what caused 2 deaths?

jcono

AC Members
Mar 20, 2006
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Greetings-

About 2 weeks ago, I lost my flame angel. He was fine one morning and when I came home from work 9 hrs. later there he was on the bottom with both eyes bulged out. I have been keeping water parameters consistent at 0amonia 0 nitrite and 10-20 nitrAte. pH8.1- 8.2, salinity 1.023 with weekly water changes of about 10%.

Last week, my ballai cardinal's left eye appeared bulged and cloudy one morning. The night before he looked fine. I was in a pickle because I was about to go away for 3 days, a trip I couldn't put off. When I came back he was dead. Not sure what's going on here- can anyone offer any suggestions?

I have a pixie hawk, algae blenny and green watchman goby that seem just fine. The guy at my LFS says I have a bacterial infection and that I definately ned a UV sterilizer. From what I read there is debate about the need for sterilizers.

I have started using Melafix as of today. Anyone think this is my best option? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks ahead of time for your help!!

Jan
 
Did you QT any of these fish? After the first fish died, you should have waited at least a month for whatever killed it to go away. How long did each fish die after you purchased it? And when did you add each fish after the first?

The UV sterilizer IMO should only be used unless it is really serious and it cannot be controlled. The best way to go is patience and see if it goes away.
 
hmmm... sorry to hear about your losses first of all...

All your parameters look good. UV sterilizers are good and bad depending. Good because when u use them they really do zap the bad bacteria. On the other hand it also kills the good stuff and everything else. However, there are some people on this forum that keep UV sterilizers on hand just for cases such as yours. They don't use them except when a problem arises... then they hook it up in hopes of zapping the poop out of the bad stuff. Seems like a decent manuver to me.

Did it look like pop-eye? A nasty disease.

flame angels are known to be flaky at best. still they are gorgeous and it stinks to lose one.
 
The flame angel died about 3 weeks after I brought him home. I had the Cardinal for about 3 months. Neither fish was QT'ed. I did not know that was necessary. I have added fish a few weeks at a time.
 
Neither fish was QT'ed. I did not know that was necessary.

It's not necessary just recommended. It's very helpful in preventing diseases or treating them.

I dont have one either. lol.
 
qt is def a lot better than doing something and having a headache about trying to figure out how you can treat the prob w/o stressing the fish in the process.
 
I keep and run UV on my main reef tank..It had an ich out break and I couldn't catch my Tomini tang..going on week 7 or 8 now and no more outbreaks. My new fish are in a 20 g qt they will remain there a minimum 4 weeks to avoid any weird outbreaks.. so far week three for them and all looks good.

I highly recommend a qt tank especially for ich. I like tangs and they are prone to ich,..the new fish actually have been in the tank over 1 month..there was ich and the fish survived..I treated with a coppersafe med since the tank is a qt.
water has been changed out 100 % and they are on week three after ich.
 
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