How many fish did you lose in your first year?

[dtruitt]

Three months ago, I resolved to run fallow and treat fish with CP to eradicate crypto in the DT. Today I'm super frustrated realizing that the whole ordeal may very well have killed more fish than it may have saved. Just about a year in, it seems that I've lost about 3/4 of all fish I've tried to keep.

Hopefully, this round of QT will ensure the long term health of our fish, and there were learning experiences in a lot of these fatalities, but it's still really crushing and makes me feel like I've been far from the responsible fish keeper I should be.

Summary of deceased / alive are below.

Deceased:
1 Mochavinci clown - sucked into hob filter in QT
1 Firefish - Mysterious injuries
1 Royal Gramma - Unknown, made it one night
1 Mandarin - Just about DOA
2 Damsels - Aggression
1 Sailfin Tang - Unknown, died in QT.
1 Pintail Wrasse - Unknown, maybe a bad reaction to prazipro
1 Orchid Dottyback - Aggression / Disease?

Moved Fish To QT To Eradicate Ich

1 Damsel - Aggression
3 Clownfish - Aggression (Attempted to create a harem, tried separating them with a breeding net but the net wasn't totally secure and there were some break ins and break outs)
1 Bellus Angelfish (Surgeons turned on her one day and she never had a chance)
1 Firefish - Unknown (Seemed to struggle to compete for food)
1 Goby - Unknown (Very cryptic fish, never saw it more than a few seconds at a time)

Moved Fish back to DT

1 Scribbled Rabbit - Injury incurred in transport
1 Yellow Tang - This one really upsets me. He looked great going back in last night but I found him dead on the sand this morning. My best guess is that he was sleeping by the frag rack and got ripped up by the powerhead.

Alive:
2 Damsels
2 Clowns
1 Sixline
1 Kole Tang

 

[New&no clue]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I'm at just about a year and a half and 99% for my losses are due to my error as well. It sucks because you think you're doing everything right, only to find out maybe not. I try to learn from each one and take it slow.

I've lost
Firefish- injured in QT tried different meds but never recovered.
Purple Firefish- died in DT after almost a year. 95% sure he was injured by bistleworms
BiColored Blenny- Fine one day and then dead the next
Yellow Wathman Goby- assume crushed by rocks due to accidental movement
Bonded pair of Shrimp Goby- aggression, turns out they weren't so bonded
Yellow watchman Goby- did in QT, possibly due to injury. He was really jumpy and every time I came in the room to feed them he would jump out of the water and smack onto the lid.

Current Fish
2 Black and White Clowns
Coral Beauty
Yellow Tang
Starry Blenny
Spotted Goby
Mandarin
Fairy Wrasse
2 Snowflake Clowns
Green Clown Goby
6 Line Wrasse

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Sorry for your loss, I had my fish for many years but did lose one fish in my tank. He decided to find a small opening in the lid and landed on top under the lights. He was our baby - Radian Wrasse. Another fish we lost was in QT for a very long time, possibly 8-weeks, problem after problem - Potter's Angelfish.

2000 Clown
2010 Filefish
2016 Starfish
2017 Blue Tang
2017 Clown

 

[Spieg]

Was decades ago... Lost all my fish at about 1 year in because a sea apple got sucked into a powerhead and poisoned my tank. Gave up the hobby for a while as a result.

Quaranine can be pretty hard on fish. Most of my losses now days happen in QT.

 

[Hallowhead]

In my main tank the only fish I've lost to date are fish that have jumped out of the tank... So like 3 - somehow they jumped thru the screen.

My frag tank I don't wanna talk about it.. more than I can count / remember. They were all quarantined fish but for whatever reason none stuck around. Hoping my current batch last ! Need to keep adding more just need to go slow

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

YWG - Jumped while lid was off
Stripped Damsel - cornered and devoured by arrow crab
coral angle beauty - stuck to powerhead and never recovered
bi-color blenny - murdered by maroon clownfish
cleaner goby - disappeared during vacation
6 line - murdered by neon dottyback

8ish african cichlids from bloat and aggression

I feel terrible about my early start. About 6 months without a loss and all of those happened within 2 years...

 

[Jon Fishman]

From memory......

PBT. Never stood a chance, got him already sick
Frostbite Clown Jumped, picked on by other.
2 Wrasses. I don’t know what they were, but they weren’t cheap! I wanted the cool looking ones. Added 3 at once, lost two within a month from aggression
Quoyi Parrot. This one hurt the most. No idea what happened to it.
Box Fish. Probably couldn’t handle the flow in my tank. Will try again with bigger one. Never found him

 

[Streetlamp]

1 Clown disappeared over holidays never found.
1 neon Goby disappeared never found
1 Firefish jumped as a result of aggression only lasted an hour.
1 Sand sifter, not sure I suspect malnutrition.

6 remain alive and well.

 

[Sticker shock]

First group of fish was rough:
2 Ocellaris: 1 brooklynella, the other in QT treatment
Firefish: went into the rocks at night and never came back out
Tomini: Ich and lost during QT treatment
Kole x 2: Ich and lost during QT
Starry Blenny: lost during QT
Diamond Goby: jumped

These were all in the first 6 months. Since then I stopped treating my fish with a QT. Never went fallow but have since seen no signs of ich with any addition

current stock is
Leopard wrasse
2 Cinnamon clowns
Starry Blenny
Canary Blenny
2 Rainfordi gobies
Tiger Goby
Ruby Red Mandarin

I think staying away from the Tangs might be the key.

 

[dtruitt]

First group of fish was rough:
2 Ocellaris: 1 brooklynella, the other in QT treatment
Firefish: went into the rocks at night and never came back out
Tomini: Ich and lost during QT treatment
Kole x 2: Ich and lost during QT
Starry Blenny: lost during QT
Diamond Goby: jumped

These were all in the first 6 months. Since then I stopped treating my fish with a QT. Never went fallow but have since seen no signs of ich with any addition

current stock is
Leopard wrasse
2 Cinnamon clowns
Starry Blenny
Canary Blenny
2 Rainfordi gobies
Tiger Goby
Ruby Red Mandarin

I think staying away from the Tangs might be the key.

Tangs definitely present some challenges. Unfortunately, they are by far the most effective CUC you could ever hope to have.

 

[badluckman]

Sorry for the loss. Must be especially rough losing them to QT.

I've got ich and ich magnets in the tank, but an oversized UV is really helping so hopefully I'm not adding anything to the list anytime soon.

Losses since start about a year ago:
1 Adorned Wrasse. Jumped and became fancy catfood..
1 Leopard Wrasse. Spinal injury on arrival and had big trouble catching food, did not manage to survive.
1 Powder Blue Tang. Died to aggression, a scopas whacked him after a week of friendship in 30 seconds flat. Did not survive the night in isolation.
1 Cleaner Shrimp. Think it failed to molt correctly, not sure at all though.

Until 3 days ago it'd be a Yasha Goby on the list too. It was a juvenile, maybe 1cm(0.4inch) long had been missing for 9ish weeks after introduction. Thought maybe the salaris had gotten hold of him or that one of the big hermits had eaten him since it wasn't scared at all the first day in the tank and was now nowhere to be found. Turns out he had somehow gone into the overflow down to the sump and made a heroic leap into the lidless inactive skimmer. Found the Yasha while cleaning the skimmer from snaileggs under hot water, barely alive and very malnurished. Dropped it back into the tank and after a few seconds of twitching it started breathing normally and quickly found the pistol shrimps cave and has been living there since.

 

[Streetlamp]

Unfortunately I have one more to add to the list. My lovely Timor wrasse was stuck to my power head yesterday I thought I saved him. Unfortunately when I came home today we had a sinker

 

[Hugh Mann]

I'm nine months into my first year.

Dwarf Lionfish - Velvet
Tomini Tang - Velvet
Lemonpeel Angel - Velvet
Coral Beauty Angel - Velvet
Lyretail Anthias - Velvet
Flame Hawkfish - Unknown Cause, during Copper
Bluestreak Wrasse - Carpet Surfing

Current
Marine Betta
White eyed moray eel
Gold Dot Maroon Clownfish
Hippo Tang

All my losses were totally preventable, I was too dang stupid and did not quarantine a batch of inverts, resulting in velvet that devastated my stock. Hawkfish died during treatment, which likely wouldn't have happened without the velvet. Wrasse jumped because I forgot to replace a cover on a 2" slot in the lid.

 

[Crashnt24]

I didn't lose any fish in my first year of owning a tank, I did however lose 100% of my fish 2ish years ago due to a skimmer malfunction when I was on vacation. It was a tragic moment for me. I had some of those fish for 6 years. I ran my tank fallow for three months after that as I lost all motivation. My tank became infested with dino's since I wasn't feeding or housing fish.

