Do I Just Have Very Bad Luck Or Are A Majority Of Fish Infected?

Manthanol

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So if your LFS is not drip acclimating, then bring along your own refractometer and test the LFS water versus your own. Wholesaler water (IME) is 1.018 to 1.022. Really low. I suppose they have their reasons. Probably suppresses parasite activity, IDK.

Based on your water Sg test, you should either not buy (because the fish is stressed without acclimation to higher Sg) or drip for a LONG time yourself. My LFS drips for 2 hours to enter 1.024 store water.
+1 I get similar numbers when I test LFS saltwater (1.020-1.022). Maybe it's a higher stress to the fish to have to up its metabolism to actively secrete salt from its body. I've been pre-treating since most fish I get has come down with some type of disease/parasite. I usually have a clean QT ready for newcomers(I have 3 QTs) with the same salinity as in the bag and once temp is equalized the fish goes straight into QT. I keep it low until the end of treatment and increase it during the 2 weeks of observation.
 

Sump Crab

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IDK, I have never qt my fish and have had atleast one of my fish longer than my marriage (11 years). I recently traded in 3 of my fish (all of which I have had for nearly 3 years now) for 3 new fish. Yes I have experienced ich in the past but not in 5 or more years.

I am very selective when choosing a new fish, it must appear completely healthy and plump. Fish are exposed to all sorts of disease and parasites in the ocean and most are thriving in spite of this. I think the key is maintaining a healthy, stable tank and also feeding the best food possible. My main food is PE mysis and LRS food. I feed some NLS pellets also but the key is fresh and live food as supplementation. I order live blackworms once or twice a year, feed fresh (never frozen) fish roe from fish I catch while fishing, and throw in a live clam on the half shell every so often. I am a believer that there is benefits found in live and fresh (never frozen) food that cannot be replicated in frozen.

Also, about acclimation, I just soak the bag for temp and then strain them out in a net and throw in. Fish are a lot more tough than ppl give them credit for.
 

Manthanol

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IDK, I have never qt my fish and have had atleast one of my fish longer than my marriage (11 years). I recently traded in 3 of my fish (all of which I have had for nearly 3 years now) for 3 new fish. Yes I have experienced ich in the past but not in 5 or more years.

I am very selective when choosing a new fish, it must appear completely healthy and plump. Fish are exposed to all sorts of disease and parasites in the ocean and most are thriving in spite of this. I think the key is maintaining a healthy, stable tank and also feeding the best food possible. My main food is PE mysis and LRS food. I feed some NLS pellets also but the key is fresh and live food as supplementation. I order live blackworms once or twice a year, feed fresh (never frozen) fish roe from fish I catch while fishing, and throw in a live clam on the half shell every so often. I am a believer that there is benefits found in live and fresh (never frozen) food that cannot be replicated in frozen.

Also, about acclimation, I just soak the bag for temp and then strain them out in a net and throw in. Fish are a lot more tough than ppl give them credit for.
+1 I thought I was the only one who uses fresh caught fish roe to feed saltwater tank. I catch a variety of fish in the Gulf( I go fishing every week) and my fish and corals love it! I make a smoothie with other ingredients, speckle trout, mackerel, snapper all have good roe sizes for feeding.
 

Sump Crab

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+1 I thought I was the only one who uses fresh caught fish roe to feed saltwater tank. I catch a variety of fish in the Gulf( I go fishing every week) and my fish and corals love it! I make a smoothie with other ingredients, speckle trout, mackerel, snapper all have good roe sizes for feeding.

THE LATEST DONATOR OF ROE:

1565488150247KIMG05761 (2).jpg


Caught about 15 trout up to 4lbs but she was the unlucky one lol
 

Manthanol

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THE LATEST DONATOR OF ROE:

1565488150247KIMG05761 (2).jpg


Caught about 15 trout up to 4lbs but she was the unlucky one lol
Nice catch! I've also been hitting my limit on specks this year and smacks too. There is one thing I like to do when I harvest the egg sacks, I carefully remove the sacks without breaking and put them in a bleach bath for 5 min. then rinse with RO before using as food. A bleach solution of 1 tsp/gal has a concentration of 65 ppm of total chlorine which is used as sanitizer in food processing. I do this to avoid introducing pathogens from the wild.
 
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Marco S

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Just to update this thread...The order I got from Divers Den that started this thread was as follows:

1 Whitetail Bristletooth Tang
3 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Electric Indigo DottyBack

The Tang had Ich, but after 4 tank transfers there is no signs of it, but it now looks like he has HLLE. I put him in a larger holding tank with lots of rock and algae for him to munch on and hopefully he makes it. He eats LRS Herbivore Frenzy, Mysis Shrimp and Nori, but I will start adding vitamins as well.

One of the Blue Reef Chromis died of Uronema and the other two have some kind of bacterial infection or possibly Brook. Not sure what to treat them with yet, but they are in a 10 gallon with General Cure and I am feeding them Metroplex with Focus at the moment.

The Electric Indigo Dottyback is the only fish that never showed any signs of disease and is still looking healthy and eating good. He is in the 45 gallon now with the Tang under observation for a bit longer before putting him in my DT.

I am so darn sick of dealing with fish diseases!!! This feels like a full time job instead of a hobby. :(
 

Sump Crab

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Just to update this thread...The order I got from Divers Den that started this thread was as follows:

1 Whitetail Bristletooth Tang
3 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Electric Indigo DottyBack

The Tang had Ich, but after 4 tank transfers there is no signs of it, but it now looks like he has HLLE. I put him in a larger holding tank with lots of rock and algae for him to munch on and hopefully he makes it. He eats LRS Herbivore Frenzy, Mysis Shrimp and Nori, but I will start adding vitamins as well.

One of the Blue Reef Chromis died of Uronema and the other two have some kind of bacterial infection or possibly Brook. Not sure what to treat them with yet, but they are in a 10 gallon with General Cure and I am feeding them Metroplex with Focus at the moment.

The Electric Indigo Dottyback is the only fish that never showed any signs of disease and is still looking healthy and eating good. He is in the 45 gallon now with the Tang under observation for a bit longer before putting him in my DT.

I am so darn sick of dealing with fish diseases!!! This feels like a full time job instead of a hobby. :(


Is it possible that your system is just severly infected? I just got a fish on DD and its been extremely healthy so far.
 
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Marco S

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Is it possible that your system is just severly infected? I just got a fish on DD and its been extremely healthy so far.
I sterilize every tank with bleach for 24 hours after every treatment then let dry in the AZ sun for a couple days. If something survives that then I give up...

Edit: that includes all the equipment including the nets, seaweed clips, thermometers PVC etc... and I use a brand new Ammonia badge each time. All tanks are over 10 feet away from each other. I wash my hands after handling anything before touching another tank. I have done everything humanly possible to prevent cross contamination...
 

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I sterilize every tank with bleach for 24 hours after every treatment then let dry in the AZ sun for a couple days. If something survives that then I give up...

Edit: that includes all the equipment including the nets, seaweed clips, thermometers PVC etc... and I use a brand new Ammonia badge each time. All tanks are over 10 feet away from each other. I wash my hands after handling anything before touching another tank. I have done everything humanly possible to prevent cross contamination...

For some reason I thought these fish were showing signs of disease in your DT not QT.

I would try feeding live blackworms along with your frozen to see if that helps. I believe that the live food helps my fish ward off disease.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Time to try something different! Goosd Luck!
 

Sump Crab

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If it were me I would skip QT altogether. I don't ever QT, just select healthy looking specimens and feed really high quality food and live food. I keep fish for YEARS not months like most. Oldest is going on 11 years now.
 

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This has been increasingly worse over the past 5 years, with the past three being really bad and worsening quickly, IMO
 

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If it were me I would skip QT altogether. I don't ever QT, just select healthy looking specimens and feed really high quality food and live food. I keep fish for YEARS not months like most. Oldest is going on 11 years now.
What kinds of fish do you keep?
 
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If it were me I would skip QT altogether. I don't ever QT, just select healthy looking specimens and feed really high quality food and live food. I keep fish for YEARS not months like most. Oldest is going on 11 years now.
We will have to agree to disagree because if I did not QT, every fish in my DT would be dead because I have had a few fish come in with Velvet.
 

