Here Goes Nothing, Wish Me Luck :)

[littleme1969]

The nightmare never ends
Death and distruction everywhere... GGGGGGGGGgggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Well the so called reef friendly meds had no effect on the white spot whatso ever Its about time these people where not allowed to sell products that clearly DO NOT DO WHAT THEY SAY ON THE TIN!!!! I now only have 5 fish left from the main tank. The TANG!!! Scooter the blenny a red clown goby , falcon hawkfish and 2 sad cromis. As I expected having to strip down the tank to move the fish caused nothing but death and most of the fish died within a few days of adding to the quarantine tank. I cant tell you how sad it was to walk into that room everday to fish out the dead boddies Even the Tomato clown and indistructable damsel diddnt make it.
£150 worth of dead fish later I like Ski Fletch have learnt a valuble lesson, quarantine everything before adding to the display!! Amazingly non of snails, shrimp, crabs, or starfish died along the way. Even though the main tank had a mini crash caushed by dropping the s.g. down to try and kill the white spot. Also all my corals where safe in the other tank so I didnt loose them either thank goodness.

At the moment I'm cycling the large tank again and slowly bringing the s.g. up in all the tanks. The main tank will be left without fish for about 5 - 6 weeks and in the meantime once its stable I will add the corals back and eventually the 2 clown fish and blenny that where in the 20g . Then I will add back any survivers from the 25g quarantine tank leaving it running to quarantine future fish as they come in.
On the very small plus side it means I can now have all the fish in the one tank and I dont have to have two main tanks running. But on the sad side Ive lost some of my fav fish and this last 2 months its cost me £300 bewteen the lost fish and corals

Its a lesson well learned and I live to fight on another day.
Ive yet to start and treat the remaing fish for the white spot as I dint want to stress them even more after the move with the toxic meds , so I may still loose more fish Goes off to have a good crya and feel sorry for myself

 

[BigC]

Flippin Heck LM,
Sure took a good battering there, financially as well as mentally. Gosh, I dont know what to say really, except chin up. Last time I looked I knew you were having problems, but had no idea they were to that extent. I only hope I dont get a good cuffing like that, it must be really gut wrenching when you think of what you achieved. Anyway onwards and upwards. All work and no play as you say, especially here on the salty side of things. I get that feeling too sometimes, whats gonna happen next.
Again LM sorry to hear of your plight and I hope that everything picks up soon. Still keep us informed of your battle with the whitespot, it will be good referencing material for the future.

Saddened
BigC

 

[SkiFletch]

I feel for ya LM, I really do. Sounds just like what happened to me . I too was devastated watching them all die off like that and being nearly powerless to stop it, really does stink.

Look at it this way though, it only gets better from here

 

[littleme1969]

Thanks guys for the replies and yes your right the only way is up and I much wiser for it all. though a little poorer..lol
I'm glad to say that tests today show the large tank is now once agin fully cycled. I'm continuing to add salt daily to bring the s.g. back to normal. talking it nice and slow so not to upset the CUC and fire shrimp that are in there. Ive also added back all my stuff to the external filternal filter so this will also help stabalise the tank. I hope to have the corals back in there within 10 days or so to give everything a good 3 weeks or so to settle before I add any fish.
The quarantine tank is now also showing no ammonia thank goodness. It was cycled when I added the fish but as expected I did have a small 0.25 ammonia issue for a about 5 days while the bacteria got a hang on things. Ive been doing 25% water changes ever other day to help with this an I also added some live rock and a small amount of sand and this helped settle things down. The live rock will go back into the main tank once I'm happy that all is settled. There is plenty of media in the tank including 1kg of live rock rubble, large bag of cyramic rings 2 sponges etc to hold the bacteria so I'm sure removing the few small chunks of rock wont have any effect but i will monitor it before I start the white spot treatment. All the fish look better today and are feeding well so hopefully I wont loose anymore. Fingers crossed
Thanks to Ski for the advise he gave me on setting up the quarantine tank, I'm sure I would have probably lost them all without it

 

[littleme1969]

Well things are agin back on track .s.g in both tanks is now as it should be and stable tests across the board too.
All the corals have been back in the main tank for about 2 weeks and have now settled well. I'm pleased with the new rock scape in the tank too, so the strip down was worth the effort.
The fish in the quarantine tank have now done their full treatment of meds. This finished last week and all look well and are eating plenty. I did move the 2 clowns and the bicolour blenny into quarantine too so they got treated for the ich as well just to be on the safe side as corals where added to their tank from the main when the white spot was active and could of hitched a ride. I did loose my orange clown shortlt after the move but to be honest he hadnt looked well for a whileand had stopped eating, I have no explanation for this. He seemed to go the same way as his mate sadly .
The tank has now had 6 weeks without fish so the contents on the quarantine tank will go back in on tuesday morning. I also have another £110 worth of fish arriving on tuesday that will go straight into the quaratine tank for a few weeks.
More pics once the fish are back in.

