A little over a week ago I bought three fish, Achilles Tang, and Two flame wrasses male and female. The tang went in first at night after all the lights went off, my purple tang knew it was there and attacked it immediately so I put him in the sump until I could figure out what to do. The next day I was lent an acclimation box from a LFS, we were there the day before and saw they had some flame wrasses, the wife always wanted these wrasses so we pulled the trigger on them the next day. We got home acclimated the wrasses, put the tang in the acclimation box and put them in the tank. I know first mistake was not QTing the fish, I haven't had luck with QT in the past and the only thing that survives are clown fish and chromis so I took the chance and went for it. I also figured that if they did have ich they would battle through it and hopefully build up some immune to it, since I wasn't going to add any other fish to the DT I just went for it.
The fish looked pretty good, the Achilles was still in the acclimation box and was eating very well. I did notice that the male wrasses was flashing on the rock and sand, my initial though was yup should have done QT but I was prepared to accept the consequence and hoping the fish could fight through it. The next day I then noticed the Achilles covered in ich, so after work I pulled 3/4 of the rock out of my tank and caught the fish within an hour not entirely bad considering the fish I had. I had two separate QT's going at the same time one 55 long and one 40 breeder. In the 55 I had my Achilles, the pair of flame wrasses, a flame angel and two clowns that were begining to pair. In the 40 I have my purple tang, potters angel, pair of purple fire fish, my chromis and a diamond goby, which jumped through the egg crate cover the next morning. I didn't start the copper treatment because I was going out of town the next day for a week. The job I was on only lasted 4 days but I would end up having to go back since the other half of the job wasn't ready and was told to come back in 3-5 days, I am still waiting on that call :frusty:.
A couple of days in the QT the fish looked like they were doing pretty good and eating. That night as I went to feed the fish I noticed the Achilles acting strange and had a lot white spots on his body and was expelling mucus from his body. With my mind going scatter brain I didn't think about testing the water they were in and the 55 had a fairly high ammonia count in it and thought that's why he's acting strange and figured the white spots were ich. So I did a five gallon water change since it was all I had of ready water and threw some cycled rock I have in bucket in both tanks and put some prime in the 40 since I didn't have any water for a change. My mixed water is only 30 gallons and I have another 30 gallons for RO but they got drained from the QT tanks. The next morning I went down and saw that the Achllies didn't make it so I pulled him out and went to work. After work I went down stairs and saw that the other fish were breathing heavily the wrasses were the worst, so I called a fellow reefer and explained my situation and they gave me some solid advice. With my barrels full I started mixing some new salt in the mixing barrel, put 5 gallons of it in a bucket with an air stone, heaters, and a power head, I made sure the salinity and temp were near the same as the QT tank. I put the male wrasse in since he was breathing really heavy followed by the clowns then the flame angel, by the time I got to the female wrasse it was to late.
I started draining all of the water in the 55 and threw the rest of what was mixed back in the 55, then transferred the RO water into the mixing barrel and began to mix that and wait until it got dissolved so I could throw that in the 55. I was keeping watch over the male wrasses and it looked like he may be turning around and then I saw him gasping for air and not thinking and being scattered brain on what's going on I didn't do anything. After cleaning up my mess and checking the mixing barrel I looked back down in the bucket it with him sideways so I pulled him up and saw he wasn't breathing. Shortly after I noticed my flame angel gasping for air at the surface. I knew it was going to be a goner soon and couldn't put them back in the QT since the temp wasn't the same, about 10 degrees off. When the temp was about a degree off I started putting the fish back in and when I pulled the flame up he as well stopped breathing. I threw the clowns in and they looked like they weren't going to make it either since they were breathing heavily and swimming weird, so I called it a night. The next morning before I went off to work I checked on the clowns and they were swimming just fine, during the middle of the day I asked if the clowns were eating and she said yes and asked how they look and she said okay. When I got home from work I went down to check on the clowns, one of them was dead under the rock and the remaining one was breathing heavily and was showing the symptoms as the Achilles. I knew it was to far gone for me to do anything and eventually lost it as well. So everything in the 55 QT got wiped out without me knowing what the true cause of it was, wife thinks it was her not topping off with RO since the salinity got to 1.028 and I was thinking it was the ammonia with ich stress.
