Bad Luck? Karma? Plague?

I just need to vent! What can I say...... I either have some really bad karma, extremly bad luck or a plague struck my tanks! Oh ya I forgot to mention I did the ultimate NO NO :frustrat:. About four months ago my girlfriend got a gift card to Petco ("Petco....its the Africa of the fish world".... everything has some sort of disease). She wanted to buy some new fish (we didnt need anything else). We went to a brand new Petco and looked at their fish. She picked out a lemonpeel and flame angel. We decided to come back in a week and if they were still there and looking healthy we would buy them. We came back and bought them 7 days later. At the time I was running two Q-tanks (a 12 and 15 gallon) and these were going to be the first fish in them, ever. Three days later both fish had velvet and died... I did everything I could. My GF was pissed and she made Petco take them back (she brought in water samples and pics of the Q-tanks with her). She agreed with the manager on some new fish. He told her what day they recieved the new shipment so we could pick up the fish right after they showed up. I cleaned both Q-tanks and replaced the water.The shipment showed up a about 10 days later. My GF brought home another flame, a blue hippo and a sailfin. In a week they all had velvet. I tried everything copper, fresh water dips, lowered the salinity, less light, garlic and marine max. They all went to fishy heaven.
So... no more Petco fish! I tore down both tanks, I threw away the sand and rock then bleached everything. I set up the 12 gal. Q-tank only and let it cycle. We then bought a yellow eyed tang. It did great after a month in the Q. So I transfered her in to my 55 gallon reef (tank has a mandrin, strawberry psudocrombis and an aggressive clown & coralbanded shrimp). She got picked on and didnt live. My CBS and clown wont allow me to put anything new in that tank. My CBS has killed two shrimp and as of this morning is responsable for killing the psudocrombis. My psudo went in to this little cave of my CBS's and he tore her apart. She got stresses and caught ich. I couldnt catch her to put her in a Qtank (my GF and I tried for three days). My mandrin and clown show no signs of ich yet so everybody keep ur fingers crossed. Im affraid my mandrins food supply maybe getting low though. Shes kinda getting skinny. I hope shes not getting stressed with that ich hanging around in my reef tank.
Not to mention my tank overheated while I was on vacation over memorial day claiming some corals, inverts and a re sea star. Oh and... my keyhole also died from popeye in my Qtank this morning.
Im extremly discouraged right now. No more fish for a couple months. Im going to tare down the Q today and bleach/ boil everything. Im not too worried about my clown he will let me catch him if hes sick. I am worried about my mandrin ill never be able to catch her. I havent told my GF about the keyhole or psudo yet. She doesnt take this stuff very well. She loved that psudo, we have had it since the begining. It was her baby. Anyways im done whining now. Thanks for listening.

 

Sorry to near it bud. Well when you decide to get more I wish you the best of luck, sounds like you need it. I have bought several fish from petco and havnt had a prob yet. Well good luck.

 

SAVING NEMO

Once again I opened my big mouth too soon. Soon after posting this I was looking in my tank and found my clown is begining to be infested with little white specs....... and he wants nothing to do with me and my net.

 

We've had discussions in this forum about Petco fish before... Seems some people (like Bobby) never have had a problem with them, but for me, every fish I've ever bought at Petco has come down with a disease and died. On the other hand, of the fish that I've spent twice as much for at a LFS, not one of them has ever died. I think it's very store-specific.

 

sorry about your fish hawk..its a stryke of bad luck..good luck next time!! keep it kiking

 

Hawk, that is terrible news. I can relate. I put in a Moorish Idol once in the early stages of my career and it got Oodinium, killing everything in the tank with 48 hours. It sucked. I rely on my LFS that specializes in only salt water fish. I "buy" the fish when they come in, and wait for 10 days in their holding tanks, treated with copper to make sure everything is dead. Once they are eating and the 10 days have passed - in they go into my tank. Goo Luck

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

Dude, I totally know how you feel. I good could on and on with my tank troubles these past few months as well as other problems not reltated to SW. It doesn't matter WHAT I buy it either doesn't work right or doesn't work at all. You are not alone....

Take care.

 

never had it that bad but i depending on sized and age of tank setup i started out adding one fish a month cause if you add to many to quick your bioload will never catch up and you will crash your system. I know i did it i'm not a patient person but i learned to be now, especially in small systems that can change quick thats why i went with a 125 gallon. Bigger the tank the more forgiving. So basically after a crash like your having i basically started over with bigger tank. Best advice that i got was go very slow on adding anything to tank, and i also used bio zyme, and stress zyme when first starting out to add bacteria to system.

 

Thanks for all the support........ I've got some good news..... I was able to catch my clown and mandrin. I put them both in seperate q-tanks. Im treating the clown with copper. I also bought some live tigger-pods for the mandrin and shes doing a complete 180. I drained all the water from my 55 and im going to let it run without fish in it for a couple months, just to be safe.

 

Little white Specs Huh

Is that a sign of Ich! My Tomato has a Few Tiny white specs on him ( looks almost like a small bit of the crushed coral in the bottom of my tank is stuck to him)

none of my other fish have any signs of being ill
All of their Fins Look perfect Should I worry ! :shock:

 

some times fish will pick up micro bubble from the water or small particals of sand, its not uncommon..... the way I can tell its ich is by looking at the clear area at the end of their fins..... if it looks lke someone sprinkled them with salt you probably have ich. if you want to learn more on how to clear it go to the disease forum....