Lets talk about our livestock FAILs

[polyppal]

Seems like there's always a bunch of posts on R2R about people who are 'ready to give up' because 'x' coral or fish died... But I think that some amount of failure goes hand in hand with this hobby. Lets talk about our expen$ive fails and the lessons we learned from them...​

 

[polyppal]

My 2021-22 RIP:

$200 Aussie Yellow Tip Elegance / $200 Aussie Bicolor Wall Hammer... Both were wild collected and did great for a while, then inexplicably died. I attribute it to being wild specimens, and won't be purchasing anymore wild corals that haven't proven to be hardy in captivity. And will never purchase another wall Hammer, period!

$120(!) White Tail Bristletooth and $60 Tolmini Tangs... Died inexplicably the next day within 30m of each other after a H2O2 bath between tank transfers. I have used peroxide with dozens of fish over the years with zero issues, but after this experience will avoid it unless treating a case of velvet.

$20 Lawnmower Blenny and $30 Tail Spot Blenny... My cats figured out how to startle (bennies specifically) and get them to jump out of the tank, they got both of these fish to jump within a month of each other. Lesson - finally putting lids on my tanks

 

[Nano sapiens]

Yup, not everything makes it

2021 - Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish. First day looked good with the fish even actively checking out the surroundings. Next morning, stone-cold dead. I noticed it had a bit of difficulty eating/swallowing something it had found in the sand bed the night before, so possibly a toxic spaghetti worm.

 

[polyppal]

Yup, not everything makes it

2021 - Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish. First day looked good with the fish even actively checking out the surroundings. Next morning, stone-cold dead. I noticed it had a bit of difficulty eating/swallowing something it had found in the sand bed the night before, so possibly a toxic spaghetti worm.

yup they will eat ANYTHING they can fit in their mouth...

 

[fish farmer]

I lost my whole tank to a three day heat wave.

I had my first successful 38 gallon reef for two years at my apartment where electricity was included and wasn't allowed A\C. Where I live it usually doesn't get extremely hot for days, fans work, open windows at night, etc.

I was upgrading and moving to a nicer apartment in May 2002 which was suspected of being hot by what other people had told me. It got full sun for most of the day.

Everything was fine for the first couple months. I was planning on getting an A\C unit from my parents in July when I was on vacation with them. We were on Cape Cod for week when the heat wave hit, everywhere was in the 90's for three days. I had someone taking care of the tank but this was before cell phones were big and there probably wasn't much he could really do. I came back with the A\C and found a dead tank, I think day two is when he said they weren't doing so well.

I eventually had to get two A\C units for the apartment. I currently have one unit in my house where the tank is and some of the recent summers have been record breaking or at least warmer than normal.

I didn't give up, I just recured/recyled everything. I did struggle with that tank though. Lots of algae problems.

 

[WVNed]

My experience has been most of my fish live 2 years. This is still holding true even now. It really breaks your heart when everything seems to be going great but you find them dead in the morning.

All you can do is try again

 

[Shon]

Not really expensive, but ~ 20$ feeder fish.

Once bought a Petco ocellated dragonet. Nice looking male, orange with pink blended to red fin, white and black body. Thought it would be neat looking on the white/black sand mix.

Scooted infront of an occupied cave.

Roughly same size cling fish (Gobiesox strumosus) darted out and ate it in one gulp.

Did not know. Online info says peaceful and reef safe. Peaceful in the sense it won't chase or beat up other fish, yes, but eating another fish is something entirely different.

 

[G Santana]

In june I went to Reefapalooza and came back with a beautiful gold maxima even though I knew that my tank wasn't matured (1st mistake) but the price was EPIC. It fared well for months and then I went on a two week vacation leaving my sister to sit the tank (2nd mistake), on my return all I had left was a beautiful clam shell.
Since my return to the hobby, it has been my biggest mistake/failure. I knew better than to buy a clam that early on, but I didn't listen to myself.
At least everything else I bought that day is still with me

 

[vetteguy53081]

Loss is evident and often due to:
Poor water quality
Failure to properly maintain environment suitable for livestock
False test readings
Impatience
Already sick livestock
Parameter spikes
Poor advise from Pet store
Improper diet

 

[sumtingbig]

Once i was topping off my coral system in my store. My wife and i go to Greeks for burghers on Saturday. Came back a hour or so later. Water freaking everywhere. Forgot the water was on, Just straight DI water. No salinity in the water to measure. Corals closed up and not to happy about it. Turned out the lights and started fixing the salinty. The next day every coral was happy. There was no expense lose but there was a lesson, Don,t leave running water unattended for a second.

