Do I have velvet or what?

[Marie7]

HI all:

I have a dilemma with my tank, never has bigger issues with it except high concentrations of phosphates.
I have lost couple fishes in a matter of 2-3 months I believe way to quick and all showing the same symptoms, they are perfectly fine and next day when I get up i find them death. The only thing I notice is discoloration on the body, no injuries or nothing of it but discoloration of the body, a yellow tang will turn pale and almost color less for few days and after will die, i have lost many beautiful fishes and I hardly lost any fishes before , I'm suspecting velvet but i'm unsure, i'm not sure because velvet cause a yellow or brown film on the fishes and this is not the case, i check parameters and phosphate went down a little bit same as nitrates, I did a massive water change Saturday and thought things would be better.
I have notice that on my rocks looks like a sand storm went thru the tank this is something I did not have before also my goby looks like it went also thru a sand storm he was cover with like a dust film of sand, the body color was opaque not the shiny bright black and white lines that it supposed to have, can some one tells me what you think? also if I have to treat for velvet or something else... can I treat the whole tank with the fishes in it? what about my anemones and corals will treating the whole tank affect them? I don't want to treat with cooper if I'm not sure whats going on, water looks clear and clean everything seems like a perfect tank but I'm loosing fishes like crazy.
This morning I found my yellow tang dead, he was perfectly fine yesterday it blends in with the sand that how bad his color was when I lift the fish to take him out of the tank I notice a coat of clear mucus coming from his body it drop to the bottom of tank .... any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, I'm including a picture of one of the fish that die as you can see on the picture looks like his skin is peeling looks like something abrasive got into his skin

 

[BighohoReef]

Potentially and most likely. Do you have a pictures of your other fish?

 

[NJDragonet]

I say it could either be HLLE or Velvet but velvet tends to show more and it is not an instant kill. I do not say copper with your livestock it will most likely stress them out 10 times more and cause death. I will see the image then I think I will be able to give you a treatment.

 

[NJDragonet]

Potentially and most likely. Do you have a pictures of your other fish?

I agree

 

[Marie7]

Potentially... what do your other fish look like? Are you noticing splotchy patches on them?

no I don't have spots but I'm looking into my foxface and it looks a little color fading on him

 

[NJDragonet]

no I don't have spots but I'm looking into my foxface and it looks a little color fading on him

That is normal with the genus for foxfaces are there any other fish like that

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hard to tell with fish out of the water. As long as you had it out Of the water, a freshwater bath would have helped.
With the skin issues, look like bacterial issues going on.
water quality plays a role here -
What are your parameters ?
Salinity
Temp
Ammonia
Nitrate
Ph

are you using RO or tap water from faucet? Any other fish in tank affected?

 

[Marie7]

I say it could either be HLLE or Velvet but velvet tends to show more and it is not an instant kill. I do not say copper with your livestock it will most likely stress them out 10 times more and cause death. I will see the image then I think I will be able to give you a treatment.

What is HLLE? sorry

 

[NJDragonet]

I see the picture I can rule out velvet or ich could either be ammoina burns or HLLE. What are your parameters? and what other fish are in the tank

 

[Marie7]

That is normal with the genus for foxfaces are there any other fish like that

no, none of the others but some dissapear in few days i'm afraid they die behind my rock wall and I didn't see them or notice

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ich, you can count dits if some were present- velvet, there is hundreds of dots. Maracyn based meds, even trisulfate May be of help.
Lets get Jay involved
@Jay Hemdal

 

[NJDragonet]

HLLE is a disease that afflicts many of the ornamental marine fish in our hobby. The acronym stands for Head and Lateral Line Erosion. Fish suffering from HLLE will develop pitted holes that usually start around the eye area and continue, forming a line towards the tail.
Surgeonfish and angelfish are the most common families of saltwater fish to suffer from HLLE, but other families of marine fish have been known to develop the disease as well. HLLE is rarely fatal, but if left untreated it will cause horrific and permanent scars on the animal. The main threat to the life of the fish is from secondary infections that can result from the open wounds created by HLLE.
Head and Lateral Line Erosion disease does not impact many fish outside of the saltwater aquarium hobby. Lack of commercial interest has resulted in almost no funding for proper scientific study of the disease. This has caused HLLE research to be mainly conducted by hobbyists. Rampant speculation, anecdotal or outright conflicting evidence constantly swirl around the affliction.

 

[Marie7]

I see the picture I can rule out velvet or ich could either be ammoina burns or HLLE. What are your parameters? and what other fish are in the tank

I check the ammonia level 2 days ago and it was just a little bit not elevated levels of it just into the yellow green line so I assume that because I did a good cleaning on the tank and move the sand around the level could be a slightly elevated, but again it wasn't a toxic level or high

 

[NJDragonet]

HLLE can be caused by a handful of thing poor water, stress, disease. What are your exact parameters?

 

[BighohoReef]

Not to reinvent the wheel the articles section of the site has a great guide for treatments of all sorts, it a multipart article hopefully help with getting a good QT setup and treatment plan going.

Keeping Your Marine Fish Healthy Part 1: Separation and Sterilization

Learn about how to keep your fish healthy by separating them as needed in quarantine and hospital tanks and learn how and why to sterilize your equipment.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[NJDragonet]

I check the ammonia level 2 days ago and it was just a little bit not elevated levels of it just into the yellow green line so I assume that because I did a good cleaning on the tank and move the sand around the level could be a slightly elevated, but again it wasn't a toxic level or high

I am a little stumped do you have any other pics I am sure I can solve this

 

[NJDragonet]

Not to reinvent the wheel the articles section of the site has a great guide for treatments of all sorts, it a multipart article hopefully help with getting a good QT setup and treatment plan going.

Keeping Your Marine Fish Healthy Part 1: Separation and Sterilization

Learn about how to keep your fish healthy by separating them as needed in quarantine and hospital tanks and learn how and why to sterilize your equipment.

www.reef2reef.com

Great Idea!

 

[NJDragonet]

Also do you have a QT set up?

 

[Marie7]

I see the picture I can rule out velvet or ich could either be ammoina burns or HLLE. What are your parameters? and what other fish are in the tank

I have 2 maroons clowns, a goby (if still alive) haven't seen him yesterday or last night, i have also another tang, salinity is 127, phosphate is somewhat elevated I'm working on it , calcium 480, ph 8,0

 

[Marie7]

I am a little stumped do you have any other pics I am sure I can solve this

sure give me a sec I will picture the tang I got out this morning