Sigh

[Binge]

My quarentine was a 29 gallon with gravel and a few rocks to hide behind and I was treating with an api product that contained either flubendazol or another dewormer that starts with an "M" cant remember which it had. After I quarentined all the cichlids I got in october I tore it down was not intending any purchases for upwards of a year...
Then we went to the OCA extravaganza and my wife fell in love with a vampire pleco in the show room so I grabbed her one from the swap meet 5 days later my del was gone 3 days after that the geo went.

Started the epson salt last night and again about noon since RD's instruction said twice a day I have seen all of the fish eating except my gold dust but he doesnt come out much and the half piece of massivore I stuck in the mouth of his chosen cave is gone so I am hopefull .

The female sen had a slight bulge last night before she ate she has not been out yet today so I could see her but her tail was wiggling where it hangs out of her hidey hole. All 3 plecos came an ate and so did my big male acara.

Am treating the 75g my cichlids are growing out in just in case No losses or signs there yet and they all eat like ravenous pigs so again I am hopefull. will try to keep you guys posted once its done Ill do an update of the new scape and whats left of my stock.

Gonna go ahead and set the quarentine tank back up when this is all said and done I will throw my weather loaches in there to keep it cycled since they are probly a little to warm where they are any way and I can leave that cool unless I am treating something.

 

[clm08k]

clm08k

Answers
1. Yes I do use substrate and decor. The fish that come in have usually just experienced a big ordeal getting caught, bagged and shipped across the country. That is on top of the fact they are wild caught and had that to go through. Who really knows how long they get from wild to your tank to finally settle down.
2. With small poly I would say minimum of a 20 long. But with the size polys I start with 12" or so minimun breeder sized tank. (36 x18 footprint)
3. This is always the begining along with good feeding and a very hardcore water change routine. I observe during that time and will treat other issues as they show. Usually its things like ammonia poisening or fin rot which will get them a bath treatment of M. Blue and salt. This usually takes care of that with no problem. I have had newly purchased fish also get Ich and my perfered treatment is seachem paragard and salt for that.

Yeah its a pain to QT because you want to get these fish in your main tank to enjoy but in the long run it is safer.

It really is a horrible thing to go through watching an entire tank die off and you have thrown hundreds of dollars at it, along with countless hours of research, water chages and trying anything to find a cure. Also the loss of fish you have raised from little tiny guys and developed an attachment to since you had them for a number of years is horrible. I went through it all and never want to go through it again.

Thank you so much for tanking the time to answer all that for me. Right there with you about watching fish die. It's awful. Especially if they have names too :[

Speaking of ich. I just purchased some davinci clownfish....5 days later they have ich....Luckily they are just in a tank by themselves with live rock, but now I gotta take care of that. Hopefully they make it. Just goes to show, no matter how healthy fish look, there's still a chance of them getting sick. Going to start quarantining from now on.

What do you do for feeding for your quarantine tank?

 

[DMD123]

What do you do for feeding for your quarantine tank?

With polys coming is super skinny, its all about weight gain. Tilapia, frozen krill, chopped up silversides are pretty readily accepted. Usually will try pellets on them too. At this point not super concerned with them eating pellets but more about putting meat on their bones. Once they hit the big tank usually the competition for food kicks in and they see the other polys eating pellets so they eat them in no time.

 

[Binge]

Stopped the treatment saturday and 70% water change sunday looks like no more losses. Saw everyone (even my gold dust) during the water change no lumps or bulges with calm and unlabored breathing. ( except the vampire pleco I trapped out of water on accident but I saw her this morning and she is fine..I near had a heart attck ... guess they can go a few hours outside of the water tho).

Going to feed normaly for the week and see how it goes if All looks welll I will move in my cichlids they are more than big enough for whats still in the tank will probly bring the sponge filter from the 75 gallon along to boost the bacteria colony.

Was a crappy situation but could have been much worse I suppose I treated both tanks with the epson salt just to be safe. Actually seemed to boost growth rate in some of the cichlids dunno if that means they dumped some baddies or what but it was a notable jump in growth over the week.

 

[Polyaddict86]

Stopped the treatment saturday and 70% water change sunday looks like no more losses. Saw everyone (even my gold dust) during the water change no lumps or bulges with calm and unlabored breathing. ( except the vampire pleco I trapped out of water on accident but I saw her this morning and she is fine..I near had a heart attck ... guess they can go a few hours outside of the water tho).

Going to feed normaly for the week and see how it goes if All looks welll I will move in my cichlids they are more than big enough for whats still in the tank will probly bring the sponge filter from the 75 gallon along to boost the bacteria colony.

Was a crappy situation but could have been much worse I suppose I treated both tanks with the epson salt just to be safe. Actually seemed to boost growth rate in some of the cichlids dunno if that means they dumped some baddies or what but it was a notable jump in growth over the week.

Glad to hear everything went well.