 

[Dburr1014]

Loss is evident and often due to:
Poor water quality
Failure to properly maintain environment suitable for livestock
False test readings
Impatience
Already sick livestock
Parameter spikes
Poor advise from Pet store
Improper diet

You forgot to add bad shipping practices

 

[fish farmer]

Once i was topping off my coral system in my store. My wife and i go to Greeks for burghers on Saturday. Came back a hour or so later. Water freaking everywhere. Forgot the water was on, Just straight DI water. No salinity in the water to measure. Corals closed up and not to happy about it. Turned out the lights and started fixing the salinty. The next day every coral was happy. There was no expense lose but there was a lesson, Don,t leave running water unattended for a second.

I did that the other day AGAIN. Flushing the RO into a garbage can before running to DI. I got busy doing other basement tasks, forgot to turn the valve back to make water. Went out for Valentines Day dinner. I found it the next day, full can of water and zero RO/DI water, still running on the floor. Luckily my basement is gravel/dirt in spots...back to nature it goes.

 

[Spicy Reef]

Clowns! started with 6 amazing inseparable from hatch. One got big 2 were bullied to death in 24 hours just as I got my QT tank up and running. So now I always have a QT up and running. edit... I know it took more than 24 for it to grow, But the serious bullying as I noticed it started 24 hours before death.

Macro algae - can't seem to grow it in the big tank, I suspect the ViparSpectra lights aren't enough. I have tried a couple other cheap full spectrum freshwater lights, no dice. for $900 I could get the "proper" leds but for $300 and a little elbow grease I can bring in the sun...

These same full spectrum lights seem to work in 20g Long, but I suspect the skylight (sun) in that room might be what is actually doing it.

My next move is to install controllable solar-tubes above.
I've seen a handful of people do this. Anyone here have any other tips?

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Carpets and powerheads are more deadly than ich. Top on order, nem gaurds on powerheads now.

 

[polyppal]

I did that the other day AGAIN. Flushing the RO into a garbage can before running to DI. I got busy doing other basement tasks, forgot to turn the valve back to make water. Went out for Valentines Day dinner. I found it the next day, full can of water and zero RO/DI water, still running on the floor. Luckily my basement is gravel/dirt in spots...back to nature it goes.

Oh I have flooded my floors with an RO more times than I can count…

then I installed a $20 shut off valve on my ATO barrel, and realized that’s much cheaper than replacing floorboards and drywall x_x

 

[polyppal]

In june I went to Reefapalooza and came back with a beautiful gold maxima even though I knew that my tank wasn't matured (1st mistake) but the price was EPIC. It fared well for months and then I went on a two week vacation leaving my sister to sit the tank (2nd mistake), on my return all I had left was a beautiful clam shell.
Since my return to the hobby, it has been my biggest mistake/failure. I knew better than to buy a clam that early on, but I didn't listen to myself.
At least everything else I bought that day is still with me

I’ve never been able to keep a clam long-term

 

[JaimeAdams]

I've lost enough coral over the years to buy a cheap house. The last big mistake was maybe 4 winters ago my power went out and I lost Around 30 OG Bounce and Biohazard bounces among mostly everything else.

 

[EakTheFreak]

At least $1K in torches over the years. I’ve finally had some success and the key for my specific tank has been higher flow and keeping my nitrates at 8-15ppm.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Succes in this hobby is measured off the survivability of your animals. Lol.
Like a gardener growing plants. We grow corals...I honestly don't think a lot.of success is experienced. ":/

Why the sustainability people have come out of the woodworks now. more so than in the past 10 or 20 or even 30 years. Honestly though theirs more fish in the ocean than ppl or animals on land. Lol. The #s are crazy.
-d
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Why i recently passed on a $125 jawbreaker coral the person paid crazy mounts of $ for. Id hate to lose it. Lol. So I wait.
D