Hi guys, I still consider myself new to saltwater aquariums, so I figured I'd reach out and see if I can get some advice from the more seasoned people.
I've been losing a lot of fish in quarantine. I have a small 30 gallon tank that I didn't quarantine any fish for and haven't had any problems, but I recently set up a 100 gallon tank that I wanted to do better with, so I have a 10 gallon tank set up as my quarantine, it's never been used for anything else. It has a small HOB filter, an airstone, a small powerhead, a heater and some PVC joints on the bottom for the fish to hide in.
The first group of fish I put in it was a trio of female lyretail anthias, one died after about a week, but she was shockingly skinny and never really had much of a chance. The other 2 survived and and are now in my DT. I wanted a few more, so I got another trio. All 3 fish died within days.
I should explain that I get my fish from a local importer, he only gets shipments in every 6ish weeks, so these ones had been in his tanks for over a month before I brought them home and there were no problems with any fish in his tanks. But for me, one fish died within a day, then another on day 3 and another on day 5. I use one of those ammonia alert badges, but after the second death, I also tested for ammonia (Salifert) and it was 0. When I took the dead fish out, it looked like they had red sores on their sides. I didn't take pics. After all 3 fish died, I drained the tank, bleached all the equipment, threw everything porous out and let everything sit dry for a month.
Last weekend I set the tank up again with mostly new water and a bit of tank water from the DT where the first lyretails live. On Monday, I picked up 5 orange lined cardinals and acclimated them then added them to the tank. One was dead by the next morning (Tuesday). Today when I fed the tank, 3 of them ate with gusto and one showed no interest in the food at all. When I look at his side, it looks like he has a sore on his side. Here is a crappy iPhone pic of it. This is the first time I've tried linking a pic, so if it doesn't work, please bear with me.
This cardinal is still swimming, just not eating. When I had the lyretails die, the first sign of a problem with them was that they sat on the bottom of the tank beside a piece of the PVC.
Does anyone have any advice for me on what is going wrong? I would like to save these cardinals if that's possible. And I would really like to not lose so many fish in quarantine in the future.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.
I've been losing a lot of fish in quarantine. I have a small 30 gallon tank that I didn't quarantine any fish for and haven't had any problems, but I recently set up a 100 gallon tank that I wanted to do better with, so I have a 10 gallon tank set up as my quarantine, it's never been used for anything else. It has a small HOB filter, an airstone, a small powerhead, a heater and some PVC joints on the bottom for the fish to hide in.
The first group of fish I put in it was a trio of female lyretail anthias, one died after about a week, but she was shockingly skinny and never really had much of a chance. The other 2 survived and and are now in my DT. I wanted a few more, so I got another trio. All 3 fish died within days.
I should explain that I get my fish from a local importer, he only gets shipments in every 6ish weeks, so these ones had been in his tanks for over a month before I brought them home and there were no problems with any fish in his tanks. But for me, one fish died within a day, then another on day 3 and another on day 5. I use one of those ammonia alert badges, but after the second death, I also tested for ammonia (Salifert) and it was 0. When I took the dead fish out, it looked like they had red sores on their sides. I didn't take pics. After all 3 fish died, I drained the tank, bleached all the equipment, threw everything porous out and let everything sit dry for a month.
Last weekend I set the tank up again with mostly new water and a bit of tank water from the DT where the first lyretails live. On Monday, I picked up 5 orange lined cardinals and acclimated them then added them to the tank. One was dead by the next morning (Tuesday). Today when I fed the tank, 3 of them ate with gusto and one showed no interest in the food at all. When I look at his side, it looks like he has a sore on his side. Here is a crappy iPhone pic of it. This is the first time I've tried linking a pic, so if it doesn't work, please bear with me.
This cardinal is still swimming, just not eating. When I had the lyretails die, the first sign of a problem with them was that they sat on the bottom of the tank beside a piece of the PVC.
Does anyone have any advice for me on what is going wrong? I would like to save these cardinals if that's possible. And I would really like to not lose so many fish in quarantine in the future.
Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.
