Flowerhorn passed away, what did I do wrong?

[Hmontoya93]

I bought a Flowerhorn 5-6", put him my cycled 90 gallon, and did weekly water changes and fed twice a day. 2 AC110
Checked the water parameters often and never had issues,
after 1 month started seeing stringy white poop & loss of appetite
moved him to a 20G quarantine for treatment
I did 1 week of epsom salt treatments and 3 days of cz clear.. he died on the 4th day (water change everyday)
I really want a Flowerhorn, but I don't want to kill another one and I am really upset

possible mistakes....
I had black sand and blackground, will do bare bottom with a blue background next time
the daily water change on the quarantine really stressed the fish out, maybe less water change?
I used a 1 ml syringe was this too big for a small fish?
should I try metro next time? I was scared to use this an reset the cycle on my aquarium


thank you for your help

 

[kno4te]

Seems like it died from Hexamita. Not much you can do as these fish seem to be at risk. If u want to keep a fh then just gotta try with another one and hope for the best.

 

[Chief Tom]

I'm lucky I got such a healthy, hearty fh to begin with otherwise I'd have killed him long ago with my stupid mistakes. I'm surprised he doesn't take a chunk of my finger when I stick my hand in. I've also had many fish croak when I did everything right. Keep going and it'll work out and you'll have a great fish you appreciate more.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Personally I wouldn't stress out over the substrate. The substrate is fine being in the tank and never caused what happened. As kno4te said hexamita is a very common problem for FH's to get. Usually it's best to just treat with Epsom salt and good food as it often passes on its own. I've had a few of mine get it before and they usually got rid of it within a week or 2 of treatment. If it was a blockage from the substrate you wouldn't have seen any poop come out. The treatment for constipation is basically the same except no food instead as all that would due is just add more to the blockage.