adoptaspork
New member
I purchased two new fish for my tank today: a new juvenile ocellaris clown since my male died while some friends were watching my tank for a week 
as well as a yellow tailed damselfish for the purpose of eating flatworms and distracting my established female from trying to murder the new boy. I also moved the rockwork around to keep her distracted.
When I got home, i started acclimating the fish. I've never lost a fish during the acclimation process and acclimated over the process of a couple of hours. The damselfish was acting a bit oddly but I let it out thinking it'd find a quiet place to hide and adjust. Within a few minutes of releasing it, it was swimming circles and gliding around like george clooney in gravity. I pulled it up in a bag, turned the lights on briefly, took a REALLY close look at it, and saw what I believe to be a few teeny tiny spots of ich. The clown does not appear to have any. I didn't even see the ich to begin with on the damsel at the store because it's such a tiny amount, and again I didn't notice at home since I'd turned out the tank lights.
Within a few more minutes of bagging the fish, it was dead. I'm returning it to the store promptly tomorrow. I've never had a problem with any purchases there in the past. The clown is fine, healthy looking, and I inspected it closely and found no ich. I live in a small apartment, so I don't have a QT tank as much as I wish I could. There's honestly just no space.
My question is...could any ich have been dropped off and infect the clowns in the 2-3 minutes that the damselfish was floating around the tank after it was released? Should I be concerned? Is there anything preventative that I can do in the meantime? There are a number of inverts in the tank but the clowns are the only fish. It is a reef tank, and I have a mixture of LPS, SPS, and softies. All water params are normal and salinity is at about 1.024.
as well as a yellow tailed damselfish for the purpose of eating flatworms and distracting my established female from trying to murder the new boy. I also moved the rockwork around to keep her distracted.When I got home, i started acclimating the fish. I've never lost a fish during the acclimation process and acclimated over the process of a couple of hours. The damselfish was acting a bit oddly but I let it out thinking it'd find a quiet place to hide and adjust. Within a few minutes of releasing it, it was swimming circles and gliding around like george clooney in gravity. I pulled it up in a bag, turned the lights on briefly, took a REALLY close look at it, and saw what I believe to be a few teeny tiny spots of ich. The clown does not appear to have any. I didn't even see the ich to begin with on the damsel at the store because it's such a tiny amount, and again I didn't notice at home since I'd turned out the tank lights.
Within a few more minutes of bagging the fish, it was dead. I'm returning it to the store promptly tomorrow. I've never had a problem with any purchases there in the past. The clown is fine, healthy looking, and I inspected it closely and found no ich. I live in a small apartment, so I don't have a QT tank as much as I wish I could. There's honestly just no space.
My question is...could any ich have been dropped off and infect the clowns in the 2-3 minutes that the damselfish was floating around the tank after it was released? Should I be concerned? Is there anything preventative that I can do in the meantime? There are a number of inverts in the tank but the clowns are the only fish. It is a reef tank, and I have a mixture of LPS, SPS, and softies. All water params are normal and salinity is at about 1.024.