The next day my friend bought a 75 gallon complete set up so I basically spent the whole day helping him with that. Long story short only two fish made the tear down and the only survivors are currently being house in a 20 gallon in my basement while he waits for deals to go through on a reef ready tank, the one he bought was a HOB overflow kit which I've heard horror stories about. That night we went to a LFS and started talking about what's going in my tank and how I think it could be ich and another employee there started talking about how he had marine velvet and how it nearly wiped out his tank.
The next morning I went to check on the 40 and now notice my purple tang is showing the same symptoms as the Achilles. So I immediately drained the tank of 30 gallons (to help with ammonia build up), pulled the cycled rock, filled the tank and dosed the tank with copper. As this was going on my wife and I started researching marine velvet and came to the conclusion that this is what I am currently experiencing. I haven't been able to dose to the therapeutic levels of copper since I just started yesterday. The tang is still barely alive covered in the gold dust appearance and the other fish don't seem to stressed as of yet and are still eating.
So far with this experience I've decided no more wishing for the best and QTing all my fish, since I'll have to get some replacements for the ones I lost. And also changed my RO barrel to a mixing barrel since I wasted so much time waiting for water to mix and heat.
I have a couple of questions during this experience I am currently going through.
1. I do have a mandarin goby in the DT still. I've read that since they have a really thick slime coat it'll be really hard for parasites to attach to them as long as they're healthy. What's everyone's opinion on this? I know that putting them in copper would pretty much kill them and that if you do put them in QT you have to have A LOT of pods for them to eat, which I currently don't have especially for 72 days for the DT to go fallow.
2. What might be the cause for the flame angel to just die like that in the bucket? Temp and salinity were on point and as far as I could see I didn't see an outbreak on him yet although I know velvet starts in the gills first and suffocates the fish. Can I account his death to velvet?
3. With the rock I had in the QT's I am currently letting them dry out now. Would drying them out completely make them safe again to use or do I have to dip them? If so dip them with what?
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions but these are the only ones I have on the top of my head. Insight on this situation would be greatly appreciated.
The fish looked pretty good, the Achilles was still in the acclimation box and was eating very well. I did notice that the male wrasses was flashing on the rock and sand, my initial though was yup should have done QT but I was prepared to accept the consequence and hoping the fish could fight through it. The next day I then noticed the Achilles covered in ich, so after work I pulled 3/4 of the rock out of my tank and caught the fish within an hour not entirely bad considering the fish I had. I had two separate QT's going at the same time one 55 long and one 40 breeder. In the 55 I had my Achilles, the pair of flame wrasses, a flame angel and two clowns that were begining to pair. In the 40 I have my purple tang, potters angel, pair of purple fire fish, my chromis and a diamond goby, which jumped through the egg crate cover the next morning. I didn't start the copper treatment because I was going out of town the next day for a week. The job I was on only lasted 4 days but I would end up having to go back since the other half of the job wasn't ready and was told to come back in 3-5 days, I am still waiting on that call :frusty:.
A couple of days in the QT the fish looked like they were doing pretty good and eating. That night as I went to feed the fish I noticed the Achilles acting strange and had a lot white spots on his body and was expelling mucus from his body. With my mind going scatter brain I didn't think about testing the water they were in and the 55 had a fairly high ammonia count in it and thought that's why he's acting strange and figured the white spots were ich. So I did a five gallon water change since it was all I had of ready water and threw some cycled rock I have in bucket in both tanks and put some prime in the 40 since I didn't have any water for a change. My mixed water is only 30 gallons and I have another 30 gallons for RO but they got drained from the QT tanks. The next morning I went down and saw that the Achllies didn't make it so I pulled him out and went to work. After work I went down stairs and saw that the other fish were breathing heavily the wrasses were the worst, so I called a fellow reefer and explained my situation and they gave me some solid advice. With my barrels full I started mixing some new salt in the mixing barrel, put 5 gallons of it in a bucket with an air stone, heaters, and a power head, I made sure the salinity and temp were near the same as the QT tank. I put the male wrasse in since he was breathing really heavy followed by the clowns then the flame angel, by the time I got to the female wrasse it was to late.
