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kac01
10/24/2016, 07:43 AM
Seeing if someone can help me understand how to not let this happen again.
I had a full tank of fish(mostly tangs and clown fish) Fish had been together for over a year and never had a problem. I should have been satisfied with the fish I had but another person in the hobby was getting out and I took there kole tang, two cardinals, chromis and a mandarin. These fish had been in there tank for over two years and never had any problems. When I added the fish a week later I noticed marine velvet on my powder blue. Then it spread to most of the fish in tank. I tried catching and treating but they died. I lost all my tangs and clowns. Made me think about getting out of hobby but will try to learn from my mistake and try again. Even if a person was to quarantine new fish how do you know something what stress the existing fish and a disease break out. Thanks for any help.

BlackTip
10/24/2016, 08:25 AM
How big is your tank?

Quarantine and prophylactically treat all of your fishes.
Don't over stock your tank
Keep water quality up
Feed good food
Don't put incompatible fishes together.

kac01
10/24/2016, 11:07 AM
250 gallons. Tank had a lot of fish but why would marine velvet come out?

BlackTip
10/24/2016, 11:16 AM
250 gallons. Tank had a lot of fish but why would marine velvet come out?

New fish might be the carrier. Fish get stressed with new additions, and that when most diseases appears. To my knowledge, diseases could be in the tank and in fish, and doesn't break out for months or even years, then BAM... Best defense is to properly QT and treat all livestock properly. It is not 100% guarantee, but it is the best thing a fish keeper can do.

snorvich
10/24/2016, 11:48 AM
A fish may have developed immunity but still carry. QT no matter what the source.

kac01
10/25/2016, 09:29 AM
If I QT a fish what will prevent fish in tank from stressing out and another breakout of disease?

biomek
10/25/2016, 11:10 AM
If I QT a fish what will prevent fish in tank from stressing out and another breakout of disease?

Stress will not create an outbreak of a disease. however it will typically make fish show signs of a dormant disease that they are currently infected with.

kac01
10/25/2016, 02:06 PM
I still don't understand that if you take healthy fish from one tank and add them to my tank with all healthy fish and then marine velvet or ich breaks out and almost all my fish die. Even I QT new fish whats to keep fish in tank from stressing out and one getting a disease and then it spreads through out tank. Thanks

Sk8r
10/25/2016, 02:20 PM
stress doesn't create disease. bugs do. Like fleas, only tend to be deadly. If you eliminate the bugs, no amount of stress will produce ich.

OTOH, it does help to keep your parameters in the good zone, so that fishes' natural defence (slime coat) stays strong. A total ich wipeout somewhat (not definitively) suggests a low alkalinity or other problem.

microlady
10/25/2016, 06:48 PM
It is hard for me to believe that velvet or crypto was hiding out in a tank for years with no symptomatic fish, especially if tangs were in the mix. I would bet that one of the fish you got from the other person hadn't been in his tank for long. It could have been an asymptomatic carrier and brought into your tank. Live rock or sand could have harbored it too.

Velvet and most other parasites will usually rear their heads in 6-8 weeks of observation. Crypto is an exception to this, so TTM method helps with that issue. This other person might have been in the middle of a velvet outbreak and got discouraged so he/she passed the problem onto another hobbyist. It wasn't an ethical thing to do, but it happens. In the future, quarantine anything wet for at least a couple of months. I learned to do this the hard way just like you. If no surviving fish are left, then go fallow for at least three months. If some did survive, you might want to pull them and treat. Tons of info is in the diseases section.

Good luck and stick with it! It will get better.

microlady
10/25/2016, 06:51 PM
If I QT a fish what will prevent fish in tank from stressing out and another breakout of disease?

Treat your current fish in quarantine, and then observe for two months. Treat all new fish the same.

tanksfishtank
10/25/2016, 07:02 PM
I agree with QT, however, you still want to be careful with the number of fish in your QT at 1 time. There're several reasons for this.
1. QT is meant to prevent stress. Many fish in a small tank (most QT's) is stressful.
2. Increased difficulty of maintenance on QT with many fish.
3. When you add a large number of fish to DT following QT, you are greatly increasing bio-load in DT which will likely affect water conditions. This will cause stress.

I suggest 1 maybe 2 fish in QT at a time. For the reasons above, plus it allows you to better identify and appropriately treat diseases as they arise.

kac01
10/26/2016, 05:23 AM
I did add some new live rock that had corals on them. Is it possible I introduced a parasite at that time? Do corals and live rock need to be qt? Thanks