There always has to be one weirdo....and i guess its me.
I know i have ich, velvet, flukes, brooknellya, fin rot, parasites, cloudy/pop eyes, skinny, pale, you name it because i have added fish that have shown massive symptoms of it.
None of my fish ever show any signs of disease within a month of being added, and then never show it again. All are super fat and colorful. They will all die of obesity and fatty liver before dying of disease.
All fish i have ever sold have not caused any outbreaks in other reefers tanks.
I often get sick fish from stores, and i request them to heal them up. Often the fish are cheap/free. You know that dying damsel you see at the lfs missing half its fin, only has 1 eye, and is laying on the sand bed? yeah, i buy them.
example: I scored 4 purple tangs for $40 total that were missing fin, had so much ich they were white everywhere, and were pale + skinny. They were days away from dead. 2 months later in my tank they looked great. I kept them for an additional 4-6 months, and then sold them cheap to reefers that wanted them.
The only losses from any visible disease that i have seen is: 2 clowns went down hard from brooknellya. I hadnt added anything new for 6 months, but it popped up one day, and within 36hrs, both were dead. no other fish were effected at all.
My tanks are way over stocked. I have a 7" sailfin, 2 yellows, lavender, and a vhlamingi tang, and a 8" one spot rabbitfish in a 180g main display, along with 20 other smaller fish(under 4"). swimming space and hiding spots are at a premium, as there is lots of rock and coral too. the 120 side tank is the hospital/new fish acclimating tank. This has 3-12 fish at any one time in it.
I have NO aggression issues, and everyone has their space and patterns. harmony at its best.
My secret? i have 340 gallons( 180, 120, 40), tons of fish, i add sand/mud from the beach often, literally thousands of ghost shrimp a year are added from the cape, i often get sand from stores and other reefers tanks,......
and the biggest reason is....
I feed like a mad man. Every day i feed 2-4 ounces of mixed food. Flake, pellets, mysis, reef goo, whole fish, phyto, clams, scallops, everything you can think of. Each day, i take a 6-8oz plastic cup, and fill it half way with goo and meaty foods. Add flake/pellet to taste, and then feed throughout the day until its gone. in addition, i also feed 2 full sheets of nori a day, and 3 on the weekend days.
I have .05 for nitrates, but the phosphate is 1.0+......no stony coral growth for me, but my fish are where its at.
Ofcourse, i have only done a 60g water change in the last 6 months, so that hurts too. Lol, to top it all off, my tank is 68 degrees in the winter, and 84 in the summer.
A big skimmer, a turf scrubber, carbon dosing, lots of sponge, and a deep sand bed is what runs everything.
Should everyone try this? no. but if your beloved fish is dying, and live in nh, im always accepting new pets lol.
Prepares for the incoming flame attacks.
