All my fish keep dieing

JeffSauer

JeffSauer

New member
So every time I go to the pet store and I bring something back it gets ich and dies. So far the only thing I have in my tank is live rock, coralline algae and 3 damsels.

I've tested all my water parameters and everything is perfect:

Ammonia "“ 0
Nitrites "“ 0
Nitrates "“ 0
Salinity "“ 1.024
Temp "“ 77.8°
pH "“ 8.3

I bought my tank new, set everything up and got it running for about 4 weeks. I went out and bought 2 clowns, flame angel, yellow tang and a diamond goby. Everything was great for about 2 months, until I brought home a purple tang. I got him in QT and kept him in there for around 3 weeks. He got fat, and almost got excited every time I came near to feed him. I figure he was ready to join everyone and got him in the display tank. The next morning every fish in the display had ich"¦and I'm not talking some small specks"¦almost velvet bad. Killed "œeverything" 3 days after I put the purple in the display.

I figured it was just a stroke of bad luck so I cranked up the temp, turned the power heads up full blast and did a 25% water change every week and kept all of my parameters perfect for 6 months. I finally felt it was ready to house some more fish, so I turned everything back down, turned the lights back on and got everything ready.

3 weeks ago I bought some damsels to throw in there and they are doing great! Figured it was a good time to get everything again and went to my LFS Friday and bought some more clowns and a blonde naso tang.
Figured I would just go ahead and put them immediately in the tank I acclimated them and put them in"¦.that was a bad idea.

The blonde started getting back spots by Saturday evening and the clowns already have it pretty freaking bad. So I took them out and put them in QT, naso tang was dead this morning when I went and checked on him and the clowns are getting worse.

I used display tank water when putting them in QT Sunday afternoon and changed out their water last night with fresh display tank water. I had fish when I was younger and didn't have "œ1" die the whole time I had them for 6 years"¦I just can't catch a break this time! Everything keeps dying!

I just don't want to have a bunch of damsels in my tank and "œcall it good enough"

Someone tell me what I'm doing wrong!
 
By the way, i don't buy fish the LSF hasn't already had for less than 6 weeks. So i dont think its the stress of the move.
 
JeffSauer said:
So every time I go to the pet store and I bring something back it gets ich and dies. So far the only thing I have in my tank is live rock, coralline algae and 3 damsels.

I’ve tested all my water parameters and everything is perfect:

Ammonia – 0
Nitrites – 0
Nitrates – 0
Salinity – 1.024
Temp – 77.8°
pH – 8.3

I bought my tank new, set everything up and got it running for about 4 weeks. I went out and bought 2 clowns, flame angel, yellow tang and a diamond goby. Everything was great for about 2 months, until I brought home a purple tang. I got him in QT and kept him in there for around 3 weeks. He got fat, and almost got excited every time I came near to feed him. I figure he was ready to join everyone and got him in the display tank. The next morning every fish in the display had ich…and I’m not talking some small specks…almost velvet bad. Killed “everything” 3 days after I put the purple in the display.

I figured it was just a stroke of bad luck so I cranked up the temp, turned the power heads up full blast and did a 25% water change every week and kept all of my parameters perfect for 6 months. I finally felt it was ready to house some more fish, so I turned everything back down, turned the lights back on and got everything ready.

3 weeks ago I bought some damsels to throw in there and they are doing great! Figured it was a good time to get everything again and went to my LFS Friday and bought some more clowns and a blonde naso tang.
Figured I would just go ahead and put them immediately in the tank I acclimated them and put them in….that was a bad idea.

The blonde started getting back spots by Saturday evening and the clowns already have it pretty freaking bad. So I took them out and put them in QT, naso tang was dead this morning when I went and checked on him and the clowns are getting worse.

I used display tank water when putting them in QT Sunday afternoon and changed out their water last night with fresh display tank water. I had fish when I was younger and didn’t have “1” die the whole time I had them for 6 years…I just can’t catch a break this time! Everything keeps dying!

I just don’t want to have a bunch of damsels in my tank and “call it good enough”

Someone tell me what I’m doing wrong!
Click to expand...


Tank size?


Moves ALWAYS stress fish. There is no way around it.
 
Dude dose your tank for ich and quarantine your fish before adding them to it always. You have to treat your fish first before adding them to kill all the nasties that are on them.
 
I am a noob but reading the forums has taught me 2 things: automatically assume a new fish has ich and treat accordingly, and QT for much much longer than a couple weeks


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
the issue is both times it was a matter of 48 hours from time of infestation and death, ive never heard or seen ich kill that quickly
 
I live out in the country and its an hour drive to the fish store...could that be the problem? I didn't think it would be since people ship fish overnight.

I put the bags the come in a small cooler in my front seat with me on the drive home.
 
FWIW, yellow tangs and purple tangs usually don't do well together. The yellow had already established territory when you added the purple. The yellow most likely harassed the purple, which caused stress which led to ich. Tangs are ich magnets.

Slow your roll a bit and spend some time reading. You added 5 fish to an uncycled tank (mistake 1), then added a purple tang (mistake 2), then had a several month period (perfectly fine), then added another handful of fish to a now uncycled tank (mistake 3), including a fish that would outgrow the tank (mistake 4) and you're now using display water as QT water (mistake 5).

1. You added too many fish, tank wasn't cycled. Ensure tank is cycled prior to adding fish.

2. Your tank is big enough for one (1) tang. No more.

3. During this fallow period, unless ammonia was being added in some way, nitrifying bacteria died off, so you had a biologically new tank. See #1.

4. EVERYONE plans on upgrading tanks before their fish gets too big. It rarely happens. Purchase for what you have, not what you want.

5. The point of QT is to isolate the inhabitants while monitoring/treating to ensure nothing gets transferred. If you suspect the tank water is causing problems, why are you adding it to the QT? Mix FRESH saltwater (with RO/DI) for your QT. They are separate systems, treat them as such.
 
hkgar said:
Here is a link to a sticky thread in the Disease forum. You must treat the ick, it will not just go away.

There are plenty of other good threads on Ick in that forum.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1991470

Also check for threads on QTing with copper to treat in coming fish that might have Ick.
Click to expand...

I left the tank fallow for almost 6 months between my tank crash and now. absolutely nothing was in the tank, and i used some damsels for a test to make sure nothing was still in there for 6 weeks. Nothing came up so i bought some new fish...24 hours i brought the fish home they both had ich, i put them in QT and treated with stress coat and treated word for word using Kordon rid ich plus, changed the water like i was supposed to las tnight and naso was dead.
 
Your mistake was putting a blue in you tank without QT for a sufficient amount of time. At this point, your tank is infested with the parasites. get rid of the damsels, mean little fish anyway and run fallow for about 8 weeks. Ich cannot live without a fish host. After that you are good to start stocking again provided you follow a good QT protocol.
 
I will let others expound upon everything that has gone wrong, here...

But, there is one BIG TAKEAWAY that you are hopefully getting from this experience: YOUR LFS's WATER SYSTEM HAS ICH!!!
 
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