Can bad husbandry kill fish?

[Noob1234]

Hi guys & gals,
Il start with the back story, moved house at the end of September, not what I wanted but that’s married life or was married life for you.
anyways moving reef tank was a major issue obviously, found a local guy to help didn’t go smoothly but we got there in the end, all seemed well and good parameters as you’d expect after a couple of week or so. Me being the dick that I am, didn’t do any testing for far too long, corals looked happy so no problem I thought! I only have softies and LPS, torches Zoas etc. don’t know about you guys but I hate testing so bought a reef bot end of November on eBay (£300 decent price) when I got it going it came back with results of 40+ nitrates 3ppm phosphates, everything else ok, since then I have gradually got them down( nitrates at 5, phosphates just below 1 but getting there) anyhow my yellow tang has not been well for weeks and sadly passed away on Saturday, when I say not well, still swimming about not eating much and hiding away, white patches on him which I put down to stress with the parameters being so wrong. Come Saturday he had a big red spot just above his eye and was seriously I’ll, barely breathing, looked like something internal had just gone pop! Poor guy. Anyway he passed literally minutes after I first saw him so I removed him from the tank. I now realise my aiptasia eating file fish has gone too! Is there something else I should be testing for? I’m testing nitrates, phos, alk, mag and calcium. Do you think there could be a disease in there or just bad husbandry on my part?
thanks in advance

 

[Rtaylor]

Phosphates and nitrates even at the level you posted before testing won’t kill fish. It’s something else. Maybe checkout Humblefish website for disease descriptions and pics for a better answer to that question.

Disease is more likely if you’ve recently added livestock. Stress or bullying could be contributors as well.

 

[KrisReef]

Picture of the tank might improve any discussion.

What are you feeding the tank and how often?

What size tank is this?

Depression is an expected result from dissolution of marriage and the abilty to continue forward with life and hobbys might expect some normal challenges that seem overwhelming.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Bad husbandry isn’t the killer, just the catalyst. Stressors will lower fish immune systems and allow for disease to take over. Pics can help us to determine what did it in.
Don’t stress too much! We all make mistakes and learn from them.

 

[Noob1234]

Thanks for your help, yes of course pics and details will help. Picture with the tang in was taken 15/12 or 12/15 which ever side of the pond your on. Tank picture was taken just now it’s just started night cycle. I have a skimmer running 24/7, reactor with bio pellets, dosing no pox at 4ml a day( 1 ml at a time but only started 2 weeks ago) Cheeto in a canister refugium ( realised a week ago the flow had stopped and had horrible smelly mold in which has now been cleaned out) and now phos guard just in a seachem bag in a high flow area. Uv running 24/7 too. I also cleaned the sump two weeks ago, well not entirely but I think that and sorting the Cheeto ref really helped lower nitrates and phosphates, maybe a bit too quick for the fish?

 

[Noob1234]

Phosphates and nitrates even at the level you posted before testing won’t kill fish. It’s something else. Maybe checkout Humblefish website for disease descriptions and pics for a better answer to that question.

Disease is more likely if you’ve recently added livestock. Stress or bullying could be contributors as well.

Thanks again, the only thing I have added since moving was a tiny dottyback! But now you mention it the LFS I bought it from isn’t a LFS really but a franchise and quite frankly I said I would never buy live stock from them as all there coral has hair algae and god knows what else on! But my son loved a cherry dottyback we had years ago and always asks for another so I foolishly agreed

 

[Noob1234]

Picture of the tank might improve any discussion.

What are you feeding the tank and how often?

What size tank is this?

Depression is an expected result from dissolution of marriage and the abilty to continue forward with life and hobbys might expect some normal challenges that seem overwhelming.

Thanks for your help, I feed frozen mysis once a day in the evening and nysos veg pellets On a morning. Tank is a DD 600 so 300 litres including sump

 

[KrisReef]

I've got a couple of guesses, stop adding fishes until you are certain there isn't some kind of outbreak killing them. The tank doesn't look horrible, so keep up with the water changes. I don't think you need to use both nopox and phosguard, and a refugium and biopellets to work on nutrients. The refugium or the biopellets alone should be able to keep nutrients low, expecially if you are using live rock. The nutrient levels are more critical for corals than for fish, and if you bottom out your phosphate / nitrate you are going to loose corals next.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Tank looks good!
I’d bet the dotty brought something in.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi guys & gals,
Il start with the back story, moved house at the end of September, not what I wanted but that’s married life or was married life for you.
anyways moving reef tank was a major issue obviously, found a local guy to help didn’t go smoothly but we got there in the end, all seemed well and good parameters as you’d expect after a couple of week or so. Me being the dick that I am, didn’t do any testing for far too long, corals looked happy so no problem I thought! I only have softies and LPS, torches Zoas etc. don’t know about you guys but I hate testing so bought a reef bot end of November on eBay (£300 decent price) when I got it going it came back with results of 40+ nitrates 3ppm phosphates, everything else ok, since then I have gradually got them down( nitrates at 5, phosphates just below 1 but getting there) anyhow my yellow tang has not been well for weeks and sadly passed away on Saturday, when I say not well, still swimming about not eating much and hiding away, white patches on him which I put down to stress with the parameters being so wrong. Come Saturday he had a big red spot just above his eye and was seriously I’ll, barely breathing, looked like something internal had just gone pop! Poor guy. Anyway he passed literally minutes after I first saw him so I removed him from the tank. I now realise my aiptasia eating file fish has gone too! Is there something else I should be testing for? I’m testing nitrates, phos, alk, mag and calcium. Do you think there could be a disease in there or just bad husbandry on my part?
thanks in advance

There are very few situations where a problem with water quality will kill fish, but leave invertebrates alone. In cases where the fish die, but the corals are doing good, it is almost always a disease issue. Two possible exceptions are acute low oxygen, and really high ammonia. These can harm fish faster than they would harm corals. However, if you had other invertebrates such as shrimp, snails and echinoderms, they would go the way of the fish.

More background info would be needed to try and dive into this deeper for you. Here is a link:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay