My Nightmare came true.

[flamenco-t]

I'm so sorry Alan. I rarely go online and when I saw your post, my heart sunk a little before even clicking on the thread. Keep your head up sir

 

[DB junkie]

Very sorry to see this Al.......

Thanks Don!

Firstly, I'd like to send you my condolences as I know it is very difficult to cope with what you are going through simultaneously. Keep your spirit up, it's like Murphy's law in action. what can possibly go wrong is in fact in play.. I don't want to say that that it's law of attraction if you worrying about which fish is going to have problems next. Keep your heart/emotions stable, it's part of the hobby. You are an excellent fish keeper, if not one of the most responsible ever on this board but there are things that happen that sometimes we can't account for. The hobby is meant to bring joy but if you feel like it's causing nothing but grief, then it's spiraling into a big tragedy one after another. It's hard to detach yourself when so much effort, dedication, commitment is at play.. But don't let it consume you bro. MFK community as a whole will be here for you through the hard times.

Thanks a bunch man.

Wow mate don't sound good
What the hell is going on bro??????

Anyone's guess Jim. I'm just picking up the pieces.......

Wow! Sorry to hear this Alan. You are one of the most dedicated rays keepers around- don't give up.

Strange that only the rays on one side were affected. I can't imagine some malady in fish being transmitted by touch only. Hopefully the lab can offer some in site.

Right? VERY strange. I still can't believe nor even remotely understand.

^ ^
Very good post! I couldn't put it better myself!

Alan! This is nothing less than a catastrophe, but there is a reason its hit you so hard! ...you are one of the most passionate individuals on this forum and because of this your hurting so so bad! if you didn't care so damn much it wouldn't be so much of an issue.

I can understand your thoughts of jacking it in but this hobby is what keeps you buzzing and you know what? your an inspiration to so many on here.

Everyone is feeling your pain right now inc myself, however you ain't no quitter, you will brush yourself down in a few days and go again..... I'm sure of that!

All the best Alan,

Richard.

Richard I thank you for the kind words. IF anyone's advice could pick me up right now it's yours. I've tried so hard to get things going here, and they were! But now this seems to be a setback erasing near half a decade. Time is so short and precious that amount of time is just devastating....... I'm sure I'll try to bounce back, I just hope it's swift as such a setback really makes you question soooooo much......

So sorry to hear Al.... something similar happened to me 2 years ago. Lost 7 rays within a week. I usually don't feed live but had bought a few new pups that a buddy of mine bred and they were not eating what my other pups were eating. So I decided to drop some live black worms to get them going and within a day, started noticing heavy breathing from a few of the pups. I lost 4 pups and 3 semi-mature BD's. Only 2 rays survived what I thought was a bad case of bacterial infestation from the black worms. I still own the 2 surviving rays. This was a huge blow to me at the time but it was also a wake up call/challenge/question. Sometimes we make wrong choices... we are human after all.. but what we learn/endure from our mistakes is what will make us better monster fish keepers!

Thank you for the words Vincent. I really appreciate it.

Wow. Sorry to read Alan, Its a really tough loss. Grieve, take some time for it to come to terms and push forward. You had some losses sometime back and you came from it twofold. You will again. This is the part of the hobby that impacts hard and has us question the dedication at times. You're a great keeper, they were lucky to be in your care while they were here.

Thanks Laz. That really hits home, I really appreciate it. Thank you for chiming in! Really happy to see you still checking in!

I'm so sorry Alan. I rarely go online and when I saw your post, my heart sunk a little before even clicking on the thread. Keep your head up sir

Stan, Thanks for the words. I really miss coming on here seeing all the happy posts from everyone way back when. I'm glad to still see some happy ones! Congrats to you man! You deserve it! So many of us have been to hell and back in this hobby....

Really glad to see some of you guys post. I feel like I've grown up with you guys and it means a bunch to me to see you guys post encouraging words here. I'm very inspired. Thank you all.

 

[spotfin]

How are the other pups doing?

 

[DB junkie]

How are the other pups doing?

The 3 behind the divider are still eating like nothing ever happened. The Marble that I added to the side of the divider where all mine died is still alive, but isn't eating for crap - but this ray has never eaten right while at my place.

I just hope the losses are over with. I hate the feeling of not wanting to come home cause I'm afraid of what I might find......

I really wish it was just some random rays I bought instead of babies I raised from the day they were born. When you have a tank full of gorgeous top shelf Marbles that were ALL bred by yourself you feel proud. Successful. Having lost them all makes you feel like the biggest failure in the flat fish world. Really hard to just pick yourself back up after loosing your 7 favorite babies.

 

[Hendre]

The 3 behind the divider are still eating like nothing ever happened. The Marble that I added to the side of the divider where all mine died is still alive, but isn't eating for crap - but this ray has never eaten right while at my place.

I just hope the losses are over with. I hate the feeling of not wanting to come home cause I'm afraid of what I might find......

I really wish it was just some random rays I bought instead of babies I raised from the day they were born. When you have a tank full of gorgeous top shelf Marbles that were ALL bred by yourself you feel proud. Successful. Having lost them all makes you feel like the biggest failure in the flat fish world. Really hard to just pick yourself back up after loosing your 7 favorite babies.

I can only imagine how bad it is. I have never really known how it feels to lose so much so quickly, lets hope things go better from here.

 

[DB junkie]

I can only imagine how bad it is. I have never really known how it feels to lose so much so quickly, lets hope things go better from here.

Thanks for the kind words Hendre!

I've been praying every day that things do indeed start getting better, so far no more losses (knock on wood) which to me is as good as it gets! I still have a few babies... As long as it gets better from here hopefully it will be easier to push on.....

 

[jim barry]

Crack on mate hopefully the worst is behind you
Best of luck buddy

 

[yargnits]

really sad to hear DB . not been on for some time and one of the first posts i read is this one and its devastating !
i love your rays, your passion and your morays too. dont give up the hobby and this forum wouldnt be the same without you.

 

[HumanBean]

Sorry mate. Quite unfortunate really

 

[DB junkie]

really sad to hear DB . not been on for some time and one of the first posts i read is this one and its devastating !
i love your rays, your passion and your morays too. dont give up the hobby and this forum wouldnt be the same without you.

Good to hear from you Yarg! Thanks for replying.

Morays are all gone. Lost the last of them earlier this year. Was a horrible year long before any of this recent stuff happened...... Only had a few after figuring out Barney had turned into a monster, had some issues with my big skimmer and I replaced it with 2 smaller ones and everything just seemed to go to hell from there. Loosing Mr. Nibblez hurt enough to bail from salt.

Well they say it's about how you pick yourself up after losses like this, well, I tried to stand up last weekend and I found my favorite fish dead (Robert the Dorado) down in my big tank - completely unrelated to loosing all the pups. That knocked me down for almost a week. I finally speak a few positive word the other day and what happens? The ray I suspect that spread this died. Then this morning the little CB guy behind the divider appears to be curling, will be dead soon. Only 15 days old. So I don't think I'm going to get up. Just gonna lay here for a while and keep praying the losses end. They have to, I'm going to loose my mind or have a heart attack if I don't figure out how the hell to deal with this. The thought of loosing the last 2 is unbearable. The male is so crazy nice.