Plz Help Me! Fish Deaths... (T - T),

[CRC88]

Originally Posted by needshelp

i to am a beginner andd have had a 90 gallon tank for about 4 months and have already killed 6 fish. dont worry about it, youll figure it out and be glad you didnt give up even if it is so frustrating sometimes

Six fish in four months?! YIKES!! Aside from fish being expensive, these are living creatures!! You should try to figure out what's killing your fish before you add anymore - not after they all die. These fish have been plucked from their home, shipped in a bag halfway around the world, only to die in your tank? That hardly seems fair.

I think you're on the right track with trying to find answers. In my opinion, I would cut back on your water changes. You have a small volume tank, and 25% every week could yield a drastic swing in parameters if everything isn't perfect. Doing 10-15% every two weeks with the bio load you have should be fine. Many people may disagree with me, but if the water you start with isn't perfect, and you keep adding 25% more not perfect water every week, how can you ever expect stable parameters? With a FOWLR tank, you're "allowed" to have a little nitrate so these huge water changes may be doing more harm than good. Try the reduced water changes for 6 weeks or so and see what happens. If all your fish & shrimp seem to be OK, and your water parameters are still good, then maybe try adding your next fish.

I have a 55g setup since July and have only lost one fish in QT (Ich). I honestly think giving it more time before you try to add anything else would be the best idea. Even if your parameters "check out" there could still be something that needs time to settle down. Watch the fish you have and see if they give you any clues as to what's going on. Good luck!!

[00Warpig00]

I've lost 6 fish in 13 months.

One from DT (tile surfer)
5 from QT
one carpet surfer
a pair of coral beauties dead inside of 3 days in the QT (apparently sick when I got them but appeared healthy when purchased), they stopped eating one day and the next they were dead. Then a pair of flame angels that went into the QT right after the coral beauties. I did a water change between but nothing to clean the tank otherwise. The flames seemed to be doing well for the first few days and then one day they stopped eating and the next they were dead. Still don't know for sure what killed them as they all looked healthy! To say the least a full QT breakdown occurred and everything was scrubbed in a 10% bleach solution then left to dry for several weeks before being set back up. Loss of the four dwarf angels inside of a month was a heavy hit. Not a health related death in QT since. One of my Gobies did go carpet surfing out a little tiny gap in my QT tops. I am just SO HAPPY none of those Angels ever went straight into my DT. It would have been MUCH worse.

Nick

[bskipper]

Originally Posted by michaelr

c0rp unfortunately has a point. reef safe treatments usually aren't all that effective. To contradict myself i did once cure black ich in my tank never to be seen again. Then again, black ich is less harmful and slower to spawn. On the other hand, ich wouldnt kill a healthy fish in one night after exposure. And baby, i still say it wouldnt hurt just to rule out the possibility. The fact that the inverts are fine makes this even more relevent. Most invertebrates need way less o2 in the water than fish.(thats the reason many are able to dig under the sand where theres less o2). Oh and the air bubbles are less important its more the fact they pop at the waters surface that makes the difference

How did you get rid of the black ick?

[michaelr]

Originally Posted by bskipper

How did you get rid of the black ick?

I used kick ich on my fish while in the dt. But, i cant honestly tell you if it actually rid the tank of it or if the fish's immune system kept it under control.

[crobattt]

immune system

[bskipper]

Kick Ick is not reef safe though, is it? I have a yellow tang that I believe has black ick, but she is (and has been for a while now) in my display tank. supplementing food with garlic, ginger root and selcon to see how it goes. I was just wondering what was successful for others w/o removing from DT.

Thanks for the replies!

[michaelr]

Originally Posted by bskipper

Kick Ick is not reef safe though, is it? I have a yellow tang that I believe has black ick, but she is (and has been for a while now) in my display tank. supplementing food with garlic, ginger root and selcon to see how it goes. I was just wondering what was successful for others w/o removing from DT.

Thanks for the replies!

best thing to use if you want to go that route is marine c and fish oil pills cracked open. those both will help. and kick ich is reef safe unless it was something else i dont remember. it didnt kill my corals though haha

[SushiGirl]

Were all of those fish in the 20 gallon tank at the same time?

[baby_reefer]

Hi! everyone long time no posting. didnt realise my post was still read.

and no the fishes wernt all in my tank at the same time. usually there were 2~3 fish in there at the time.

All my babies are okay. ich is gone and water is stable and blue tang is fine as well. I was sick of waiting for RSM S so I am getting aquareef 400L instead.
I hope my babies will like it.

Thanks for all your posts.

Regards,

Babyreefer.

[TimeConsumer]

Are you 100% sure it's ich? A few white spots on a tang doesn't necessarily mean you have ich, there are fungal infections that cause white spotting as well. Did the visual symptoms follow the lifecycle of ich? If you truly did have ich it will never go away (although it may go dormant) unless you treat the tank with copper or let the system go fallow for 6-8 weeks.