Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Got some fish from Petco and put them in my 75 gallon and in a few days almost all the fish in the tank died, after that incident I don't take any chances and quarantine for at least four weeks and treat with meds if needed.
the roadblock i encounter is buying some fish and having no quarantine tank. this is actually easy to avoid if you have a place to buy some storage totes, the clear plastic sterilite brand 20qt/5gal size is perfect. i bought 5 of them and use them for more than just quarantine. plant storage/propagation, daphnia culture, infusoria/green water, and sick fish isolation and treatment are a few uses. fill them about 2/3's, use add some java moss and some floaters and the fish are comfy right off the bat. add one of those small cheap 1-5 gallon preset heaters if needed. these tubs are less than $5 each, you can put them anywhere temporarily, even a kitchen counter, come with lids, and won't scratch furniture, light enough to move easily, and you can stack them inside each other when you get done and need to put them away. about the salt, that is an excellent safe and effective treatment, but you need to make sure the particular fish is good with it(my ramshorn snails react to it but continue eating and living, not sure about other snails). a teaspoon per gallon is a good place to start, but if your fish is actually sick, you can double that amount, over time. some articles i have read say a 0.5% solution which seems to be 6 teaspoons to a gallon. if i was going that high i would def do it slowly over a period of days and keep close watch on the fish. then i do a water change and slowly reduce the salt content. they say use non iodized salt, but i use that with no noticeable effects. get some kosher salt or aquarium salt if you have the time. soaking your nets in a strong salt solution might be a good idea too.
That happened to me a few months ago. I never quarantined and never had any problems until I added some new fish to my 40 gallon. I lost everything except 3 fish. My angelfish lost his mate. It was sad. I set up a nice quarantine tank with plant attached to driftwood that I can move around when I need to catch them. They stay in there for two months because they get comfortable and I get around to moving them. Never again I learned my lesson the hard way. Sorry to hear about your fish.
Sorry to hear about the losses. Good that your letting people know that this type of things happen. If meds are hard to come by I use fresh garlic and canned peas. The peas helps with the digestion and the garlic helps with killing parasites. Keep up the good work man. 🤙🏽 CORY GANG GANG‼️‼️‼️‼️
What a bummer to lose a whole tank, minus the two indestructible rams. Great info, I especially appreciated the bit on fin clamping and you pointing out that all the fishes fins are usually clamped when they are stressed or coming down with something. When I first got Sparkling Gourami I freaked out for about a week because they kind of hang out with their dorsal fin clamped down and only flare the fins when they swim. So I thought they were sick! But all the other fins were fine and I finally figured out that they were just relaxing those fins like guppies or long fun betta when they're resting. So it depends on what type of fish you have and research and watching yt vids like this and reading forums is a great way to get the feel of what "normal" is for a new species you haven't kept. 😅✌️
No matter what you say, people will still practice "Buy and Plop" when they buy new fish. It's only when they start to lose their favorite fish due to infections will the importance of quarantine will sink in. I went through the very same stressful experience. Also fish medication is very expensive. A quarantine tank setup costs a fraction of the medicine cost.
I set up a cheap 10 gallon tank to use it as what I call a "green room". It's a simple planted tank with two small filters, a heater and a bunch of snails in it to get the biomass and the cycling going. That's where I put my new fish. In case of illness I set up a small 2.5 gallon clinic tank, borrow one of the filters from the "green room", add a mini heater and use whatever meds are needed for the patient(s). Luckily I didn't have to use the clinic yet.
I have made this same mistake and not quarantine my new Ottos. Like you, I lost many fish. One thing, if you are treating your tank with General Cure and also use Slime Out, you are doubling up on the same antibiotics Erythromycin. Most of the Cynobacteria removers are actually Erythromycin.
@thedirtytank Unfortunately, some of these companies are not very clear with their ingredients and lots of marketing. Erythromycin is the essential defacto drug for cyno. Cyno, while called blue green alage, is not an alage. It's a gram-negative bacteria.
So sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for posting this & sharing your thoughts, tips, experiences. Separate equipment is a really good tip! I was guilty of not doing. Until I transfered an algae problem from 1 20 gal to another. Still trying to kill the stuff! I am only about 2 years into this hobby. So I am still learning. You suggested using salt. I have read and have seen others post they also use. I don't normally use salt because my tanks are heavily planted. But, when I set up a quarantine tank, it wont be heavily planted. I have salt that I use for hatching brine shrimp. I have two questions. Is the salt I use to hatch brine shrimp ok to use for this purpose? Can you share your formula for salt (i.e.: tablespoon per gal)? Thank you.