 

[kj23502]

Wow. I know you posted part of the issus on another spot on here, but wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about all the troubles.

I love your tanks!! I'm lurking around the forum to gather ideas

 

[john.o]

I know you have been having some really big problems littleme
How are things going now? i really hope things are on the up for you sort of speak have you got any updates for use {any new fishy photos ect plz}

 

[littleme1969]

Hi guys and thanks for the interest..
Yes Things are now all settled and OK. The ones that made it through the white spot went back to the main tank closely followed by the first batch of new ones after a 2 week quarantine. That was about 6 weeks ago now and after a new round of tests and I'm sure all fish in the main tank are well I ordered my last lots of fish. They arrived on firday and are just starting their quarantine for 2 weeks. All look well despite the courier transporting the box on its side which caused alot of bags to leak Sadly at the bottom of the box was one almost empty bag containing my seconnd sadle back clown. I have no idea how this fish survived in such a tine amount of water and squashed by the weight of all the other fish bags But after some serious oxygen therapy and a slow intro hes now fine and eating well
I took some pics about 10 days ago and will put them up this evening

 

[john.o]

I’m so pleased you have managed to get every thing settled down littleme god knows so many people would have quite the hobby with all the problems you have had and the amount of cash you must of lost with treatments, live stock deaths ect ect. You must have the patience of a saint. If there’s one thing I have learnt from all this it is quarantine! Quarantine!! Quarantine!!! I have a small 10g tank which I am going to set up in my utility room. Any way well done best regards john,o

I took some pics about 10 days ago and will put them up this evening

I`m look forward to the pics

 

[SkiFletch]

Good to hear they made it to you. Interestingly enough, fish need more air in their bags than water during transport cause air carries more O2 than water

 

[BigC]

Hi LM,
Thought you'd givin up on us. Good to see yer back in the fold. Awaiting the pics.
Regards
BigC

 

[kj23502]

Glad to hear things are looking up for you. Can't wait to see pics Can I ask you a favor? When you show pics of fish could you label them, please? Some newbies (lol me) don't know what some fish and are very interested Thanks!!

 

[@ombomb]

people do seem to assume that fish keeping is a relaxing hobby for some reason...

fingers crossed for the new arrivals

*cough* pics *cough*

 

[littleme1969]

Sorry for the delay just had a few fishy hickuos to deal with. Problem has now sorted itself out with teh death of my copperband
Anyhow things are doing OK all fish are well and eating me out of house and home Ive lost a couple of fish and some corals. Corals where mainly zoos I was sat doing my usual vigil in front of the tank when I noticed what looked like a small tumble weed pass by the front glass. After it finally stopped and rested on the sand bed I was horrified to see legs apear and it to start a slow amble back to the rock work Itw was a ZOO SPIDER.. AAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG well that explains the loss of some of my zoos
Fish..
I bought a copperband with my last batch of fish. Fully aware of the issues that goes along with them. Came through quarantine fine and seemed to be nipping at worms and apitisa that I had put in on some live rock. Added all the fish to the main tank after about 10 days quarantine.. My mimic tang decided to murder the copperband in cold blood So i quickly took the copperband out and put him back into quarntine. Knowing how hard these are to get to eat and so finding him a new home , I decided to remove the mimic tang and let the copperband go into the main tank as there was lots of live food in their for him. Well to cut a long story short despite about 30 apitisa which I had let grow just for food for him, lots of feather duster worms large pods etc Live food inc tubifex bloodworm and brine shrimp, he died yesterday So the mimic is now back in residence.
Purple headed wrasse
This has to have been my fav fish of all time.. he was just so attentive and cute. loved human company and would always come over to display and say hi. He even fed out of my hand every day to get first pic of the frozen nosh.
He was fit healthy and eating well one day, then the next listless and not eating and the day after gone *GUTTED*
All i can put this down to is cyanide poisoning as the fish had no marks or visible signs of stress or problems and was very healthy. So my first pics are of him and he will be very much missed

Purple Headed Parrot wrasse RIP

Tangs..
Mimic/chocolate Tang *Bob*

Regal Tang... *Greedy Mo*

More to follow inc vids

 

[littleme1969]

More Fish..
Royal Gramma.. *Zippy* rubbish pics but due to the size my camera dosent seem to want to focus on him

Red Clown Goby * My Precious* lol Hanging out on his fav Coral Devils finger.

Scooter Blenny Dragonet *Scooter* Nice shote showing the stunning colouration of him inc blue spots

Bicolour Blenny *Sid* Used to be so skinny, now has a huge beer gut! lol
Hanging out in his fav spot.. powerhead *its always off just in as a back up*

Dusky Jaw fish *malcolm*

More...