Fish Are Dying One A Day

[PapaDragon]

I broke quarantine and now I’m paying for it. I bought a couple anthias and a small Desjardini Sailfin Tang from LiveAquaria. One of the anthias developed popeye a few days after I got them. It was only one eye so I thought she was probably injured in shipping. After about two weeks I noticed the other anthias picking at her. Everyone including popeye was eating great and no signs of anything obviously wrong. The Desjardini Sailfin was a little skinny but I thought that was because LiveAquaria didn’t feed him enough. I decided to break quarantine and move everyone except popeye to the display tank.

Initially everything was fine, but after about two weeks in the display the male anthia just died over night. I was surprised because I was feeding about three times a day and they were all eating well. The only thing that I was concerned about was that the Desjardini Sailfin was still skinny. The next day a female anthia died. The next day popeye, who was still in quarantine. The next day the last female anthia died. The next day I noticed the Desjardini Sailfin looked pale. I don’t know how to describe it, but all the beautiful color to it looked muted. I couldn’t catch him in my 180. Well the next day he was dead. I knew I was facing a big problem, but no obvious signs of illness. I couldn’t catch them all so I bought poly lab medic and started using it and praying that it would help. However, the next day I lost a clown, then a yellow tang, then another clown.

I just started feeding everyone in the display Metroplex + Focus + garlic. Maybe it’s an internal pathogen?

What kills like this? Why one fish every day? I can’t figure it out. I realize the one a day thing might just be a coincidence, but I will never break quarantine again.

 

[Old Fritz]

one a day thing is probably coincidence or once the fish died the parasite would spread. Any other symptoms like white stringy poop or anything? if not I would treat with metroplex or general cure if you had it. However with how rapid it killed everything that typically isn't an internal parasite thing. Can you post water params as well and like I said any other symptoms

 

[PapaDragon]

one a day thing is probably coincidence or once the fish died the parasite would spread. Any other symptoms like white stringy poop or anything? if not I would treat with metroplex or general cure if you had it. However with how rapid it killed everything that typically isn't an internal parasite thing. Can you post water params as well and like I said any other symptoms

I did see white stringy poop from the one clown, which is why I started the metroplex treatment. I didn’t think that would kill like this. The water parameters are the best I have ever had for a reef tank. The corals are doing great. All the fish look fine up to right before they die. They loose color and within 24 hours are dead.

 

[HotRocks]

The color loss is concerning to me. I only see that with velvet. The discolored fish is usually overed with velvet within 48 hours IME. Sit right in front of your glass and look at the fish as it swims, from different angles and see if you see any coverage on remaining fish.

The polyp lab product may slow down the progression if it is something like velvet.

I'm not trying to alarm you, I can tell you I've dealt with several cases of internal parasites and never had it spread or take fish as quickly as you are experiencing. The only other thing I've had take fish that quickly is Uronema and it would be completely obvious most of the time.

 

[PapaDragon]

The color loss is concerning to me. I only see that with velvet. The discolored fish is usually overed with velvet within 48 hours IME. Sit right in front of your glass and look at the fish as it swims, from different angles and see if you see any coverage on remaining fish.

The polyp lab product may slow down the progression if it is something like velvet.

I'm not trying to alarm you, I can tell you I've dealt with several cases of internal parasites and never had it spread or take fish as quickly as you are experiencing. The only other thing I've had take fish that quickly is Uronema and it would be completely obvious most of the time.

Thanks for the help. I sat in front of it yesterday for a couple hours, but I had to have missed something. Doesn’t velvet look like ich?

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks for the help. I sat in front of it yesterday for a couple hours, but I had to have missed something. Doesn’t velvet look like ich?

It can look similar. It almost looks like a fine dust covering the fish.

 

[PapaDragon]

@HotRocks If it’s velvet and if my fish survive will I always have velvet? Is the only cure catching the fish and letting the tank go fishless for three months? During that time treating the survivors for velvet?

 

[HotRocks]

@HotRocks If it’s velvet and if my fish survive will I always have velvet? Is the only cure catching the fish and letting the tank go fishless for three months? During that time treating the survivors for velvet?

Correct. If you can confirm you have velvet, the fish would need moved to a QT and treated accordingly. Then the tank would need to be fallow for at least 6 weeks to erradicate velvet. Removing the fish causes die off since the parasites can no longer cycle.

Most people would elect to go fallow for the full 76 days to take care of ich too.