This literally happened to me over the past couple of days. Added new new fish (I drip acclimate), went to the tank this morning and my largest dwarf Amazon rainbow was belly up on the bottom. To be fair, she did have some genetic issues. Still watching the tank closely.
My next fish room is definitely going to have quarantine tanks! I’ve been burned a few times. I was one of the 80% or so and had the day finally come where it bit me in the butt. I thought it was just a fluke and had luck the the next time and the next whipped out my tank again! I’m definitely taking the time to quarantine for now on!
From the literature I've been able to find, epistylis itself isn't the problem. It is, however, an indication of excess bacteria (on which epistylis feeds), and often means your fish have a bacterial infection. So, you have to treat the bacterial infection :)
I had a bad batch of Otos bring Ich to my tank. Went through hell for about a month turned heat up to 87F and saved most of my fish/shrimp. None of the poor Otos lived, and I lost a few Rasboras. I bought a 5 Gal Q/T tank for the future. I still don't always use it, there are 2 smaller LFS I shop where I know they Q/T fish for 4-6 weeks, and I know this because I ask for specific fish, go see them when they arrive, and return at least 4 weeks later to get them. Everything else get 4 weeks QT, Petsmart fish, even fish from the LFS if I haven't literally seen them at the store a month earlier. Unfortunately I hear Epistylis can be a real killer, no known cure. I really should QT all fish, I just don't have the best QT tank and don't know how to keep it cycled well.
I allowed my guppies to hit too high of a population and missed a couple water changes.. they got sick and my entire tank was wiped out before I could even figure out what was wrong. I believe they got coulumnias (spelling?) After learning more about it, i found its a quick and difficult affliction to clear up, mainly because it will wipe out your tank within days. 😢😢 I stopped keeping fish for over a year and just let my tank sit and grow the plants.
Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Got some fish from Petco and put them in my 75 gallon and in a few days almost all the fish in the tank died, after that incident I don't take any chances and quarantine for at least four weeks and treat with meds if needed.
the roadblock i encounter is buying some fish and having no quarantine tank. this is actually easy to avoid if you have a place to buy some storage totes, the clear plastic sterilite brand 20qt/5gal size is perfect. i bought 5 of them and use them for more than just quarantine. plant storage/propagation, daphnia culture, infusoria/green water, and sick fish isolation and treatment are a few uses. fill them about 2/3's, use add some java moss and some floaters and the fish are comfy right off the bat. add one of those small cheap 1-5 gallon preset heaters if needed. these tubs are less than $5 each, you can put them anywhere temporarily, even a kitchen counter, come with lids, and won't scratch furniture, light enough to move easily, and you can stack them inside each other when you get done and need to put them away.
about the salt, that is an excellent safe and effective treatment, but you need to make sure the particular fish is good with it(my ramshorn snails react to it but continue eating and living, not sure about other snails). a teaspoon per gallon is a good place to start, but if your fish is actually sick, you can double that amount, over time. some articles i have read say a 0.5% solution which seems to be 6 teaspoons to a gallon. if i was going that high i would def do it slowly over a period of days and keep close watch on the fish. then i do a water change and slowly reduce the salt content. they say use non iodized salt, but i use that with no noticeable effects. get some kosher salt or aquarium salt if you have the time. soaking your nets in a strong salt solution might be a good idea too.
That happened to me a few months ago. I never quarantined and never had any problems until I added some new fish to my 40 gallon. I lost everything except 3 fish. My angelfish lost his mate. It was sad. I set up a nice quarantine tank with plant attached to driftwood that I can move around when I need to catch them. They stay in there for two months because they get comfortable and I get around to moving them. Never again I learned my lesson the hard way. Sorry to hear about your fish.
Sorry to hear about the losses. Good that your letting people know that this type of things happen. If meds are hard to come by I use fresh garlic and canned peas. The peas helps with the digestion and the garlic helps with killing parasites. Keep up the good work man. 🤙🏽 CORY GANG GANG‼️‼️‼️‼️
Thanks for your videos I love your channel I have learned a lot and helped me through out this hobby
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the kind words!
