....And THIS is why I will quarantine from this day forward!

[ReelRednekReefer]

Alright. 2 weeks ago I had to take down my 45g DBP tank to make room for my new 90g due to limited space. So I transferred all the rock that had coral on it and couple other select pieces (~12lb) to a spare 29g along with 4 small clowns, cleaner shrimp and assorted snails. I filled it with tank water from the 45G so all rock and water was totally, completely cycled! Tossed on a hob filter for moment along with a single Jeboa wp-10. All life was going along as normal.

A week ago today my wife and kids were at Petco and saw a gorgeous Coral Beauty. Being close to Valentines she bought it for me, unbeknownst to me. So here she comes with this fish and a piece of LR with a coral that looks like a flesh colored toadstool with star polyps coming out of it - No clue what it is. So not wanting to disappoint the kids and I wanting the fish ( after the 90 was running) I drip acclimated for and hour and then replaced the water with fresh salt mixed water. Fed and fish ate readily.

The next day when I got home. The Coral Beauty was flashing and was covered in tiny white specs. Having never seen this in my tanks, I assumed ich but researched to try and confirm. Seemed like a match so I began treatment with Herbtana Reef formula. All seemed well. Wife called next morning to say Coral Beauty was dead but 4 clowns, coral and shrimp were fine. She pulled CB out. I continued with Herbtana treatment as per intstructions. All continued normally until noon today when I found 2 clown dead and skin sloughing off the other 2! Quick search revealed either disease or possible ammonia/nitrite poisoning. I quickly checked parameters. Twice each ( API and RedSea). Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates <5. With a likely diagnosis of some disease I treated with an emergency dose of Stress Coat I had. By 4pm I had lost the largest of 2 remaining clowns but inverts and corals seem fine.

First off. What the heck does this sound like? These clowns lived fine in my other tank for a month together. never any aggression, actually seemed to pair up and ate great.

Second. How do I treat the tank? Last clown? Can I ever transfer the contents of the tank to my 90 as i had planned? I intended to transfer the corals and keep tank running as a QT but as usual I seem to be a day late and dollar short.:mad2:

 

[Triggreef]

Sounds like velvet to me. A much faster killer than ich with a similar life cycle. I would run everything without any fish for 8 weeks minimum. As for the remaining clown, if he's not dead yet you can try a fresh water dip for some immediate relief, but it will need to be quarantined separately and treated. And when you fresh dip, you need to match temp and pH with your tank water.

LFS can and usually do run low levels of copper. This is a good thing however, it doesn't keep the fish clean and healthy of everything. It can mask things like velvet so even though the fish looks healthy it might not be. Quarantine everything.

 

[Humblefish]

Sounds like velvet to me. A much faster killer than ich with a similar life cycle. I would run everything without any fish for 8 weeks minimum. As for the remaining clown, if he's not dead yet you can try a fresh water dip for some immediate relief, but it will need to be quarantined separately and treated. And when you fresh dip, you need to match temp and pH with your tank water.

LFS can and usually do run low levels of copper. This is a good thing however, it doesn't keep the fish clean and healthy of everything. It can mask things like velvet so even though the fish looks healthy it might not be. Quarantine everything.

^^This. Velvet is not manageable with Herbtana, garlic, UV, etc. like ich sometimes is. The surviving clownfish needs to be treated with either chloroquine phosphate or copper for 1 month. Clownfish have an incredibly thick mucous coat, which is why they are so hardy and disease resistant. However, velvet (dinospores) are still coming & going from his gills. Eventually the clownfish may build up temporary immunity, which means he won't show symptoms again for up to 6 months but will still be a carrier capable of infecting other fish.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Well this morning at 4am the last clown was dead. Pulled it out and flushed it. No fish in tank. Will leave fallow until 90 is ready. Rock won't even begin curing for several more days then it'll be at least 8 weeks befor I even start the cycle. So this tank will be kept running for a QT.

What setup, CUC, and maintence regimen is recommended for a QT?

Hob filter, ph, BB, small amount of LR couple snails and monthly 10% WC would be my guess.

 

[Humblefish]

Here is how I QT *with pics*: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/189815-how-quarantine.html

 

[cmaxwell39]

First off, sorry to hear about the loss of all your fish. It is always disheartening to lose animals that are on our care, especially when they have been with us for a while. Quarantining everything from this time forward is a good plan and will guard you against this happening again in the future.

As far as your QT setup, what you are suggesting sounds good, except I wouldn't put liverock in a QT. Instead, put some PVC pipe and fittings, clay pots, etc. in for the fish to, hide and find cover in. This is for two reasons. The biggest one is that liverock can absorb copper and other medications that you may have to dose into a QT to treat an incoming fish making it difficult to maintain therapeutic levels of the medication, and also making it almost impossible to completely remove them from the system when the treatment time is over as the absorbed medications would then begin leaking out into the aquarium.

The second reason in my mind is less important, but more just an aesthetics thing. If you have liverock in your QT and you get a hair algae or other nuisance algae problem, it can be difficult to eliminate the pest algae from that rock. With PVC or clay pots, you can simply remove them from the QT tank and scrub them off or replace them with new.

Once again, I am sorry that you are dealing with the loss of all your fish. We all make mistakes in this hobby. What separates the successful reefers from those that seem to get in and then on a few months to a couple years get right back out is the ability to learn from our mistakes. It sounds like you are doing this. Keep your head up, and good luck with the new tank. A 90 gal is a great size.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Thanks humblefish! Very informative! That's identical to what mine is (will be) except I have some LR. Definitely gonna use some pvc "caves" though!

 

[swhobbie1]

Here is how I QT *with pics*: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/189815-how-quarantine.html

Question for you ... the HOB with sponge ... do you recommend its use when you are putting meds in the QT ?

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Cmax. Will the hob filter or media sponge be enough to cycle the tank and keep it cycled? Should I just keep the tank running or put it up just when I need to. Having it set up and maintained seems like a better setup for stress reduction

 

[cmaxwell39]

I leave mine running all the time. Assuming you are only keeping one or two fish in it at a time, the HOB sponge/filter media will be enough to cycle the tank. The other thing I do to help is to use the water that I remove from the display to do water changes on my QT. Helps with cost, and keeps parameters between the two tanks very similar.

One other thing to mention, if you do shut it down in between additions and want to cycle it using a filter pad that you place in the sump of the display, always make sure it is a new filter pad that you put in your sump. Never take a filter pad out of the filter on the QT and place it anywhere in your main system. You could potentially introduce disease to the display in this way.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it though.

 

[Humblefish]

@swhobbie1 Yes, it will not absorb meds the way rock/substrate can. I leave it in 24/7.

@ReelRednekReefer What I do is "seed" the sponge (or multiples) in a high flow area of my sump at least 1 month prior to QT. This allows time for enough nitrifying bacteria to transfer onto the sponge to then use as a bio-filter once placed back into the QT HOB. It effectively replaces the need for LR in QT. You can keep using the same sponge in QT - so long as it doesn't go too long without fish to "feed" the bacteria in the sponge with their poop. :wink: Or just replace it with another sponge you've got going down in the sump whenever you buy a new fish (replacement sponges are cheap.)

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Thanks for all the help! Got a plan now.

 

[hatfielj]

Moral of the story...Yes, QT EVERYTHING YOU PUT IN YOUR TANK (Corals, Rocks, Fish, Algae, everything). But, most importantly, Don't buy fish from Petco! There are much more deserving vendors who will sell you healthier fish than that corporate monster of a company. Just my opinion though

Oh and for what its worth. I have a QT tank that consists of a 20 gal long tank. I used a HOB skimmer, heater, circulation pump, top off pump, and a hob aqua clear filter that I filled with live rock rubble. This keeps the tank cycled and with good quality water. You can put new fish and coral right in this tank for QT (which consists of watching them for several weeks to make sure no diseases pop up. IF you need to treat something with medication, the filter with the live rock can simply be turned off for the duration of the treatment. This keeps the live rock alive and prevents it from exposure to medicines. I keep mine running all the time, but recently took it down because I'm not adding any more live stock to my current tank.

 

[Elysium]

I have two tanks for quarantine: one for fish and one for corals. I do this because it allows me to treat the fish, if necessary, with medications without the stress of moving it to a hospital tank. The coral tank remains medication free, especially if you need to use copper.

 

[Humblefish]

IF you need to treat something with medication, the filter with the live rock can simply be turned off for the duration of the treatment. This keeps the live rock alive and prevents it from exposure to medicines.

You gave some excellent advice above! :bigsmile: However, I would consider removing your HOB from the tank when using medication for reasons outlined here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/190292-aerosol-transmission.html

 

[hatfielj]

You gave some excellent advice above! :bigsmile: However, I would consider removing your HOB from the tank when using medication for reasons outlined here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/190292-aerosol-transmission.html

Interesting... Thanks for the link

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! This 29 will be my QT once my 90 is ready.

As stated in the OP my wife bought the fish on her own. She didn't know any better. She didn't really mind the $30 down the toilet for the CB but when her 4 clowns died she was quite unhappy to say the least! Now she seems fine with the $200 order needed to get free shipping from liveaquaria.com! She has the fish in a bag, frozen so she can show them at Petco when she demands her money back! I say lesson learned the hard way.....

 

[Humblefish]

Now she seems fine with the $200 order needed to get free shipping from liveaquaria.com! She has the fish in a bag, frozen so she can show them at Petco when she demands her money back!

Don't tell her that Petco now owns Liveaquaria. :crossedlips:

 

[BryanB]

I am sorry if it has bean stated already but I heard petco had brooknela in some of there stores and to me it sounds like that. They don't keep copper in there water either because the coral and rock are in the same tanks. Also copper has no effect on brooknela. Sorry for the fish loss

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Don't tell her that Petco now owns Liveaquaria. :crossedlips:

I heard they bought out Dr. Foster & Smith but never realized that LiveAquaria WAS Dr. Foster & Smith until just now:cry:. I'm still relatively new to the hobby, please excuse my ignorance. :tongue:

So where can I buy livestock and coral online? I have never bought livestock online but I thought that liveaquaria was the go-to source.