Navarre
Marine Moderator
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- Jun 11, 2004
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As most of you know i lost many fish over the Christmas holidays. I firmly beleive this was my own fault and the initial mistake led to a chain reaction tht wiped out most of my tank.
For those of you out there that believe tangs can be kept in tanks under 100 gallons please read this and learn from my mistake.
I had (and still have) an emperor tang. the entire tank was thriving as can be seen in the photo below.
I knew that my large tank was arriving in just a few weeks so in my eagerness i took the chance get the next fish on my list... An Achilles tang, i knew full well that adding 2 tangs was risky in this size of tank but as both were from different tang families i felt there would be a chance of it working out.
Wrong.. war broke out for 3 solid days with my new Achilles taking a real beating. it started out as a shining healthy example but got badly shredded by the endless battles with their sharp scalpals.
After 3 days of warfare, i was in fact correct in my analogy that these tang could get along as both now swam side by side after getting their pecking order sorted out. Sadly it was too late and this was the start of the end of my reef tank as i knew it.
This was the tang once the fighting had settled down. The marks shown are all that can be via the camera but alas they were far worse. the face mark is a deep scar across its cheek that narrowly missed its eye.
Even theough things were now calm in the tank the Achilles was under enormous stress and whitespot hit with abundance a ll over it in the next 3 days that followed. No other fish at this time showed signs of illness.
Sadly i lost the Achilles after 6 days in my tank through the stress levels of being kept in the wrong conditions.
This was taken the day before it died. Hard to beleive its the very same fish
The tank appeared fine and no other ilness was apparant. There was a Powder brown Tang in superb condition for sale. I thought that now my emperor was used to a tang in the same tank as it, perhaps there would not be much fighting. I got the tang and placed iti n the tank the very day after i lost the Achilles.
I was right! After a brief altercation to establish who was boss, they both settleed down nicely and things seemd to be looking good.
Here is the Powder Brown.
This was a huge mistake in all honesty. THe whitespot from the Achilles was still in the tank and even though my other fish were healthy to ward off this parasite, the new addition sucum to it very quickly and became infested with it. I reacted accordingly, switching on the UV.. No effect. Adding garlic to the food, no effect. By now the parasite had managed to infect other fish and they were all slowly weakening to it.
By the time i reluctantly decided to use medication it was already too late for many of the tanks inhabitants.
The Powder Brown,
Purple Mask Angel
Wattanabae Angel
Hektors Goby
Dot Dash Blenny
The Male clownfish (was weak but was actually lost to a powerhead)
Mothfish
2 Of my Anthias (1 was a male)
Purple Firefish
(no at hand)
After medication, i did manage to save the other fish...
Dusky Wrasse
(never seemed effected)
Emperor Tang
Was looking very ill but now looks like its very healthy again
Female Clown
(More about her later)
Female Anthias (now turning male)
Looks very healthy
Algae Blenny
(Never effected)
Asfur Angel
Still recovering but eating well. (still looks poor though)
Marine Beta
(never seemd effected)
6 Line wrasse
(never effected. I actually dont think wrasses are effected by ich though improbably wrong)
So with these fish now on the road to recovery i have actually started to add more. The BLue ring... not by choice but its still here and looks ok (though still not feeding.. i guess it ust be though)
Cleaner wrasse
Added during the ich phase to help with the parasite. (again never effected)
And a few mor fish since then...
I purchased a small male clown but he sadly died last by being sucked into a powerhead
I have a Bi colour angel but its vanshed.. i have checked all over and there is no sign of him
And today, sadly .....
My beautiful female Clown, she had battled through all the problems i had, I came in from work this morning to find her dead inside the same powerhead that took her new husband the night before
Now admittedly, not all of these deaths were attirubuted to Whitespot but i made this post so that people can see how adding a single fish that is not right for your tank can upset and snowball out of proportion doing far more damage over many weeks or months.
Its enough to make even the most devoted hobbiest question their motivation for keeping these wonderful creatures.
I have lost so much stock recently its simply heartbreaking to see fish that have grown up in the tank devlope their own personalities etc. They do not have much awareness of your presence other than feeding times but they are totally reliant on your love, your skill and devotion to them. The desisions you make directly impact their very lives so please, please, please remember this before making purcahses or decsions that might cause such disasters as i have endured here.
(And this doesnt even cover the impact its made on all my corals... these are also dying .. or at least changing vastly).
