R.I.P first salt water fish

[antigonus]

I got my first fish, a royal Gramma, almost three weeks ago. Other than being being a bit shy at first, it ate readily and seemed to be doing well. Several days ago though I noticed some white spots, at first I wasn't too alarmed because I hadn't been able to get a close look and thought it could just be sand particles or something, but shortly afterwards, I realized it was obviously ich. Eventually I was able to get it transferred to a hospital tank with medication, but less than 48 hours later it was dead.

 

Needless to say i'm pretty bummed to lose my first ever salt water fish, especially because with the exception of a hair algae problem which has now largely died down, everything else seems to be going relatively well. It will be at least a few weeks until I will be able to add fish again, so this is the first really bad thing that has happened thus far.

[Gourami Swami]

Sorry to hear about your fish. I have had similar experiences keeping first salt water fish alive, lost one to ich and one to flukes. I think my problems came from not quarantining everything that I put in my tank, ich for example can come into the system on anything hard that it can encrust upon. I'd definitely recommend keeping a QT tank running, letting your display go fallow for 8 weeks, while quarantining the next fish for the same time frame. Hope you have better luck

[antigonus]

1 minute ago, Gourami Swami said:

Sorry to hear about your fish. I have had similar experiences keeping first salt water fish alive, lost one to ich and one to flukes. I think my problems came from not quarantining everything that I put in my tank, ich for example can come into the system on anything hard that it can encrust upon. I'd definitely recommend keeping a QT tank running, letting your display go fallow for 8 weeks, while quarantining the next fish for the same time frame. Hope you have better luck

Thanks. I knew that some tragedy would strike eventually but it still kind of sucks. I'm definitely going to quarantine the next fish I get. Do you think it would be a good idea to medicate the QT tank preemptively just to make sure any diseases already on the fish would be killed off?

 

The only positive I can think of is that all of my invertebrates are doing well, and my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at 0.0, so at least water quality doesn't seem to be an issue. 

[Gourami Swami]

Quarantine for 8 weeks would probably be sufficient, you would most likely see a problem within that time frame. Hyposalinity is great for ich and you could probably use this to preemptively treat for ich without too much stress to the fish, as long as you adjust salinity very slowly. 

[antigonus]

2 minutes ago, Gourami Swami said:

Quarantine for 8 weeks would probably be sufficient, you would most likely see a problem within that time frame. Hyposalinity is great for ich and you could probably use this to preemptively treat for ich without too much stress to the fish, as long as you adjust salinity very slowly. 

Thanks, that makes sense.

[Clown79]

Sorry for the loss. It sucks losing a fish, especially the first 1.

 

It could be velvet, which kills quickly and looks similar to ich.

 

Your tank will need to go fallow for 8 weeks for the parasite to die.

 

Qt for 4 weeks minimum. Some do observation and medicate as needed, others prophylactically treat.

 

Do research on both methods to choose which option you prefer.

 

 

[antigonus]

10 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Sorry for the loss. It sucks losing a fish, especially the first 1.

 

It could be velvet, which kills quickly and looks similar to ich.

 

Your tank will need to go fallow for 8 weeks for the parasite to die.

 

Qt for 4 weeks minimum. Some do observation and medicate as needed, others prophylactically treat.

 

Do research on both methods to choose which option you prefer.

 

 

Thanks, that is what I'm planning on doing now.

[choconut74]

Sorry about your loss 😞 Wish you the best