Old thread here that I'm reviving but wanted to share an identical experience after doing a google search.
Same fish (Regal angel, Red Sea), same seller, same course of events. She seemed fine in the shipping bag and went right into my quarantine after appropriate acclimation. This is a full time QT with active biologic filtration and has undetectable NH4/NO2. I had done a 50% water change and adjusted specific gravity to 1.021 (same as shipping water) prior to arrival. NO3 was measured at 10 ppm. Temp is set at 75 degrees.
She looked good on arrival. But after two days she still would not eat anything, and I noticed some cloudiness on her fins. She was also swimming upside down and sideways much of the time, and tended to stay near the Aqueon filter at the top corner. At night she would sleep in a PVC pipe. I began cupramine treatment figuring she could have carried crypto or amyloodinium; I was told she had been at the seller's facility for two weeks, in copper, which would have her looking good but certainly not definitely free of parasite.
I slowly increased the cupramine dose per instructions, which she seemed to tolerate fine, and I never observed her flashing/scratching. But her swimming pattern worsened and last night she was on the bottom gasping/suffocating. I did everything I could to revive her - including dexamethasone and 'CPR' in front of a vortech for 30 minutes at the end - but to no avail, she passed
She looked fairly clean at the time of death, so whatever it was must have damaged her gills to the point where gas exchange failed.
So I'm very sad this morning. She was an expensive fish - about $250 shipped with no guarantee other than live arrival - but it's certainly the emotional toll, not the money, that has me so upset. I'm a physician, so really in the dumps about not being able to save her. I think Regal Angels are among the most beautiful marine fish but not sure I will try another.
Same fish (Regal angel, Red Sea), same seller, same course of events. She seemed fine in the shipping bag and went right into my quarantine after appropriate acclimation. This is a full time QT with active biologic filtration and has undetectable NH4/NO2. I had done a 50% water change and adjusted specific gravity to 1.021 (same as shipping water) prior to arrival. NO3 was measured at 10 ppm. Temp is set at 75 degrees.
She looked good on arrival. But after two days she still would not eat anything, and I noticed some cloudiness on her fins. She was also swimming upside down and sideways much of the time, and tended to stay near the Aqueon filter at the top corner. At night she would sleep in a PVC pipe. I began cupramine treatment figuring she could have carried crypto or amyloodinium; I was told she had been at the seller's facility for two weeks, in copper, which would have her looking good but certainly not definitely free of parasite.
I slowly increased the cupramine dose per instructions, which she seemed to tolerate fine, and I never observed her flashing/scratching. But her swimming pattern worsened and last night she was on the bottom gasping/suffocating. I did everything I could to revive her - including dexamethasone and 'CPR' in front of a vortech for 30 minutes at the end - but to no avail, she passed
So I'm very sad this morning. She was an expensive fish - about $250 shipped with no guarantee other than live arrival - but it's certainly the emotional toll, not the money, that has me so upset. I'm a physician, so really in the dumps about not being able to save her. I think Regal Angels are among the most beautiful marine fish but not sure I will try another.
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