:( The Deaths of our Fishy Friends... What can we learn??

My recent loss of my favorite little clownfish that ate out of my fingers gave me an idea for this slightly more morbid thread. I hate loosing fish. There are some losses that we just can't prevent. Fish do die of old age for sure. But how often if we are honest with ourselves is it something preventable or bad husbandry or laziness that leads to another one "biting the dust" :( I would say mine have been due to newbee mistakes and impatience. SO lets hear the sad stories maybe these will keep a loss from happening due to newness or simple mistakes that are easy to avoid. :shake-head:
***This thread is not to judge others, or make them feel any worse for the mistakes they have made... lets face it loosing a fishy friend is bad enough, let us be kind and not rub others wounds in saltwater ;) ***

Heidi

I got 2 clowns together they were my first fish and one dies the next day. He had been sick. I could have avoided this loss by simply not buying the darker clown. He seemed "Just not right" but on an impulse I bought him anyway... and alas a day later he was dead. After this time I have had each of my fish quarantined with medications before I have placed them in my main tank. So I do not risk making other fish sick and I do not have to deal with the quick loss of a sick fish.

We replaced him.. This past month my family and I was on vacation and while we were gone "Nemo" jumped. So sad cause he ate out of my hand :( I have since covered the entire top of my tank as their were some place where a sneaky fish could slip out if spooked etc. A screen that doesn't cover the entire top is no good for keeping fish in... you MUST COver the WHOLE top... I am lucky to have only lost the one fish as I keep Wrasse and other prone to jumping fishes, luck has been on my side up until now.

I got a beautiful Midas blenny (third fish ever) and about a week later he looked like he had ich. So I took him out of the DT and put him qt. He was too stressed and died in an hour after I caught him. Sadly I think he would have made it if I would have left him alone. Now, I don't pull fish with 2 spots if ich. I wait a few days and feed heavy with garlic as long as the fish seem otherwise heathy. Medication and my QT are now kept for new fish, and fish that seem to ... be very very sick, like easy to catch sick.

Hoping these things help new people not make the same sad mistakes.
Heidi

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15...CIMG0083-1.jpg
RIP Mr. Midas Blenny (Dec. 2010):angelsad:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15...f/DSCF1590.jpg
RIP "The Nemom(number 1)" Aug. 2011 :angelsad:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15...f/IMG_0968.jpg
RIP Darker Clownfish in back (Dec. 2010):angelsad:

My first saltwater fish, a Tailspot Blenny (Ecsenius stigmatura). I received him June 27, 2008, a super cool fish to have as a first fish. I found him May 7, 2011 when I got from work, still a mystery what happened. Now my pair of ORA Extreme mis-bared Clownfish have the tank to the themselves, and have started to continuously lay eggs. I don't know whats next. Been thinking about a Helfrichi Firefish.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_7878.jpg

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_5476.jpg

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x4 Firefish x1 yellow clown goby all lost due to not quarantining them. ICH! I thought it was the fish bringing it into my tank. Maybe so with the first one but any after that was surely due to my tank being infected. I just kept adding fish. Finally I learned about fallowing a tank. Otherwise starving the ICH out. I spent 3 months fishless. Which was so hard, as I am a fish person more so then a coral person. Lesson learned! Haven't lost a fish to ICH since.


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- IPhone+Tapatalk=I don't miss a thing!

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Originally Posted by nate_newton

My first saltwater fish, a Tailspot Blenny (Ecsenius stigmatura). I received him June 27, 2008, a super cool fish to have as a first fish. I found him May 7, 2011 when I got from work, still a mystery what happened. Now my pair of ORA Extreme mis-bared Clownfish have the tank to the themselves, and have started to continuously lay eggs. I don't know whats next. Been thinking about a Helfrichi Firefish.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_7878.jpg

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_5476.jpg

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_5523.jpg

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Nate I know how you feel. My TSB was my first SW fish. I too just recently lost him. No idea why he died either. I did order another one via our LFS but it arrived DOA. I miss that fish a lot :(


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- IPhone+Tapatalk=I don't miss a thing!

