Good to hear. I wish I had room for a prober hospital tank.

Ya its sucks, huh? :cry:

The bad thing with all of this is it is impossible to catch a fish in my display... When I am able to catch the fish it is already to late to be of any help. I am not too sure if it is possible for you to catch fish within your display or not.

I am very fortunate to have the space, and a very handy husband that can build anything... as well as a friend that is practically giving me the 90g tank and sump that comes with it. I was going to get new glass for my 44g bowfront and he offered me the larger tank instead...

I really feed bad for you since I know how hard it is to lose a fish, especially one asd endearing as a CBB...

So sorry. Losing a fish really sucks! I feel for you man.

I only tried one CBB...and lost him within a week. I like the bacterial theory.

Sorry to hear that you lost your fish. This may help others that are thinking of getting a CBB, myself included.

After reading this post, I won't ever buy a CBB.
Sorry for your loss

Yet another noob question.... where would the cyanide poisoning come from (if that's what is actually is)?

Any country that collects fish for the trade. But most likely Philippines and its becoming more and more common in Indonesia now too.

They put cyanide in little squirt bottles to take on collection dives. When the fish get scared and hide in the rocks or coral heads, they squirt cyanide into their hiding spot to stun them and the fish float out. Estimates are that about half die right away and half are just stunned for the time being. But of that half that actually are collected, many still are way too weak to make it to land even. The rest often die in our tanks. The cyanide does not stay in the fishes system long at all. It actually gone relatively fast but it leaves behind permanent damage. Perfect for these collectors. The fish will appear healthy and survive until it gets to someones tank. What you don't know is that this fish has a damaged liver or other internal organs and is actually dying slowly. It can take months.

National Geographic put out a study saying that for every one cyanide fish that is caught and makes it to our tanks, a square meter of reef is destroyed--the cyanide kills the corals too of course. Kills inverts, kills mostly everything it comes in contact with. It does dissipate quite quickly in saltwater, so that saves the area from being completely destroyed but after years and years of this, the reefs in some area of the Philippines are looking rough from all the cyanide exposure. I have seen this first hand.

In fact last year we were on a dive in the Philippines and came across what must have been hundreds of very healthy looking dead fish on the bottom of one area of a reef. I was really confused and it was such a sad sight. Of course my dad and I asked after what it was and our guide told us it was nothing...tried to brush it off. We persisted and eventually he admitted it was cyanide fishing and that these collectors had been now moving into tourist areas even. They come early in the morning before anyone was out there and then disappear. My dad got a lot of info out of him about cyanide poisoning. He pretty much said it was rampant around the islands and that no one cared.

Its a big issue that not too many people want to admit is happening and even less can or will do anything about it. You've seen what happens when its brought up here ;)

Great decision hillegom.

It is very sad for me to see posters asking for information of a very difficult species and the only ones who care to post are those that have been lucky enough to keep them for a while.
Those who have repeatedly attempted to keep them and fail do not post their lack of success for some reason.

I applaud GSP for having the courage to do so and you who have made an informed decision based on his post.
Wayne

I'll admit that I was very and horribly discouraged about the saltwater hobby in general when I heard about the cyanide "traps". I really had no idea. I find wild caught is bad enough, but that story just kills me.

I talked to one of the staff at a LFS today about it -- while he knows it still happens, he thinks it's a rare scenario now. I only hope he's right -- else I may just stick with the 20 gallon tank that I have now and not even bother with the big one I dream to have one day....