How often do you lose fish?

FWIW, I added a big a** UV filter to my system after losing 90% of the fish last year after the tank transfer and added new fish due to ich, and I haven't loss any fish due to ich.
I don't believe in quarantine. To do a proper one, you need large space and resources. A little 20gallons is not going to cut it. I can't imagine what all the fish been through when they're stuck in this little glass box with all these foreign chemicals that suppress their appetite.
A proper sized UV filter will kill most of the protozoa and give the fish a chance to fight the rest off the rest of it. I've not seen any adverse effect of adding UV filter on any of my corals. Just crystal clear water.
The most important objective in keeping fish is to make sure they eat and eat well.
 
Have you been running the UV continuously since it’s set up? Some people say they run it intermittently so they don’t kill the beneficial organisms.


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I actually think there is significant value in quarantine, but not with chemicals unless there is some sign of a problem. A 20 gallon tank for most smaller fish I think is okay. Put in some live rock and some sand, lots of hiding places (can just use some pieces of PVC, or an inverted plastic container with a hole cut out), and ideally a friendly fish that can help the other new fish to learn that it's okay to come out, and that what they see flying about in the water is edible. Then you can feed a lot of food and get them used to the types of food you can offer them. The fish that you mentioned (Potter's angel and flame) generally don't have a good record of survival for the first few weeks. I think some of them are still being collected with poisons. If they make it past 2 months, they may live for many years.
 
I think many fish are collected with poison is a major factor contributing to sudden fish death or with severely compromised health that weaken fish.
Try to imagine chasing after an adult size fish with a fish net, it is nearly impossible to catch it in the ocean without using poison.




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Good points. I wish there were more captive bred fish available. I would happily pay the premium price for a captive bred fish if it was a available.

We really don't have the space to get a UV sterilizer and it seems like unless you get one that is the appropriate size for your tank it's a waste of money.
 
Captive bred is only as good as the willingness of the breeder to cull. Many many deformities in captive bred fish these days. I especially dislike all the designer clowns. Most are defects and should've been culled. Don't mistake hybrid breed for a designer breed. But that's a topic for another day...
If you source the fish correctly, there should be a higher chance it will survive. I rather pay a little more from a "conditioned" fish that has been in the supplier tank for awhile and has been eating.
 
It depends on what type of suppliers you are looking at.
For Divers Den, fish are well keep and may worth the extra cost.



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I've been scoping out the captive bred section of live aquaria and diver's den. I'm willing to pay the price for captive bred fish. I'll also check in with some of the LFS to see if they have any captive bred stuff. I'm assuming most of the clownfish they have are since they're so easy to breed. LA also had some captive-bred coral beauty's that looked really nice.
 
Sigh. The tang has gone downhill the last few days and is not long for this world.

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I’ve successfully rescued a highly infested Powder Brown using the Tank Transfer method. Two 10g tanks and 12 days.


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I was in the process of doing TTM when it died. I may have been better off doing copper treatment but I think it was too far gone to save either way.


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We're definitely pretty bummed at losing so many fish. I'm still assuming it was ick that wiped them all out but I don't really know which is frustrating. Two of the fish died on the same night and didn't show any symptoms, both were eating fine, didn't have any white spots or other visible signs they were sick. Really weird that they both died the same night. The royal gramma hid for days but it clearly had something up, wasn't so much white spots as it was it's skin looked cloudy with lots of mucous. The tang was the only one who had visible white spots, it eventually turned into white patches as you can see in the picture above. Maybe if we had started copper treatment or TTM method sooner it would have made it. Down to 3 fish now. Two of them are still in the display tank, yellow watchman goby and remaining clownfish. Both never got sick and have been eating and acting normal through this whole ordeal. Assuming it was ick that wiped out our fish it's still active in the tank. No way am I catching either of those two fish without taking the tank apart. So I guess we're going for ick management rather than ick eradication. We're still going to be quarantining all new fish in the future and add them more slowly in hopes we don't trigger another ick outbreak.

We got a free clownfish from a co-worker who is breaking his tank down. He only had the one clownfish left and wanted him gone asap. He's going to hang out in a quarantine tank for a month : )
 
That really sucks, I just had a six line wrasse jump out of my tank. I was mortified when I found him, thought he was a dried up leaf initially.

Hope things turn around.
 
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