Never getting saltwater fish again

[littlehermit0]

Green chromas are very peaceful damsel. The only thing I have a problem with them is if you get more than one they usually tend to fight until there's one left anyway.

I wanted to buy just one, or two of them, maybe three max, will they eat the clownfish pellets if I crush them? I have Artemia too

 

[Sharkbait19]

They will eat the clownfish pellets
A few drawbacks:
In small numbers you’d probably see the chromis kill each other.
They also are highly susceptible to uronema infections - a great many die from it and it’s untreatable. Not worth it imo.

 

[littlehermit0]

They will eat the clownfish pellets
A few drawbacks:
In small numbers you’d probably see the chromis kill each other.
They also are highly susceptible to uronema infections - a great many die from it and it’s untreatable. Not worth it imo.

Why are saltwater fish 10x sicker than freshwater??

 

[Spare time]

Why are saltwater fish 10x sicker than freshwater??

Freshwater fish in tanks die all the time from disease.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Why are saltwater fish 10x sicker than freshwater??

There’s plenty of fw diseases - you just don’t hear about them as often. Columnaris, oodinium (freshwater velvet), and mycobacterium (tuberculosis) are just a few examples of diseases that can wipe out entire tanks if not caught early (and for many columnaris and myco treatments there is no effective cure).
First off, majority of common freshwater fish are captive bred, which reduces the amount that you see. Wild freshwater fish have many more issues to consider.
There’s also a cost factor - when you are paying an average of $5-15 per fish, you aren’t going to think about losses as much as if the fish cost 50-100, so disease gets more focus.
Treatment also tends to be simpler in fw - salt is an effective treatment for many diseases, and treatments can be done in the display tank due to a lack of any sensitive inverts. Marine tanks have more than just fish to be affected by medicine.

 

[Tired]

Before adding new fish, you should either figure out what killed the first ones, or let the tank stay fallow for long enough that whatever it is will die off anyway. Otherwise the new fish are likely to get sick and die. If you want something to watch in the meantime, try shrimp.

If you get chromis, get one and only one. That's a good species to buy pre-quarantined from a good place, as they're a species which is particularly susceptible to uronema.

 

[littlehermit0]

Freshwater fish in tanks die all the time from disease.

Mine even survived ich and had never diseases somehow

 

[littlehermit0]

There’s plenty of fw diseases - you just don’t hear about them as often. Columnaris, oodinium (freshwater velvet), and mycobacterium (tuberculosis) are just a few examples of diseases that can wipe out entire tanks if not caught early (and for many columnaris and myco treatments there is no effective cure).
First off, majority of common freshwater fish are captive bred, which reduces the amount that you see. Wild freshwater fish have many more issues to consider.
There’s also a cost factor - when you are paying an average of $5-15 per fish, you aren’t going to think about losses as much as if the fish cost 50-100, so disease gets more focus.
Treatment also tends to be simpler in fw - salt is an effective treatment for many diseases, and treatments can be done in the display tank due to a lack of any sensitive inverts. Marine tanks have more than just fish to be affected by medicine.

I think I understand, Saltwater medicines are harder to get than fw, where you have a random Tetra ich treatment that works fast like nothing happened

 

[Sharkbait19]

I think I understand, Saltwater medicines are harder to get than fw, where you have a random Tetra ich treatment that works fast like nothing happened

Another factor worth mentioning is the illnesses themselves. Many of the “common” saltwater diseases appear more infectious than those in freshwater systems (not that you won’t find any in fw) simply due to their life cycles being more rapid and harsh. If we didn’t keep corals or inverts, treatment would become simpler (but where’s the fun in that!).
Medicine availability does make a big difference. In the US, there aren’t many restrictions on the effective treatment options, the same can’t be said about other countries.