What a bummer to lose a whole tank, minus the two indestructible rams. Great info, I especially appreciated the bit on fin clamping and you pointing out that all the fishes fins are usually clamped when they are stressed or coming down with something. When I first got Sparkling Gourami I freaked out for about a week because they kind of hang out with their dorsal fin clamped down and only flare the fins when they swim. So I thought they were sick! But all the other fins were fine and I finally figured out that they were just relaxing those fins like guppies or long fun betta when they're resting. So it depends on what type of fish you have and research and watching yt vids like this and reading forums is a great way to get the feel of what "normal" is for a new species you haven't kept. 😅✌️
No matter what you say, people will still practice "Buy and Plop" when they buy new fish. It's only when they start to lose their favorite fish due to infections will the importance of quarantine will sink in. I went through the very same stressful experience. Also fish medication is very expensive. A quarantine tank setup costs a fraction of the medicine cost.
I set up a cheap 10 gallon tank to use it as what I call a "green room". It's a simple planted tank with two small filters, a heater and a bunch of snails in it to get the biomass and the cycling going. That's where I put my new fish. In case of illness I set up a small 2.5 gallon clinic tank, borrow one of the filters from the "green room", add a mini heater and use whatever meds are needed for the patient(s). Luckily I didn't have to use the clinic yet.
I have made this same mistake and not quarantine my new Ottos. Like you, I lost many fish. One thing, if you are treating your tank with General Cure and also use Slime Out, you are doubling up on the same antibiotics Erythromycin. Most of the Cynobacteria removers are actually Erythromycin.
Interesting, I didn't realize this. Thanks for the info!
@thedirtytank Unfortunately, some of these companies are not very clear with their ingredients and lots of marketing. Erythromycin is the essential defacto drug for cyno. Cyno, while called blue green alage, is not an alage. It's a gram-negative bacteria.
So sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for posting this & sharing your thoughts, tips, experiences. Separate equipment is a really good tip! I was guilty of not doing. Until I transfered an algae problem from 1 20 gal to another. Still trying to kill the stuff!
I am only about 2 years into this hobby. So I am still learning. You suggested using salt. I have read and have seen others post they also use. I don't normally use salt because my tanks are heavily planted. But, when I set up a quarantine tank, it wont be heavily planted. I have salt that I use for hatching brine shrimp. I have two questions. Is the salt I use to hatch brine shrimp ok to use for this purpose? Can you share your formula for salt (i.e.: tablespoon per gal)? Thank you.
This literally happened to me over the past couple of days. Added new new fish (I drip acclimate), went to the tank this morning and my largest dwarf Amazon rainbow was belly up on the bottom. To be fair, she did have some genetic issues. Still watching the tank closely.
My next fish room is definitely going to have quarantine tanks! I’ve been burned a few times. I was one of the 80% or so and had the day finally come where it bit me in the butt. I thought it was just a fluke and had luck the the next time and the next whipped out my tank again! I’m definitely taking the time to quarantine for now on!
Yeah, it sucks but setting up a quarantine tank will definitely make it less devastating
From the literature I've been able to find, epistylis itself isn't the problem. It is, however, an indication of excess bacteria (on which epistylis feeds), and often means your fish have a bacterial infection. So, you have to treat the bacterial infection :)
Yeah..I read the same. Keeping the bacteria count low and treat for infections is really the only way to deal with it.
I had a bad batch of Otos bring Ich to my tank. Went through hell for about a month turned heat up to 87F and saved most of my fish/shrimp. None of the poor Otos lived, and I lost a few Rasboras. I bought a 5 Gal Q/T tank for the future. I still don't always use it, there are 2 smaller LFS I shop where I know they Q/T fish for 4-6 weeks, and I know this because I ask for specific fish, go see them when they arrive, and return at least 4 weeks later to get them. Everything else get 4 weeks QT, Petsmart fish, even fish from the LFS if I haven't literally seen them at the store a month earlier. Unfortunately I hear Epistylis can be a real killer, no known cure. I really should QT all fish, I just don't have the best QT tank and don't know how to keep it cycled well.
The slime out reduces the oxygen in the water
I allowed my guppies to hit too high of a population and missed a couple water changes.. they got sick and my entire tank was wiped out before I could even figure out what was wrong. I believe they got coulumnias (spelling?) After learning more about it, i found its a quick and difficult affliction to clear up, mainly because it will wipe out your tank within days. 😢😢 I stopped keeping fish for over a year and just let my tank sit and grow the plants.
Few years ago threw in a sick koi. Week later bye bye koi pond🤦🏽♂️
Yep, all about law of averages. That one time you finally get caught and lose a bunch of special fish
Promo SM 💞