When was the last time you have a had sick fish in your aquarium? What was it?

When was the last time you had a sick fish in your saltwater reef aquarium?

  • I have a sick fish now

    Votes: 45 16.4%
  • It's been a few months

    Votes: 53 19.3%
  • It's been over six months

    Votes: 22 8.0%
  • Almost a year

    Votes: 13 4.7%
  • Over a Year

    Votes: 31 11.3%
  • Between a year and two years

    Votes: 17 6.2%
  • 2+ Years

    Votes: 93 33.9%

  • Total voters
    274

polyppal

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Since I got serious about proper QT like 3 years ago… if Lympho doesn’t count
 

hqn77

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Ich....it had to be ich. :eek: Went fallow and set up QT for all fishes for 72 days. Lost a royal gramma and flame angel in QT. After all that effort, reintroduced fish back to DT and still seeing occasional spots on purple and blue hippo tangs. So hopping on the management bandwagon, fishes are healthy and happy, living with ich.
 

SeaHorseQueen

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The last time I had a sick fish was when I adopted a baby clownfish who was already on his death bed to give him a fair passing. Thinking he was being bullied by the others because there wasn’t any visible illnesses. He just laid on his side to an extent and passed over night.
 

Pntbll687

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Lost a clownfish to some type of internal parasite or infection probably 2 years ago. That was the last truly sick fish I had.

I've had a couple spots show up on my tangs every once in a while, usually when they get aggressive for a couple days at a time. I don't worry about that though. I know there's ich in the system, but I'm not breaking down the tank to treat the fish, so I live with it.
 

WVNed

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About once a year one of my fish gets a grey patch that grows and dissolves the flesh. It always starts at the rear of the dorsal fin and spreads down both sides. If you put them in a hospital tank and treat them with Kanaplex they die within 20 minutes.
This has killed my kole tang and dragon goby. Both large beautiful fish.
 

Sharkbait19

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Considering I only started a year and 9 months ago, and lost fish a month in to disease, I kinda half to pic between 1-2 years.
Since then, no confirmed disease has entered the dt, though I’ve given myself many scares.
ATM I’m pretty sure my fang blenny brought ich into qt, BUT THATS WHY WE QT! Copper has already been started, and nothings getting in the dt until confirmed healthy and through copper and prazi.
 

SlugSnorter

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About once a year one of my fish gets a grey patch that grows and dissolves the flesh. It always starts at the rear of the dorsal fin and spreads down both sides. If you put them in a hospital tank and treat them with Kanaplex they die within 20 minutes.
This has killed my kole tang and dragon goby. Both large beautiful fish.
sounds like uronema or maybe lateral line
 

vetteguy53081

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Karen00

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It's been a long time since I lost a fish to disease. The last one was a freshwater neon tetra that got ich (or what seemed like ich). Thankfully it didn't spread to the others. Supposedly they are ich magnets. I think most have been from old age. I did lose a freshwater fish spontaneously about 2 months ago. It was fine the night before (eating, etc), gone in the morning but I had it for 3 yrs so it might've been old age as well. Knock on wood no fatalities with my salties but it's only been about 11 months.
 

Kristopher Conlin

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I had an outbreak of ich in 2018 before I knew much about quarantine at home. After a bunch of research I used the tank transfer method for 5 different fish. A flame angel, two clowns, a lawnmore blenny, and a blue damsel. After the final transfer I left them in the quarantine tank while my main DT went fallow for 76 days.

It was a long process but I didn't have any casualties and my tank has been ich free for 4 years now.
 

vetteguy53081

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About once a year one of my fish gets a grey patch that grows and dissolves the flesh. It always starts at the rear of the dorsal fin and spreads down both sides. If you put them in a hospital tank and treat them with Kanaplex they die within 20 minutes.
This has killed my kole tang and dragon goby. Both large beautiful fish.
Sounds like gram positive bacterial and I would treat from the inside out using seachem metroplex with foods and then finish with Maracyn 2 or neoplex should it happen again
 

dado150

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A few months ago when I was having lots of issues with water quality I had some ick and more concerning was a bacterial infection on my regal angel. I honestly thought I was going to loose the regal angel but after a couple rounds of ParaGuard dips the regal angels infection cleared up and the rest of the fish which had ick cleared up on its own once the water quality was improved.
So where did the Ich go !....lol
 

NowGlazeIT

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My Dory flares up with ich evey other week but otherwise it’s a very healthy hog. Been with me almost 3 years. My other tangs don’t seem to get it or not nearly as often.
 

