where did I go wrong?

Well, another saltwater tragedy in my house (too many of these lately). A week ago I purchased a small flame angel and royal gramma, and after a 30 minute acclimation I added them to my 30g quarantine tank. The QT was filled with new water (just mixed the day before), and all parameters were perfect.

After 2 days, the fish were still not visibly eating anything, but were pecking at the frozen cyclopeeze I added to the tank. At that point I decided to treat them prophylactically for any parasites with Seachem's paraguard (gentler than copper, so I've been told). So I added the recommended dose to the tank, and replaced it every day as per the instructions.

After another 4 days (so 6 days in total from purchase), the fishs' activity was much decreased, and they were still not eating. They both spent most of the day hiding in PVC tubing. I thought it might be the medication, so I did a large water change. Later that day, the flame angel stopped swimming and kept getting caught in my powerhead intake. He died after a few more hours. The royal gramma also died that night.

So what went wrong? If the fish were sick, the paraguard should have helped. If they were starving, I would hope they would have eaten either the frozen mysis or cyclopeeze or fuzzy-phytes I added for them. All parameters were measured normal in the tank. Any thoughts???

 

Sounds like the fish were sick when you bought them. It is always a good idea to ask the LFS to feed them in front of you before purchase, to make sure they are eating. Yes the paragaurd should have helped, but it is not an end all be all solution for sick fish. Sorry for your loss, though.

 

Sound like your tank might have been contaminated with something. Its hard to say what it is.

If no other fish were effected then the contamination probably happened at the fish store.

I've bought many sick fish before and recovered them to full health. But sometimes its too late if the toxins have weakened the fish's immune system.

 

K+ for the QT tank. Sorry for your lossses tho. bummer

 

if it was just the one fish, I would say it kinda sounds like cyanide poisoning, but for both to fade at just about the same rate it might be something to do with the QT. is there an expiration date on the paraguard?

~Will.

 

IMO, this was your problem. This is common with QT from what I've read on 3reef.

The saltwater was too fresh. Fresh made saltwater tends to have weird fluctuations...

I tend to put a fish on hold and watch it over a week before buying it... so assuming the fish was healthy to begin with - it may have had a real hard time with this water. Since two got knocked out in the same environment (right?), the idea is reinforced to me.


I think people have better success when QT a new purchase by doing a water change from the DT and using that old water for the QT (1:1).

This has the added benefit of not having to acclimate the fish twice causing double stress (another common problem with QT).

Just my 2 cents.

 

Hmmm, some good ideas above. I don't think the QT was contaminated. The paraguard was not expired. The fish might have been sick from the petstore, although I don't know why they would have died on the same day. Next time I can try filling the QT with old DT water...see how that goes.

One further question - my QT is in my basement, where our nanny lives. In the evenings she goes out, and sprays on some pretty heavy perfume, the smell of which pervades the whole basement. Could this have affected the fish in any way? I'm just grasping at straws here.

 

Maybe, but I doubt that would have caused this. Did you have anything in the QT tank as far as biological filtration?

 

One problem (of which there are more) with QTs is that they are rarely in line with all the parameters of the LFS. This can lead to shock. The other maty also be the use of the chemicals.

 

Are you saying that most DT are in line with LFS?

My QT tanks has 0 trates 0 trites and 0 amonia---

What are the other problems with QT tanks?