentining everything, but realistically I don't have 2 tanks to achieve this. I'm so angry, and this shop has cost itself thousands in purchases I would have made!

So do I have any options, aside from taking everything out, treating it, fallowing the tank, then putting it back? I'm now running UV, carbon, the usual stuff.

How about future stock? Of course I'll be adding nothing swimming any time soon. Will this ever be gone if any fish survive this illness and don't get taken out of the tank? Will this attack every new, slightly stressed fish forever until the tank is fallowed for 3 months?

Thanks for any advice.

Sorry to hear.

A proactive quarantine would be best, but you may be limited to what drugs you can get in Ireland. You could still run a QT with hyposalinity, that would deal with marine ich and flukes.

Current Quarantine Protocol

2024 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed, proactive quarantine process can effectively eliminate these...

www.reef2reef.com

Another thing to be aware of are pet stores that hold their marine fish at lower salinity/specific gravity. Trying to acclimate them into full salinity is very stressful to the fish.

Jay