Buckster

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Everything will go into quarantine. If I have to treat them then fine otherwise I can wait before putting something into my DT. Last time I put a fish in too early and lost several, that will not happen again!
 

Rocketfish

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I have been reading this time around for about 3.5 years and I have done everything wrong and paid for it, but now I am doing it better and implemented a QT procedure. This is the story of my first QT experience...

I had a royal gramma and a tail spot blenny in QT for nearly 10 weeks when I noticed something afflicting the blenny. It stopped hanging out at it's clam shell and started acting stressed and staying in low flow areas of the tank and pointing vertical but not upside down. It would still eat, but just didn't act normal, and there were no external signs of disease. I checked ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at 0,0,5, so that didn't appear to be the problem. Regardless of treatment he died within 3 days. Shortly afterward, the royal gramma started the exact same symptoms and followed the blenny 3 days later.

I never identified the issue, but had treated with copper and maracyn.

I had a live rock or 2 in there with a few snails and inverts as well as an urchin, and they all continue with no issues, even through the treatments. I added the snails, crabs and urchin at about 6 weeks to clean up between water changes.

Fortunately, nothing made it to the main tank. I was even considering moving them to the main tank about 2 days before the blenny showed signs of a problem, but now I'm glad I didn't! I do have a UV on the main tank but not on the QT system. I may get a smaller UV to put in the QT as well. I haven't seen any ich in the main tank for over 2 years since I started the UV.

I have taken the risk in the past and gotten away with it, but I wonder if I just saved my other fish from the same fate by doing the QT?
These were the first fish I have done QT on, and I am glad I did, but this being the first time I have done a QT I wonder if the QT tank may have caused the demise? I know that's probably not the case, and that QT is the right thing to do, but still it's hard not to second guess the cause when the signs aren't outwardly obvious!

I have been doing this long enough that I have seen the wisdom on taking more time to introduce new fish. I get the whole DIY thing trying to get by and for spending less, and I did that at first, but in my experience it will cost you more in livestock than you will save in dollars trying to make something DIY work as well as it needs to. The people that do make it work are already experienced reefers that understand the subtle nuances of what needs to be done the right way. For a new reefer it will likely end badly every time.

I am about to upgrade to a larger tank in about 6 months, so I will probably get a few fish in the QT tank 3 months in advance and introduce them to the new tank at the same time I put in the fish from the old tank. There are so many things I plan on doing different in the new tank! Here is my list of different things:
1) glue the rock work together in advance.
2) have places ready to accommodate specific coral needs before ever adding water.
3) do not bring over rocks from the old tank.
4) quarantine corals as well as fish for undesirable creatures and things like aptaisia and small clove polyps.
5) leave space between the glass and the rocks/coral to get the glass scraper/scrubber through.
6) don't get GSP no matter how nice I think it would look! Yes, it looks nice on the back wall, but it is a pain in the butt to peel it off when it starts to grow on pumps and cover overflow slats!
7) stick to slower growing and more colorful corals. Don't put it in the display tank unless it is exactly what I want.
8) spend the extra dollars and get the good stuff. This applies to coral, fish, and tank hardware. I have wasted more time trying to chase/trap fish that caused problems, or battling aptaisia, or getting frags that are "supposed" to be a "such and such", but it hasn't colored up yet... My fault, not the seller!
9) expand the auto dosing system to accommodate more than 3 channels. I.e. iodine, iron, potassium, and trace along with Magnesium, Calcium, and KH.
10)get a better auto top off system!

Perhaps I should start a "So, you are ready to upgrade" thread!
 

Aquatic acrobat in your aquarium: Have you ever kept an eel?

  • I currently keep an eel in my tank.

    Votes: 25 13.9%
  • I have kept an eel in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 31 17.2%
  • I have not kept an eel in my tank, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 28 15.6%
  • I have no plans to keep an eel.

    Votes: 93 51.7%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.7%
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