For those of you out there that believe tangs can be kept in tanks under 100 gallons please read this and learn from my mistake.
I had (and still have) an emperor tang. the entire tank was thriving as can be seen in the photo below.
I knew that my large tank was arriving in just a few weeks so in my eagerness i took the chance get the next fish on my list... An Achilles tang, i knew full well that adding 2 tangs was risky in this size of tank but as both were from different tang families i felt there would be a chance of it working out.
Wrong.. war broke out for 3 solid days with my new Achilles taking a real beating. it started out as a shining healthy example but got badly shredded by the endless battles with their sharp scalpals.
After 3 days of warfare, i was in fact correct in my analogy that these tang could get along as both now swam side by side after getting their pecking order sorted out. Sadly it was too late and this was the start of the end of my reef tank as i knew it.
This was the tang once the fighting had settled down. The marks shown are all that can be via the camera but alas they were far worse. the face mark is a deep scar across its cheek that narrowly missed its eye.
Even theough things were now calm in the tank the Achilles was under enormous stress and whitespot hit with abundance a ll over it in the next 3 days that followed. No other fish at this time showed signs of illness.
Sadly i lost the Achilles after 6 days in my tank through the stress levels of being kept in the wrong conditions.
This was taken the day before it died. Hard to beleive its the very same fish
The tank appeared fine and no other ilness was apparant. There was a Powder brown Tang in superb condition for sale. I thought that now my emperor was used to a tang in the same tank as it, perhaps there would not be much fighting. I got the tang and placed iti n the tank the very day after i lost the Achilles.
I was right! After a brief altercation to establish who was boss, they both settleed down nicely and things seemd to be looking good.
Here is the Powder Brown.
This was a huge mistake in all honesty. THe whitespot from the Achilles was still in the tank and even though my other fish were healthy to ward off this parasite, the new addition sucum to it very quickly and became infested with it. I reacted accordingly, switching on the UV.. No effect. Adding garlic to the food, no effect. By now the parasite had managed to infect other fish and they were all slowly weakening to it.
By the time i reluctantly decided to use medication it was already too late for many of the tanks inhabitants.
The Powder Brown,
Purple Mask Angel
Wattanabae Angel
Hektors Goby
Dot Dash Blenny
The Male clownfish (was weak but was actually lost to a powerhead)
Mothfish
2 Of my Anthias (1 was a male)
Purple Firefish
(no at hand)
After medication, i did manage to save the other fish...
Dusky Wrasse
(never seemed effected)
Emperor Tang
Was looking very ill but now looks like its very healthy again
Female Clown
(More about her later)
Female Anthias (now turning male)
Looks very healthy
Algae Blenny
(Never effected)
Asfur Angel
Still recovering but eating well. (still looks poor though)
Marine Beta
(never seemd effected)
6 Line wrasse
(never effected. I actually dont think wrasses are effected by ich though improbably wrong)
So with these fish now on the road to recovery i have actually started to add more. The BLue ring... not by choice but its still here and looks ok (though still not feeding.. i guess it ust be though)
Cleaner wrasse
Added during the ich phase to help with the parasite. (again never effected)
And a few mor fish since then...
I purchased a small male clown but he sadly died last by being sucked into a powerhead
I have a Bi colour angel but its vanshed.. i have checked all over and there is no sign of him
And today, sadly .....
My beautiful female Clown, she had battled through all the problems i had, I came in from work this morning to find her dead inside the same powerhead that took her new husband the night before
Now admittedly, not all of these deaths were attirubuted to Whitespot but i made this post so that people can see how adding a single fish that is not right for your tank can upset and snowball out of proportion doing far more damage over many weeks or months.
Its enough to make even the most devoted hobbiest question their motivation for keeping these wonderful creatures.
I have lost so much stock recently its simply heartbreaking to see fish that have grown up in the tank devlope their own personalities etc. They do not have much awareness of your presence other than feeding times but they are totally reliant on your love, your skill and devotion to them. The desisions you make directly impact their very lives so please, please, please remember this before making purcahses or decsions that might cause such disasters as i have endured here.
(And this doesnt even cover the impact its made on all my corals... these are also dying .. or at least changing vastly).
But, like someone once told me, learn from your errors, and other's. I did learn a thing or two from your post, and thank you. (though my reef tank is about completed for now.)
