it was my first ever marine fish dead from a disease/ known cause.
i bought the fish in Toronto. since i dont have quarantine tank, i let the fish in my 34G tank right away. i seemed to be doing fine for the first 4 days. it was grazing among rocks but showed little interest in other food i offered.
yesterday, on the 5th day, i saw the fish was acting all weird and was only swimming in the current. it stopped grazing among rocks and showed complete no interest in feeding. i didnt see any visible sign on the body indicating a disease. so i thought maybe it was just stressed because i moved some rocks around.
and when i woke up this morning, the fish was dying! the fish upper body was a little bloody. i didn't know if it was ich or something else. because if it was ich, wouldnt the fish have white spots all over it? i took it out hoping some medication will help but it soon died.
i measured the water, nitrate was a little high at 40. everything else is fine...
i sure hope my other fish wont catch any disease from that fish... and i will not buy any fish that hard to keep again.
wow thats high nitrate you got there
Copperbands are typically hard to get eating and the stress from the move probably just did it in. Its one of my fav fish, I have been in the Saltwater world for over 2 years now, and I still haven't tried one because of the level of care they typically need.
Quote from: NjOyRiD on January 02, 2012, 07:14:31 PM
wow thats high nitrate you got there
yeah, im going to do more frequent water changes from now on. but that nitrate level never bothered anything else though
Not sure what else you have but butterflies and angel fish are not easy fish. The get sick easy, stress easy and are hard to get eating.
Quote from: Hookup on January 02, 2012, 09:22:46 PM
Not sure what else you have but butterflies and angel fish are not easy fish. The get sick easy, stress easy and are hard to get eating.
my bicolor angel is doing really well. grazes on rocks, swims around, and eats anything i feed...
my rule of thumb for angel fish is... the more expensive, the higher maintenance they are (just like women!)
lulz.
so your $25 bi-color angel is as hearty as they come. you could feed it bicycle tires.
but a koran, or emperor angle.... a little more delicate.
butterflies.... lovely.
but extremely hard to keep alive.
your water quality will say a lot.
don't overload a tank. don't over feed a tank.
everything slow.
The cause of death could have been pretty much ANYTHING - and you will probably know which individual thing it could have been. Unfortunately, this forum doesn't force people to share their setup and "fish list" so we can only give general advice while making lots of assumptions.
However, 40 is crazy high nitrate levels. Do you have a skimmer? If not, you might want to consider looking into one. It will help keep water quality better, in addition to weekly water changes. 10% weekly water changes go a long way.
34G is a tad too small for a butterfly. The recommended size is 50+ according to liveaquaria.com, which I look to for "guidelines" regularly.
Bi-color angels can be aggressive, and may cause stress in a sensitive fish like a butterfly... They get stressed over little things, let alone a big move from an ocean to your tank.
And, yes, as already mentioned - they are difficult fish to keep and to get eating in general. That's part of the reason I haven't bought one yet. :) I'd love to have one, but I know my Tang wouldn't appreciate another similarly shaped fish, and I like my Tang too much to remove him.
Quote from: Greatwhite on January 03, 2012, 02:12:10 PM
The cause of death could have been pretty much ANYTHING - and you will probably know which individual thing it could have been. Unfortunately, this forum doesn't force people to share their setup and "fish list" so we can only give general advice while making lots of assumptions.
However, 40 is crazy high nitrate levels. Do you have a skimmer? If not, you might want to consider looking into one. It will help keep water quality better, in addition to weekly water changes. 10% weekly water changes go a long way.
34G is a tad too small for a butterfly. The recommended size is 50+ according to liveaquaria.com, which I look to for "guidelines" regularly.
Bi-color angels can be aggressive, and may cause stress in a sensitive fish like a butterfly... They get stressed over little things, let alone a big move from an ocean to your tank.
And, yes, as already mentioned - they are difficult fish to keep and to get eating in general. That's part of the reason I haven't bought one yet. :) I'd love to have one, but I know my Tang wouldn't appreciate another similarly shaped fish, and I like my Tang too much to remove him.
well, i do have a skimmer that comes with the red sea max 130. it works pretty well i think. i actually reduced the nitrate level down from 80 to 40 in three weeks. i got the tank used and kept most the water from the previous owner. i also had to sell my very healthy scopas tang for 20 bucks only so my butterfly fish wouldn't be picked on.
what really shocked me is how fast the fish died. took only one day for the fish to go from looking and acting completely normal to a dead with some bloody upper body.
"works pretty well I think..."
o'rly.
I have a skimmer in my 29g cube and need to empty it daily.
how often are you having to dump?
change airstone for better results as well..... $3 fix :)
Quote from: vonG on January 03, 2012, 05:01:25 PM
"works pretty well I think..."
o'rly.
I have a skimmer in my 29g cube and need to empty it daily.
how often are you having to dump?
change airstone for better results as well..... $3 fix :)
hmmm, i thought it works well because after having it on for several days, nothing comes up anymore... thought my water was completely clean then. only needed to clean it once in 3 weeks......
guess i dont know what a good working skimmer is like.
skimmers are a bit of a pain, but I typically have to clean my every 3-4 days. If it stops pulling stuff in a manner you are used to, adjust it or double check it. I recently found a fish in the impeller of the feed pump :( Damn Dart Fish. I liked him too :'(
Quote from: JetJumper on January 03, 2012, 05:36:08 PM
skimmers are a bit of a pain, but I typically have to clean my every 3-4 days. If it stops pulling stuff in a manner you are used to, adjust it or double check it. I recently found a fish in the impeller of the feed pump :( Damn Dart Fish. I liked him too :'(
oh wow! i have no idea what a properly working red sea max skimmer is like. i have not even taken it apart once yet. ill try to figure it out tonight. hopefully its going to pull more protein out of my water.