 

[gentlefish]

Thanks for the treat. It opens up old wounds of idiocity and pain, as I consider my fish part of my family and myself to be responsiblle.
COVER: 1 Neon goby-jumped, got glass lid 1 neon, 1 jawfish found a way through. 5mm IS TOO MUCH. NETCOVER.
Velvet: because I got a frag from what seemed a health sisplay tank. 1 longnose hawkfish, 2 clowns, 1 Achilles Tang, 1 Potters, 2 Scissortails. GET A OBSERVATION TANK. BUY LIFESTOCK IN BATCHES AND QT.
Toxic Dinos because I cleaned my tank and replaced the Phosphate binder. DO NOT SKIMP ON TESTING NITRATES AND PHOPHATE AND OBSERVE.
1 Potters-age
1-Potters 1 Kole in QT. DO NOT BUY FISH THAT YOU DO NOT BELIEVE WILL SURVIVE.
1 Pyramid Butterflyfish in QT followed by ick of the survivor. I did not stand a chance here.
Anything in bold is just what I yell at myself in the middle of the night.....

 

[AC1211]

In freshwater I was at maybe 30% and to this day through 5 years of freshwater I am at 86% going up slowly as I get new fish and move out older ones or have a few old ones die (I don't count very old fish).
In saltwater well its horrible through almost 2 years now.
I want to consider my 2 clowns a success even though they died of velvet because I kept them for over a year. I lost 14 total fish to velvet all failures except for the 2 clowns to me. I have a yellow coris wrasse that I have had for over a year and survived velvet. As for inverts I have failed with every single coral of about 40 to 50 I would need to reference my records to check. I failed with a cleaner shrimp and 2 urchins. I also am about 10% with about 70 small cleanup crew crabs and snails. (Once again I would need to check my record.). However taking out recent huge failures due to taking coral that was already struggling and velvet there is some hope: I hope for new success with my current focus on my new cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, and 3 mexican turbos are all new and seem to be trending towards success.

My advice to anyone struggling is simply to switch to something very simple in my case now a few shrimp and snails. (Plus my yellow wrasse still alive). In freshwater I took out all fish at one point to try something simple and now well I have kept some rather difficult species successfully so I am trying to apply the same principals to my reef tank. You can see my reef in one of my threads too if you wish.

Good luck to everyone just keep trying.

 

[AC1211]

In freshwater I was at maybe 30% and to this day through 5 years of freshwater I am at 86% going up slowly as I get new fish and move out older ones or have a few old ones die (I don't count very old fish).
In saltwater well its horrible through almost 2 years now.
I want to consider my 2 clowns a success even though they died of velvet because I kept them for over a year. I lost 14 total fish to velvet all failures except for the 2 clowns to me. I have a yellow coris wrasse that I have had for over a year and survived velvet. As for inverts I have failed with every single coral of about 40 to 50 I would need to reference my records to check. I failed with a cleaner shrimp and 2 urchins. I also am about 10% with about 70 small cleanup crew crabs and snails. (Once again I would need to check my record.). However taking out recent huge failures due to taking coral that was already struggling and velvet there is some hope: I hope for new success with my current focus on my new cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, and 3 mexican turbos are all new and seem to be trending towards success.

My advice to anyone struggling is simply to switch to something very simple in my case now a few shrimp and snails. (Plus my yellow wrasse still alive). In freshwater I took out all fish at one point to try something simple and now well I have kept some rather difficult species successfully so I am trying to apply the same principals to my reef tank. You can see my reef in one of my threads too if you wish.

Good luck to everyone just keep trying.

Whenever I mentioned percentages I meant success rate.

 

[Dbichler]

When I first started I lost my first batch of fish flame angel 2 clowns and 3 chromis. Since then after a ton of research haven’t lost any to anything other than age. I do not quarantine anything either.

 

[Streetlamp]

Unfortunately I have one more to add to the list. My lovely Timor wrasse was stuck to my power head yesterday I thought I saved him. Unfortunately when I came home today we had a sinker

Edit no she’s alive, and out and about as normal. I think she was just stretabd hiding. She’s stopped burying lately and taken to sleeping upside down under rocks.

 

[gentlefish]

Well finally a good outcome!