Weekly Discussion -Death

[Anonymous]

Weekly Discussion -Death

How do you deal with the death of animals in your care? How do you justify buying more animals after a death in your system? What is the worst loss you have suffered in your system?

About the RDO Weekly Discussion:
This discussion is meant to get at your experience and to share information that is in your head, so don't necessarily treat it as information gathering. State your opinion and, if available, use material, anecdotal or otherwise, that will back up your opinion.
Past weekly discussions will be archived in the archives.
If you have topics that you think would be helpful for the RDO community to discuss, please send me a pm or start your own thread! :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

Geeze, the holiday is coming, you know!

 

[Anonymous]

Worst financially--$400 golden guinea fowl puffer.

Actually that was the worst emotionally too--I'd had him for several years and had him shipped from california to Indiana when I moved. He was "The Big Lebowski" and he was my friend. A rio2100 blew up and electrocuted the entire tank (I also lost a 7" blueline trigger and a french angel).

 

[Anonymous]

I commit each dead fish to the briny deep. Then it bugs me for a few days. I go through my mind and figure out where I went wrong. I try not to repeat the mistake in the future. I also don't just run out and buy a new specimen to replace the lost one.

My worse loss was 15 leather frags, my mantis shrimp, and a couple of shrooms. I went on vacation and left my roommate to top-off my tank. SHe didn't and I lost everything.

The next week I bought a litermeter so I won't have to go through that again.

B

 

[Anonymous]

My worst was when I lost two Dwarf Angels in a period of two weeks. total monetary cost was $100. They went in the garbage after I examined them for any physical clues to their demise. I then checked all my water parameters for two weeks before adding another animal. I did not have another loss for about 10 months when my Snoflake Eel died suddenly. I was pretty shocked regarding that loss. He took a swirley down the toilet after a close examination. I found undigested food in his stomach. I think he may have suffered from an intestinal blockage. I had fed him cooked shrimp. I do not feed that anymore.

 

[Len]

I'm grateful I don't lose many fish, although the fish I do lose envitably are the ones that are the most expensive (I've lost fish worth more then $500 :?) But seriously, money is my last concern I have when I lose a fish or coral; the personal attachment I have with my livestock stings a lot more then my wallet does.

To be honest, I don't really try to justify my livestock purchases anymore. I find it an impossible ethical hurdle to leap, somewhat analagous to eating meat products for personal enjoyment. All I do is make sure that all livestock I purchase get the best possible care I can afford it (both in terms of financial investment as well as time spent in research).

 

[fungia]

right now i only buy cheaper fish and corals and i buy captive bred when i can because i am still pretty new and dont want to chance it. i am learning a lot reading and i think that makes a big difference for me justifying what i buy.

 

[wade1]

As far as "what do you do with them" I almost always feed mine back to the tank (more specifically the anemones). It makes them happy, and makes me feel a little bit better. It also makes them split if its a large meal, as for example, with the last copperband that was stuck on my overflow... it caused my BTA to split within a week after its meal.

And as with Len, I don't try to justify new purchases except in validation of whether or not it is available in a captive bred or captive reared form. I don't purchase fish that are available in those forms from the wild any longer.

Wade

 

[reefann]

Wade, That is a wise way to do it, I will be doing that next time I loose one.
My Two are a Regal and Yellow tang. I purchase my 210 used and the previous owner had never given them a good diet. The had HLLE pretty bad and I could not bring them back around. When they started to freak out in the tank I quarentined them and medicated to no avail. They were dead the next day. I had trouble deciding if trying to keep the guys alive was wise. they started to look terrible. Plus this was my first tank and I new little of medicating and desies, I tried my best.
JJ
BTW I kept one of the yellow tangs alive and the foxface, which is so tuff he was always fat and never looked bad.
Yes I know that he had two yellow tangs in the tank. This probably contributed to the yellows demise.
_________________
Boiling Forum

 

[DK]

In the early 90's, the going "thinking" was to feed the reef tank as little as possible. I lost many fish due to malnutrition, and the corals didn't do that well either. It was almost enough to quit the whole thing. Of course, I decided to "screw it" and fed the fish. The funny thing is the corals did better as well. I have one fish (at 13 years) that survived it all and havent lost a fish (that stayed in the water) in years. I feel really bad about the corals and fish that died because I/we didn't know any better. I strongly reccomend the skimmer and denitrator that allows fat fish and corals.

 

[Anonymous]

My worse loss was 5 fish in one night due to a power outage.
I lost a Coral Beauty, Long Nose Hawkfish, a Scopas tang and the worst for me - a male and female Squarespot anthias. I sat in front of the tank and cried my eyes out. I had all these fish for over a year. Losing the anthias was particularly hard as I had been tryng to get a pair for such a long time. It took me almost 4 months to get them. Plus, they were difficult to acclimate to the tank. It took me almost 2 weeks to get them to eat.

I wrapped all the bodies in paper towel and put them in the garbage.

I went out the same day and purchased a generator.

I replaced the fish in the tank and moved on.

I have two tanks running right now, and I haven't purchased any new fish in almost two years. They are all fat and happy (as far as I can tell) I can't justify the fact that I keep wild caught animals in my home. It's possible that I have kept them alive longer than they would have been in the wild.

 

[DaGoldenChild]

I just lost my first today, i just lost my feather duster, i cant justify it except that it made a good meal for my cleaner shrimp im not sure if it died or if the shrimp just ate it, it seemed pretty healthy so i think the shrimp just ate it but i can tell you this it'll be a while before i get another feather duster i was really attached to that one

 

[investigator1]

There is no death, only transformation.

 

[Anonymous]

I have lost every fish in my 55g once, due to a power outage from an ice storm while i was on vacation a couple years ago. It sucks, but I try not to dwell on it if there is really nothing I could have done about it. I finally got all the fish in that tank that I wanted and the tank was doing great. Its alot worse when they die because of something you did. I lost my copperband last month, i was doing a water change, and had all the water mixed. I took the heater out of the tank to warm up the make up water, and after it reached the right temp, turned off the heater, put it back in the tank and i was in a hurry and never turned it back on. I noticed the tank just didnt look right 4 weeks after the water change, and the temp
was down to 64. Since then I bought a thermometer with an alarm and an extra heater. It doesnt help that all my tanks are in the basement while most of the upstairs is being painted and remodeled, and dont watch them as often as I should.