sad news

[RogerL]

well, my baby map angel died. so did my lawnmower blenny. ich. all my water params are fine. i put my purple tang in quarantine. he hasn't showed signs of ich yet, but i am treating him to be safe. my orchid dottyback and maroon clowns are still in the display tank, because the tang would probably kill them in the q tank. they aren't showing signs of ich though. my snowflake eel is also rubbing his head against the rocks. i am thinking of taking all my fish back to the LFS and just leaving the tank empty for a while. i am really upset. this sucks.

[Evergreen]

I am very sorry to hear this. How big of a Q-tank do you have? How big is the tang? Maybe if you put plastic small buckets and PVC to hide in the eel and others would be ok in Q?

Have you tried garlic?

I'm not sure taking fish to LFS which could potentially wipe out their entire stock (do they even quarantine?) is a good idea :(

They should really have fish-veterinarians

:rolleyes:

[RogerL]

my q-tank is only 20g. the tang is about 3 inches. i was thinking of putting the eel in the q-tank with the tang, and just bring the clowns back. i dont know what else to do with the clowns and dottyback though. i think that they may die if kept in the main tank. i tried garlic, i soaked the food in selcon. the ich went away after a day or so, and then it came back yesterday really bad. the angel was dead this morning. i had thought all of my fish would have been safe, because i used quarantine, and in the cases i didnt, i used dips.

[MalHavoc]

Roger, sorry to hear about this. Personally, I had figured that your tank was a little over capacity, which is one of the reasons why you never really solved the Ich problem. I bet that your clowns, alone in the 90, will not develop Ich because there's no stress for them now.

What are your water parameters like at the moment? You say they are fine, but what are they?

[RogerL]

ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 15
ph 8.3
sg 1.025
dKH 11

you're probably right mal. i dont even know if i want to get any more fish. this really bites.

[LX302]

Roger,
from your second to last post you said......

"i had thought all of my fish would have been safe, because i used quarantine, and in the cases i didnt, i used dips."

Does that mean you used quarentine in the past and you didn't for the baby angel? Just a freshwater dip?

I'm just curious, since I'm using QT for all my fish before they go into the main tank.

[SPC]

Sorry to hear about this Roger.
I know that your tank has only been set up for a few months, and it appears that you had a pretty high fish load. My suggestion would be to take it much slower this time.

I remember reading one of your threads back in April where you were concerned about high nitrites in your tank. My feeling then was that you probably had introduced your animals too quickly to your tank, and not given your biological filtration a chance to catch up.

IMO the most important aspect to a successful marine tank is taking it slooooow. It is difficult for all of us to pass up that fish that we see in the LFS, but in order to have long term success it is necessary.
Steve

[NorthCoast]

Not much to add. Just want ed to post that I'm sorry for the loss. :(

later,
NC

[RogerL]

thanks everyone.
i will take it much slower next time. i wont add anything else until a few months goes by.
LX302: i just dipped the angel. if i were you i would quarantine for at least two weeks.

[Proxymoron]

Sorry to hear about your loss Roger. :(

You had a lot of fish in a tank that was just started up around mid March. The high nitrites towards the end of April was most likely due to too many fish introduced too soon.

I personally would keep the eel in the tank and put the other fish (purple tang, 2 clowns, and dottyback) in the 20g qtank.
I saw a previous post of yours after you got your eel where you mentioned it was scratching and was wondering if it was ich. From the responses I gathered it wasn't that common for eels to get ich but it could be possible. I think the best bet is to keep him in the main tank since he seems like he will be the least to get a case of ich.

Hope your other fish stay healthy and things start looking good again!
It's a tough hobby because you learn so much and then you want to use that knowledge and get the creatures, but patience has to kick in for things to work out. I am guilty of having a qtank and not putting the fish in there too so please don't think I am judging you :).

Best wishes!

Dixie

[Addicted Reefer]

Sorry roger for the loss:(

I feel your pain I also stocked to fast when i started and i had a die off. But it only took one. You learn from your mistakes. But i hope the rest of your fish do okay. And i personally would be feeding the rest garlic soaked food often and for a few weeks.

[RogerL]

thanks everyone. i am feeding garlic. i put the dottyback in the q-tank with the tang. i will add the clowns now. the eel is actually looking ok and not scratching now.