Damseluver
Reefing newb
I have seen this scenario getting played out more and more these days. Since it looks like you are going to loose your fish (sorry about that one) the advise I would give you is to take the opportunity during your tanks fallow period to get the water quality in tip top shape with water changes, finalize your aquascapeing and equipment set up. Get a good quality light fixture if you dont already have one and change the tanks focus to corals and have a few inexpensive fish species to feed the corals and then forget about fish otherwise.
Here is the problem with fish. First there expensive. There dirty, and as you have seen can be suseptable to parasite out brake. Depending on the LFS they are either copper doseing willy nilly either underdoseinng leaveing the parasite intack or over doseing causeing internal damage especially in tangs and angles, or like your average petco just letting the tanks stay parsite exposed and hopeing they dont piss off to many of there customers.
You can attempt to QT and or preventatively treat every addition to the tank includeing inverts and coral but over time this becomes impractical for the average hobbyist and it only takes one slip up to expose hundreds of dollars of fish to the type of wipe out you just encountered.
Understocking with a few inexpensive species has its benefits. First you can stop worrying about parsite out brakes. The inexpensive fish are cheap becasue they are them most resistent to these conditions and the novice onlooker is not going to know if you have a 10 dollar fish or a 100 dollar fish. If the worse does happen you are not out a but load of money. Water quality will be much easier to maintain and as your corals grow out they can be traded fragged or sold off and new corals/invert additions can be made without lengthy QT.
AT this point I consider my tanks coral gardens and the fish an after thought of sorts. Yes it is still difficult when I run across that stunning aperently robust fish species at the LFS but I try to keep in mind that the price tag on it is equal to a five gal bucket of salt mix or more, a third of a new skimmer, months worth of filter media, the replacement cartradges for my ro/di etc. etc.
But then again thats just me; I could be wrong.
Here is the problem with fish. First there expensive. There dirty, and as you have seen can be suseptable to parasite out brake. Depending on the LFS they are either copper doseing willy nilly either underdoseinng leaveing the parasite intack or over doseing causeing internal damage especially in tangs and angles, or like your average petco just letting the tanks stay parsite exposed and hopeing they dont piss off to many of there customers.
You can attempt to QT and or preventatively treat every addition to the tank includeing inverts and coral but over time this becomes impractical for the average hobbyist and it only takes one slip up to expose hundreds of dollars of fish to the type of wipe out you just encountered.
Understocking with a few inexpensive species has its benefits. First you can stop worrying about parsite out brakes. The inexpensive fish are cheap becasue they are them most resistent to these conditions and the novice onlooker is not going to know if you have a 10 dollar fish or a 100 dollar fish. If the worse does happen you are not out a but load of money. Water quality will be much easier to maintain and as your corals grow out they can be traded fragged or sold off and new corals/invert additions can be made without lengthy QT.
AT this point I consider my tanks coral gardens and the fish an after thought of sorts. Yes it is still difficult when I run across that stunning aperently robust fish species at the LFS but I try to keep in mind that the price tag on it is equal to a five gal bucket of salt mix or more, a third of a new skimmer, months worth of filter media, the replacement cartradges for my ro/di etc. etc.
But then again thats just me; I could be wrong.
