No more fish?

[Redfoxtang]

Well I think I’m on the verge of not buying anymore fish. I think I’ve gone through about 600$ worth of fish in the matter of a month. Honestly I couldn’t tell you why either. Buy fish put them in QT, 3 days later dead. Mind you my QT have been cycled so no ammonia is present. No meds in water. Just clean fresh saltwater. I’ve check for flukes not present, ich maybe? But shouldn’t kill that fast I wouldn’t think because they were eating the day before. I just don’t understand. Sorry to rant but it just sucks to lose so many fish and don’t know the cause. I wanna give up so bad but I keep telling myself no don’t give up I can do this. But I’m at a dead end and can’t turn around because idk what else to do. Someone wanna QT fish for me? Sorry for rant just depressing.

 

[Jesterrace]

Are you ordering your fish online? What are you doing for acclimation?

 

[Mikedawg]

Are you buying from the same store, and, if so, are your QT/DT parameters similar to LFS's? Think I would ask LFS to test your water to make sure that is not an issue. Assume you have watched fish eat before purchasing and they don't show any signs of sickness, parasites, etc.

Good luck; sure it is very frustrating.

 

[jda]

What kind of fish? Some fish do not QT well and will do better in semi-isolation with a rock, sand and a more natural environment.

BTW - I do not QT any of my fish... just isolation in a tank with a few hardy fish (to teach them how to eat pellets and stuff). I decided long ago that I was not going to QT all of my inverts and corals, so pathogens were going to get into my tank, so I just needed fish who are strong. Most of the time, this is all that QT ends up being is isolation since most people who have reefs do not do all of the other necessary things to keep their tanks pathogen free. I lose nearly no fish... ever.

 

[Redfoxtang]

All fish are bought locally at LFS and I make sure they eat before bringing home. I also do match LFS to insure it’s an easy transition for the fish from the store to home after floating the bag. No fish I purchase so no signs of parasites and look very hardy. Purple tang, Hippo tang, pair of frost bite clowns. Also this is a very high end LFS they’ve always treated me well.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Sounds like there could be something wrong with your QT system. Perhaps some stray voltage? Maybe there are some chemicals in the tank from the last cleaning?

 

[Jesterrace]

So the Salinity, pH, temp, etc. is all matched to your LFS? How long do you float the bag? Also are you adding them to QT all at once or has this been one at a time? How much do you feed and how often are you changing the water? Part of your trouble is that you are not starting with very affordable fish and Tangs aren't known for their cheap price or being the hardiest fish. I would be testing the waters with a single cheap fish that is generally hardy (ie Pajama Cardinal)

 

[Jesterrace]

Sounds like there could be something wrong with your QT system. Perhaps some stray voltage? Maybe there are some chemicals in the tank from the last cleaning?

I agree, the Tang deaths don't surprise me, but clownfish are pretty hardy and so there has to be something going wrong with the QT system.

 

[Redfoxtang]

I thought maybe it was chemicals from last cleaning (only used vinegar) so I ran carbon for a week then did a 50% water change. Also when fish when I had fish in there for more than 3 days I change water every 3 days 20%. SG, matches LFS to the tee. They run copper in there system but I have no trace of copper checked with Hanna. I also feed, when they were alive only what they would eat nothing more. I thought maybe stray voltage so I replace my heater with a new one and still failed. I’m scratching my head around all this. Trying to make it very easy for the fish. Your right also I have no luck with Tangs. So right now I’m left in my 180 gal tank is a lone Foxface loving life.

 

[Jesterrace]

Did you put them all in at once or one or two at a time?

 

[ca1ore]

The first, best piece of advice is to slow down. I rately QT more than two fish at a time, usually for at least 8 weeks. The other thing I’d do is empty and sterilize the QT system. If I have a death in QT I never use it again until properly sanitized. Hippo can be twitchy.

 

[Billldg]

I know it can be frustrating, but don't let it get u down. I was having the same problems, went thru 15 of 16 fish. Then I switched to a QT procedure that @HotRocks uses and I'm 6 for 6 and have another 6 fish in QT right now.

Qt procedure
Match salinity with water fish came in, usually 1.019 to 1.020 and raise copper to 1 ppm with copper power.
Float bag for 30 minutes to temp acclimate and then release into QT tank, no salinity acclimation.
Start feeding with food soaked in GC and focus for 2 weeks.
Raise copper to 1.75 ppm over 3 days.
You can then transfer fish to sterile tank after 14 days or go for 30 days.
At the end of copper treatment you remove copper with water changes equally over a 100 percent water replacement over 4 to 5 days and also use carbon removal.
Then treat with prazi 2 times.

I get my fish from @FishyBusinessAq with great success. I originally got my fish from my LFS and again, I lost 15 of 16 fish. Right now I have 2 tangs and 4 wrasses in QT using the above QT procedure. Good Luck, you will succeed!!!

 

[Redfoxtang]

I’ll try again one more time with some cheaper fish. I will empty QT give it a good cleaning and try and keep my bacteria so I don’t go through a cycle. I will try that QT regimen seems like a good plan. Also can GC and Copper be fine in QT without affecting the fish?

 

[joec]

I’ll try again one more time with some cheaper fish. I will empty QT give it a good cleaning and try and keep my bacteria so I don’t go through a cycle. I will try that QT regimen seems like a good plan. Also can GC and Copper be fine in QT without affecting the fish?

