- Joined
- Jul 27, 2016
- Messages
- 551
- Reaction score
- 252
So... Not even sure what to do at this point.
When I first started reefing, I used to just buy fish at the LFS or off the web, acclimate them and add them. If I was worried about aggression or 'stress related parasites' (yes, I had LFS telling me all fish had Ich...) I would put them in an acclimation box... I would buy cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasses thinking I was effectively treating disease. Needless to say, within 6 months I ended up with a velvet outbreak and lost 40-50% of my fish. I spent three days catching my survivors, bought a petco 40b and a cannister filter. Managed to kill another 20-30% of the fish with an ammonia spike. Went fallow for 72 days and saved 7-8 fish.
After that I started religiously quarantining my new additions. Everything would get treated with Prazi and CP. Then I figured out that CP kills fairy and flasher wrasses and hippo tangs... Tried copper on a few fish, never had one survive. My QT survival rates were an abysmal 50% or so.
Major things I changed:
1. Stopped buying fish from my local fish stores... Got sick of seeing them mix new wild fish with healthy fish, got sick of seeing dead fish in the bottoms of the tanks, knowing that they were all plumbed into the same sump. Started having my buddy get me fish directly from wholesale (don't worry, he marks them up) and ordering from LiveAquaria.
2. Stopped prophylactic medications except for Prazi or General Cure. Only used CP, Copper or Antibiotics on fish with actual symptoms.
I got to a point where if the fish made it through 4 weeks of QT with no signs of disease and two rounds of fluke treatment, it was good to go. Sure I still lost some in QT, but success rates improved and I made it about 2 years without any diseases in my display tank. At it's peak, I had about 40 fish in it (overcrowded to say the least).
Fast forward to today... Decided to break that tank down and start over (sold some fish, gave some away, had a few die in holding while rebooting). I've added about 4 smaller fish to my DT (total population of 11, 1 tang, 4 pj cardinals, 4 wrasses and 2 anthias) in the past month, all of which seemed good in QT and somehow a parasite has snuck in.
Initially I thought it was flukes. Had a few fish flashing, no hiding, eating well, no visible issues. I decided to treat my display with Prazi, since it would be a lot easier than trying to catch 11 fish in a heavily scaped (100lbs or Stax rock, much of which is cemented together) tank that would be dang near impossible to dismantle.
First round went well, no signs of issues following that. Did a second round yesterday, fish all seemed fine, wrasses did okay... tonight I noticed a couple of them still flashing very occasionally.
Took a closer look at my Desjardini Tang and noticed a ton of tiny little spots/raises bumps... Panic set in... Catching all these fish will be almost impossible AND I don't have an available hospital tank that could hold them.
Really not sure what it is at this point. My gut says Ich or Velvet, as I don't think flukes would have poxed up my tang like that... Everyone seems to be eating, not noticing any powerhead swimming (but hard to be sure, as I have a ton of flow setup for SPS)... It's been about 7 days since I first noticed flashing... I think if it were Velvet I'd have some seriously sick or dead fish by now... right??
Tried to get some pictures of the tang but can't get any clear enough to really see what it is. No dusty looking or slimy looking fish...
Would flukes leave tiny bite marks on a tang? I am hoping it's flukes and I can just do another round of prazi, if not at least Ich so I am not doing salvage mode all weekend. I suppose I will know tomorrow if I have a dead fish... Any suggestions for a temp holding tank in case I do have to go fallow? Maybe a rubbermaid with my cannister filter, some sump rocks, a heater and a couple powerheads??
Really kicking myself for letting something slip by... all this a week after having to do a full blackout for a dino outbreak.
When I first started reefing, I used to just buy fish at the LFS or off the web, acclimate them and add them. If I was worried about aggression or 'stress related parasites' (yes, I had LFS telling me all fish had Ich...) I would put them in an acclimation box... I would buy cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasses thinking I was effectively treating disease. Needless to say, within 6 months I ended up with a velvet outbreak and lost 40-50% of my fish. I spent three days catching my survivors, bought a petco 40b and a cannister filter. Managed to kill another 20-30% of the fish with an ammonia spike. Went fallow for 72 days and saved 7-8 fish.
After that I started religiously quarantining my new additions. Everything would get treated with Prazi and CP. Then I figured out that CP kills fairy and flasher wrasses and hippo tangs... Tried copper on a few fish, never had one survive. My QT survival rates were an abysmal 50% or so.
Major things I changed:
1. Stopped buying fish from my local fish stores... Got sick of seeing them mix new wild fish with healthy fish, got sick of seeing dead fish in the bottoms of the tanks, knowing that they were all plumbed into the same sump. Started having my buddy get me fish directly from wholesale (don't worry, he marks them up) and ordering from LiveAquaria.
2. Stopped prophylactic medications except for Prazi or General Cure. Only used CP, Copper or Antibiotics on fish with actual symptoms.
I got to a point where if the fish made it through 4 weeks of QT with no signs of disease and two rounds of fluke treatment, it was good to go. Sure I still lost some in QT, but success rates improved and I made it about 2 years without any diseases in my display tank. At it's peak, I had about 40 fish in it (overcrowded to say the least).
Fast forward to today... Decided to break that tank down and start over (sold some fish, gave some away, had a few die in holding while rebooting). I've added about 4 smaller fish to my DT (total population of 11, 1 tang, 4 pj cardinals, 4 wrasses and 2 anthias) in the past month, all of which seemed good in QT and somehow a parasite has snuck in.
Initially I thought it was flukes. Had a few fish flashing, no hiding, eating well, no visible issues. I decided to treat my display with Prazi, since it would be a lot easier than trying to catch 11 fish in a heavily scaped (100lbs or Stax rock, much of which is cemented together) tank that would be dang near impossible to dismantle.
First round went well, no signs of issues following that. Did a second round yesterday, fish all seemed fine, wrasses did okay... tonight I noticed a couple of them still flashing very occasionally.
Took a closer look at my Desjardini Tang and noticed a ton of tiny little spots/raises bumps... Panic set in... Catching all these fish will be almost impossible AND I don't have an available hospital tank that could hold them.
Really not sure what it is at this point. My gut says Ich or Velvet, as I don't think flukes would have poxed up my tang like that... Everyone seems to be eating, not noticing any powerhead swimming (but hard to be sure, as I have a ton of flow setup for SPS)... It's been about 7 days since I first noticed flashing... I think if it were Velvet I'd have some seriously sick or dead fish by now... right??
Tried to get some pictures of the tang but can't get any clear enough to really see what it is. No dusty looking or slimy looking fish...
Would flukes leave tiny bite marks on a tang? I am hoping it's flukes and I can just do another round of prazi, if not at least Ich so I am not doing salvage mode all weekend. I suppose I will know tomorrow if I have a dead fish... Any suggestions for a temp holding tank in case I do have to go fallow? Maybe a rubbermaid with my cannister filter, some sump rocks, a heater and a couple powerheads??
Really kicking myself for letting something slip by... all this a week after having to do a full blackout for a dino outbreak.