Jumps have been my biggest killer, some through the smallest cracks or even unobserved while I had the lid open. My tailspot got whopped in half by the vortech and then the 3 cleaner shrimp were munching on the rest. My female blue spot trigger was getting skinnier and skinnier, she ate just fine, one day I see her still alive but caught by the tail in my rhizo.

I would say quarantine is the best prevention, maybe if I had did that in my 55g I wouldn't have lost 7 fish in 5 days, my coral beauty, 2 clowns, a midas blenny, flame hawk, yellow tang, and a pseudo chromis...all were fantastic fish who were completely healthy then wham dead before there was anything I could even do, since then i have a hospital tank and QT tank ready to go at any given time. the only two survivors were a red velvet wrasse and yellow watchmen goby.

my first venture into saltwater I had a 30g salt water tank, the store I got everything from was a joke they first told me not to go into saltwater that it is way to hard and expensive (first off what hobby isn't somewhat expensive, second what kind of store deters a potential frequent shopper?) Anyways they were reluctant to help me out, they basically handed me salt, told me to go to meijers to get water from the culligan machine and that I would need this magic bottle of aquasafe to make the water safe then just dump the fish in the water after 2 days of waiting and I would be good and as for lights I would only need a crappy 2 bulb system that had barely any light output. Well you can see where this went, I had rock, light, water, sand, and aquasafe... I set it up and after two days I put fish in and did I mention they sold me the fish too? 2 clowns, some weird blenny, coral beauty, tons of snails, blood shrimp, and I think they sold me a tang as well, cant remember the exact one, oh and the skimmer was a crappy one rated for like 20g of freshwater. Well everything by surprise lived for exactly 3 weeks, the first to die was the tang, hmm interesting the one whos most sensitive to ammonia dies first, then the 2 clownfish which I started to tear up at that point and a day or two later the coral beauty died and I had it. I didn't know much about salt water and I depended on the store to help me out which they did not, I looked up more online and more on maintenance and found out about a thing called cycling, and water changes and forums where I could get help, well the only thing that survived once I started doing water changes was my blood shrimp which I still have to this day

My little bit of knowledge for people is make sure the people selling you stuff actually care... and for newbies I tell them forums make the world of a difference because there is always someone who has already gone through what you have had happen to your tank and they can help.

And I forgot to mention I did not have a job at the time, this was after saving up tons of money to get started, and after things died I had no money but my mom was nice enough to give me the money for free! And she was also good enough to loan me money to get my 120g up and running through mini payments, christmas and bday money I paid her back.

Ok here is a good lesson learned... Dont Laugh

I started off with a little 30 gal and then about 9 months later I upgraded to a 90 gal. About a year after I was doing good with a 90 gal I decided to take a leap of faith and upgrade to a 220 gal (AKA my dream tank). I had everything I needed and was ready to go. We had just moved in to a new house were a weird lady lived before us with her five cats. Well it was spring time and this being the first year we lived in the house with our cat and our new puppy. We started to get a flea problem from the person who lived before us. So I went to a couple of stores and was looking for some thing to help get rid of the fleas that would be safe around the fish tank. I went to a local pet store were I have bought all my cat and dog pet supplies from before and asked them what would be the best. The man showed me a spray that was safe enough to put on your pets, and you can also spray your carpet. He says it works really well and should be safe by the fish tank, as long as I don't spray it directly in or at it.

So I went home and covered my 90 gal so nothing could go in to it. I covered it with my glass lids and covered the sump up with plastic so I couldn't see any holes. Good to go right?... Well the next day after spraying was also the day we were going to upgrade to our 220 gal. I woke up and looked at the tank and the tank it was WHITE! You couldn't even see the back of the tank. The spray had gotten in to the tank and mixed with the salt water and turned the water white. Luckily I had extra water for the move to the big tank and quickly set up a QT tank and put all my coral and fish in to it. Sadly nothing made it. I lost all my fish and corals and a clam the size of a football. It was the worst day.

Before setting up my now empty 220 we tore out all the carpet and bugged bombed the house. Then put down the fake hard wood so no more flea problem.

I hope this helps someone. Because I never would have guessed that it would have happened.