He's suggesting GC mixed with Seachem Focus and food per the instructions, not dosed in water. This is an important difference. It is ok to feed them the medicaged food with copper in tank

I too have followed HotRock process after two depressing failures and no problems since with LFS fish. Do not skip any parts. The only things I do differently is start copper at zero and then raise to 1.75 over 7 days after getting them eating the medicated food for a few days and then do one single 100% water change after 30 days of copper.

I use finely chopped table shrimp with the medication, they love it. (mysis also works). Make a batch of the medicated food and then freeze it and pull out as needed

 

[Burrito]

im 2 weeks in on hotrocks procedure, bought 2 tangs and trigger from reef beauties and they came in looking amazing and fat and are still looking great. going to put them in buckets while i clean and sterilize my current QT and then start prazi

 

[Jesterrace]

The first, best piece of advice is to slow down. I rately QT more than two fish at a time, usually for at least 8 weeks. The other thing I’d do is empty and sterilize the QT system. If I have a death in QT I never use it again until properly sanitized. Hippo can be twitchy.

Agreed, kind of defeats the purpose of QT if you have more than a couple of fish in there at once. Ideally it should be one fish at a time, but it's also not really practical.

 

[lion king]

I didn't get if you were matching the sg, very overlooked and causes many a death. And regardless of how high end the store is, if you have been getting all the fish from the same place, find another place. Sadly here where I live, the 2 most popular stores in town, everything dies. I found this out when I wasn't as experienced. I do have a couple fish that survived from one, I was prepared to lower the sg and treated for parasites right away. I now make a practice not to buy from any source that medicates and keep their sg super low. If that lfs treats I'll bet you their sg is likely no higher than 1.018 and I've even seen some keep it lower.

 

[4FordFamily]

I know it can be frustrating, but don't let it get u down. I was having the same problems, went thru 15 of 16 fish. Then I switched to a QT procedure that @HotRocks uses and I'm 6 for 6 and have another 6 fish in QT right now.

Qt procedure
Match salinity with water fish came in, usually 1.019 to 1.020 and raise copper to 1 ppm with copper power.
Float bag for 30 minutes to temp acclimate and then release into QT tank, no salinity acclimation.
Start feeding with food soaked in GC and focus for 2 weeks.
Raise copper to 1.75 ppm over 3 days.
You can then transfer fish to sterile tank after 14 days or go for 30 days.
At the end of copper treatment you remove copper with water changes equally over a 100 percent water replacement over 4 to 5 days and also use carbon removal.
Then treat with prazi 2 times.

I get my fish from @FishyBusinessAq with great success. I originally got my fish from my LFS and again, I lost 15 of 16 fish. Right now I have 2 tangs and 4 wrasses in QT using the above QT procedure. Good Luck, you will succeed!!!

im 2 weeks in on hotrocks procedure, bought 2 tangs and trigger from reef beauties and they came in looking amazing and fat and are still looking great. going to put them in buckets while i clean and sterilize my current QT and then start prazi

I echo these sentiments and many others in this thread. I do quarantine in large batches but agree it’s not ideal. Until you get the hang of it I’d start smaller scale. @HotRocks and I use his method and it seems to work well. @Humblefish was actually the one who suggested we change to this method and it has been working well. We just got another 32 fish today, in some giant quarantine tanks— we feel very confident that we’ve all cracked the code, finally.

One thing is for sure though, this hobby changes and we have to adapt with it to stay ahead. The distribution system is horrendous. The best we can do is stop buying from sources we have trouble with.

I also highly recommend @FishyBusinessAq.

I’d also make sure your quarantine tanks are dosed with BioSpira before fish (to be safe) and have ample oxygen (we use bubblers AND a powerhead breaking the surface).

 

[Redfoxtang]

I didn't get if you were matching the sg, very overlooked and causes many a death. And regardless of how high end the store is, if you have been getting all the fish from the same place, find another place. Sadly here where I live, the 2 most popular stores in town, everything dies. I found this out when I wasn't as experienced. I do have a couple fish that survived from one, I was prepared to lower the sg and treated for parasites right away. I now make a practice not to buy from any source that medicates and keep their sg super low. If that lfs treats I'll bet you their sg is likely no higher than 1.018 and I've even seen some keep it lower.

Yea the local LFS keeps it at 1.018 with .5 copper. So the difference i have is I use copper power instead of cupramine. That’s IF they use cupramine which I doubt since I’m sure they buy the copper in bulk and it’s industrial grade. But yes my salinity does match there’s and I float bag at least 30 mins. So now I just broke down my old QT, I had a brand new 20 gal sitting in garage with a new filter. Just mixed 20 gals of fresh salt water and gonna let it run. Gonna make sure I don’t have an ammonia spike as I kept some bacteria balls from last QT.

 

[Billldg]

I’ll try again one more time with some cheaper fish. I will empty QT give it a good cleaning and try and keep my bacteria so I don’t go through a cycle. I will try that QT regimen seems like a good plan. Also can GC and Copper be fine in QT without affecting the fish?

You aren't dosing GC in the water, you soak food in it with Seachem focus to bind the GC to the food. Good Luck, I hope it works for you.