Death of my Fav FLame Angel

[Damsel]

Very sad day today coz my flame angel died of whitespot, ick and finrot...

It happened quite sometime ago when 2 of my blue tangs keeps rubbing at the LR.. i manage to get them and throw into my 4FT QT tank...

serving them wiz coppersafe n easylife and slowly recovered .

only then i noticed that my flame angel is swimming nicely and i was state of shock to see that he was suffering from W/spot n his fin was kind of torn..!i takes me few days to catch him but by then he was weak to swim which i manage to scoop him out..! Last him only 2days at 2ft QT tank..!

My reef tank is 5ft x 2ft 2.5 ft and question is what percaution must i make now..? change 50% of SW? EMPTY the tank for 2mths to get rid of the ick?

mY fish which inside the reef tank: 5 damsels , 1 yellow tang,1 flame hawk,

2firegobys2cardinals,1 goby,1 tomato clown.

water parameter is fine.

Any specialist aquarist can adv?

[Damsel]

No reply from anyone?

[Tanzy]

I don't know what to say . What do you mean water parameters are 'fine'? Could you elaborate? How long has the fish been in the tank? Did you add them at the same time?

[Damsel]

Hi Tanzy THks for reply..

Well i've checked yesterday:-

Ammonia : 0

Nitrite : 0

Nitrate :20 - 25.

Ph :8.1 - 8.3

SG :1.023

My tank set up almost abt 10mths..

It all started from my blue tangs..! So rite now my tank is suffering from ick..! What shall i do.? Change 50% water or let it emptied for 2 mths..??

[Achilles Tang]

Hi Damsel... i feel your pain. I just lost my flame angel and a few other fishes due to marine velvet.

Every time I put in some new liverocks (in preparation for my new tank setup), I get an outbreak of ich or marine velvet... I wish I can just zap the parasites off with a magic wand or something!

I think the only way to prevent a recurring cycle is to treat all existing fish in a Q tank, and if you have no corals or invertebrates in your main tank... to lower the salinity levels.... wait 2 weeks for any ich cycle to finish itself... before reintroducing livestock in.

In the meantime, make sure your fish get fed with garlic-soaked food to build up their resistance.

[Tanzy]

We have all lost fish. Part of learning if it is not excessive. Unfortunately, I've never lost one to disease before(which means it's a lot worse).

Ich never goes away no matter how long you leave it. It's always in the substrate and on the fish. It's comparable to a 'common cold' for fish. Normally, a healthy immune system fights back, so the appearance of Ich usually suggests something wrong in the tank(i.e. water parameter, nutrition, aggression,etc) that has stressed the fish.

Go with what AT said and it will help your fish recover faster the next time it rears its ugly head.

[Damsel]

Hi Achilles,,

i was advised to quarantine the LR 1st...

Coz they give out some kind toxic or chemical (which i can't remenber)

Well as for my case, the main caused is from the 2 blue tangs..

And was told now to change 50% of my water...

very very sian..!

[Damsel]

Hi Tanzy..

Wow ,,that's fantastic that so far non of yr fish was affected to any disease or decease...

What fish that you keep? Can you tell me a bit of yr tips to keep the fish alive ??

[hongqixian]

Dwarfs are very sensitive to copper. I also heard that Coppersafe is one of the lousiest coppers. Maybe it would be better to use the seachem one in future? Heard its the best one.

[Tanzy]

Damsel,

When I first started keeping fish, they die before even getting disease!

Seriously, I keep a low fish load, excellent water and hardy fish. My purple tang gets ich maybe once a year but goes away untreated in 2 weeks. When my clowns get sick, they are fed garlic oil soaked food.

[hongqixian]

I've heard of people who have tangs with ich one day and healthy the next alternately! Pretty funny really as long as they recover.