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We will have to agree to disagree because if I did not QT, every fish in my DT would be dead because I have had a few fish come in with Velvet.
I agree with this. It is tough to be in this hobby at times. But agreeing to disagree is the civilized thing to do.
 

Sump Crab

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What kinds of fish do you keep?

Right now :

YWG: 11 years
True Shepardi Angel: 3 years
Royal Gramma: 5 or 6 years

Just got rid of a bangaii cardinal that I had for around 3 years and an eightline wrasse that I had for 2 years to trade for different fish at the LFS. I picked up 2 fairy wrasse - no issues so far. As I just upgraded to a larger aquarium I just got a mystery wrasse from DD and also added a tailspot blenny and kept a yellowtail damsel that came with the tank I just bought.

The last fish I can remember losing were 2 during a move between houses and 3 fish due to carpet surfing in an old tank (I have a lid now). The only fish I truly had trouble with in the past were tangs who seem to be extremely susceptible to ich.
 

4FordFamily

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Right now :

YWG: 11 years
True Shepardi Angel: 3 years
Royal Gramma: 5 or 6 years

Just got rid of a bangaii cardinal that I had for around 3 years and an eightline wrasse that I had for 2 years to trade for different fish at the LFS. I picked up 2 fairy wrasse - no issues so far. As I just upgraded to a larger aquarium I just got a mystery wrasse from DD and also added a tailspot blenny and kept a yellowtail damsel that came with the tank I just bought.

The last fish I can remember losing were 2 during a move between houses and 3 fish due to carpet surfing in an old tank (I have a lid now). The only fish I truly had trouble with in the past were tangs who seem to be extremely susceptible to ich.
Most of the fish you mentioned are very hardy, I am not surprised by your success, but that’s still proof of good husbandry, good work!

I didn’t quarantine for my first ten years in the hobby and then i started wanting to keep difficult and expert level fish, namely tangs like Achilles tangs, more difficult angels, etc. Things have worsened so much I don’t know if I could do it again.

Five years ago my 125g wrasse tank had known velvet and I lost few fish over the course of a year until a power outage on vacation took out three large tanks with probably 100 fish in them...
 

Sump Crab

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Most of the fish you mentioned are very hardy, I am not surprised by your success, but that’s still proof of good husbandry, good work!

I didn’t quarantine for my first ten years in the hobby and then i started wanting to keep difficult and expert level fish, namely tangs like Achilles tangs, more difficult angels, etc. Things have worsened so much I don’t know if I could do it again.

Five years ago my 125g wrasse tank had known velvet and I lost few fish over the course of a year until a power outage on vacation took out three large tanks with probably 100 fish in them...

Ya I certainly don't go for fish that are known to have disease or be extremely prone to carrying them. I try to pick out truly healthy specimens to begin with.

I believe the key is providing tools for fish to fight disease themselves, they do have an immune system for a reason. Provide the highest quality food (live too) and stable conditions and most fish will protect themselves from disease/parasites IME.
 
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Marco S

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Most of the fish you mentioned are very hardy, I am not surprised by your success, but that’s still proof of good husbandry, good work!

I didn’t quarantine for my first ten years in the hobby and then i started wanting to keep difficult and expert level fish, namely tangs like Achilles tangs, more difficult angels, etc. Things have worsened so much I don’t know if I could do it again.

Five years ago my 125g wrasse tank had known velvet and I lost few fish over the course of a year until a power outage on vacation took out three large tanks with probably 100 fish in them...
That must have been devastating. :(

I currently have five Tangs and all of them except for my Achilles had Ich and or flukes coming in. Luckily I had them in copper from day 1 and they all made it. I had two other Tangs that had Velvet and flukes and one died and another Tang died of some bacterial disease that just took over his entire body. He was in copper and had Velvet also so I did not want to add additional meds and by the time the Velvet was cured it was too late to try and cure the bacterial disease.

On a side note: I am not sure why the Achilles is an "Expert only" fish. Mine is perfectly healthy and swimming and eating well. He got beat up by my purple and I had to separate them so he could heal, but I have not had any issues at all with keeping him healthy.
 

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