I started draining all of the water in the 55 and threw the rest of what was mixed back in the 55, then transferred the RO water into the mixing barrel and began to mix that and wait until it got dissolved so I could throw that in the 55. I was keeping watch over the male wrasses and it looked like he may be turning around and then I saw him gasping for air and not thinking and being scattered brain on what's going on I didn't do anything. After cleaning up my mess and checking the mixing barrel I looked back down in the bucket it with him sideways so I pulled him up and saw he wasn't breathing. Shortly after I noticed my flame angel gasping for air at the surface. I knew it was going to be a goner soon and couldn't put them back in the QT since the temp wasn't the same, about 10 degrees off. When the temp was about a degree off I started putting the fish back in and when I pulled the flame up he as well stopped breathing. I threw the clowns in and they looked like they weren't going to make it either since they were breathing heavily and swimming weird, so I called it a night. The next morning before I went off to work I checked on the clowns and they were swimming just fine, during the middle of the day I asked if the clowns were eating and she said yes and asked how they look and she said okay. When I got home from work I went down to check on the clowns, one of them was dead under the rock and the remaining one was breathing heavily and was showing the symptoms as the Achilles. I knew it was to far gone for me to do anything and eventually lost it as well. So everything in the 55 QT got wiped out without me knowing what the true cause of it was, wife thinks it was her not topping off with RO since the salinity got to 1.028 and I was thinking it was the ammonia with ich stress.
The next day my friend bought a 75 gallon complete set up so I basically spent the whole day helping him with that. Long story short only two fish made the tear down and the only survivors are currently being house in a 20 gallon in my basement while he waits for deals to go through on a reef ready tank, the one he bought was a HOB overflow kit which I've heard horror stories about. That night we went to a LFS and started talking about what's going in my tank and how I think it could be ich and another employee there started talking about how he had marine velvet and how it nearly wiped out his tank.
The next morning I went to check on the 40 and now notice my purple tang is showing the same symptoms as the Achilles. So I immediately drained the tank of 30 gallons (to help with ammonia build up), pulled the cycled rock, filled the tank and dosed the tank with copper. As this was going on my wife and I started researching marine velvet and came to the conclusion that this is what I am currently experiencing. I haven't been able to dose to the therapeutic levels of copper since I just started yesterday. The tang is still barely alive covered in the gold dust appearance and the other fish don't seem to stressed as of yet and are still eating.
So far with this experience I've decided no more wishing for the best and QTing all my fish, since I'll have to get some replacements for the ones I lost. And also changed my RO barrel to a mixing barrel since I wasted so much time waiting for water to mix and heat.
I have a couple of questions during this experience I am currently going through.
1. I do have a mandarin goby in the DT still. I've read that since they have a really thick slime coat it'll be really hard for parasites to attach to them as long as they're healthy. What's everyone's opinion on this? I know that putting them in copper would pretty much kill them and that if you do put them in QT you have to have A LOT of pods for them to eat, which I currently don't have especially for 72 days for the DT to go fallow.
2. What might be the cause for the flame angel to just die like that in the bucket? Temp and salinity were on point and as far as I could see I didn't see an outbreak on him yet although I know velvet starts in the gills first and suffocates the fish. Can I account his death to velvet?
3. With the rock I had in the QT's I am currently letting them dry out now. Would drying them out completely make them safe again to use or do I have to dip them? If so dip them with what?
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions but these are the only ones I have on the top of my head. Insight on this situation would be greatly appreciated.
