r/Rainbowfish

Love watching these guys show off!

Some of the neon’s i have breed

Got a small group of these guys in today still young but super cool harder to find Chilatherina

Just like the title says, it's been a rough stretch.

I'm a big rainbowfish fanatic and have been keeping a mostly rainbowfish species tank the last 5 years. I would also call myself a fairly experienced and seasoned fish keeper. But I'm human and I have hubris and the latter has really humbled me in a pretty intense and devastating way recently.

Recently, I purchased a pair of glossolepis wanamensis (emerald rainbows), one of my favourites that I previously kept. Normally when my wife and I go out to an aquarium shop, we don't stay out for much longer and go home within an hour or at most, 2. All my past experiences before have never given me trouble. The staff member at the store bagging the fish even asked how long we were gonna be before we arrive home, and I said, it's not too far, probably an hour or so.

My wife and I were enjoying our time out, but every hour that passed, (who by the way only fairly recently got into aquariums largely because of my love for aquariums) she urged me to go back home for the fish, to which I responded, "It'll be fine, we won't be out for long.". I kept saying this until we got home 4 hours later.

Before I continue, I should also say that throughout my fish keeping tenure, I never quarantine new fish I buy and they pretty much go straight into the main tank after acclimating. I almost never ran into issues with that, but yes, I do know the folly in that logic and it's a very poor habit to have as someone who is experienced at fishkeeping.

That said, after acclimation of the wanamensis pair, I released them into my main tank. The following days, up till today has been a complete nightmare as a columnaris outbreak wreaked havoc in my tank. Everyday, a rainbowfish or two would end up in the bottom of my tank and then I would notice one or 2 more with the classic symptoms, locked jaw, fuzzy mouth, cotton like patches, saddleback, visible slime coat issues, extreme lethargy and they go on to die the following day.

I've dealt with columnaris before, but never at the rate it devastated my tank. The wanamensis pair due to being in the bag with little oxygen and no medication for hours were in so much duress in the bag, severely compromised their immune system and ability to fight off the bacteria. The female died the next day and I should've seen the signs on the male right away (white tail, fin rot) and should've separated it and started treatment immediately.

I have started medicating the tank by making medicated food using the flakes I feed them along with Knox unflavored gelatin and kanamycin. It seems to be helping and 1 of the previously really sick ones seem to be showing signs of recovery. All other fish that showed severe symptoms have been separated into a hospital tank. Unfortunately there were too many that were too far gone, that I couldn't save them.

I lost several rainbows, most being 3-4 years old that I've had since they were juveniles, including all of my large mature boesemani males. It's been heartbreaking and soul shattering as I love my rainbowfish. I know this is on me and I feel so defeated and stupid. I should have known better. All I can do is learn from this tragedy as best as I can, move on and be grateful for the fish that I still have and give them the best care I can.

I just wanted to pour my heart out a bit here, because if anyone can relate to my pain, I know it's you guys here in the aquarium subreddit. Thank you for sharing your time. And I'm sure most of you will be wiser than I was, but it's worth saying anyway, please don't make the same mistakes I made and please don't develop the bad fish keeping habits that I did. I will definitely be quarantining any new fish from now on for a substantial amount of time.

To all my big beautiful boesemani boys, my sentani girl, my 2 bedotias, and my trifasciata boy and the 2 wanamensis I barely got to know...I'm so sorry I failed all of you. I miss all of you so much.

I attached a few of my recent favourite photos of the fish that I lost to remember my gorgeous fish. I hope you guys can appreciate them as much as I did.

Thank you, peace and love.