Fish dying and not eating

[Reefer Reborn]

My stock was healthy for 2 years
2 perculas
1 watchman
1 firefish
1 lawnmower
1 pj cardinal
1 molly
Then I went crazy and purchased a small royal gramma a Small azure damsel and a half top damsel over the course of 3 days.
I did no QT. I added some PVC pipe and some extra Life Rock for more hiding spots.

aftet about 2 days the half top went into hiding and died overnight. And everything seemed ok in the tank otherwise. I did dose some prazypro as a precaution because I notice a small lesion in front of the half tops dorsal. A few days later my fish suddenly stopped eating and the clowns have Occasional white poop and
still don’t eat. I purchased HEX pellets and dosed prazypro again.
Last night I decided to put carbon back in the clean slate the system of medication. This morning I woke up to dead firefish that was eating about 2 days ago and stopped eating and died even though he looked healthy. (No heavy breathing not covered in spots)

I am seeking an alternative treatment but don’t know what.
My PJ looks heather but does not eat.
My gramma looks healthy but does not eat
Watchman has a small lesion on his body does not eat.
Can’t find the azure he ran into a rock and is hiding but not eating.
the molly is in the sump he is eating.
Lawnmower looks healthy but is not eating.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Does the water check out fine? You haven't changed anything in regards to aeration?

One possibility comes to mind - it may be Amyloodinium, velvet. The firefish seems to be missing its tail and has a lesion on its head, do you have CUC that could have gotten to it before you pulled it?

I hate to say this, but when you see acute mortality in an established fish population, it is often too late to stop the mortality, despite your best efforts.

Here is an excerpt from my upcoming fish disease book on velvet:

Amyloodinium (a.k.a. marine velvet disease)

Cause
Commonly known as “marine velvet” in hobby parlance, Amyloodinium is caused by a dinoflagellate protozoan that can produce severe epidemics in aquariums. Furthermore, it can infect fishes that are normally more resistant to other marine protozoan diseases (e.g., Cryptocaryon), such as sharks, rays, and eels.

Symptoms
The life cycle of Amyloodinium is very similar to that of Cryptocaryon, as are the possible treatments available, but it has less distinctive early symptoms and can cause fish mortalities much sooner than other protozoan infections—sometimes within 12 hours of the onset of obvious symptoms. This disease begins as an infection of the fish’s gills, and only in advanced cases does it spread to the skin, giving it a “velvety” look.

Beginning aquarists often miss the first symptoms and commonly report, “All my fish suddenly died, but the invertebrates are all fine.” Since invertebrates are typically more sensitive to water-quality issues than fish are, the fact that the fish suddenly died but the invertebrates were unharmed means that water-quality problems can be ruled out. That leaves a fish disease, and Amyloodinium can often be diagnosed without even needing to perform a necropsy on the fish due to the rapidity of the fish loss!

Diagnosis
The key to early diagnosis of Amyloodinium is to monitor the fish’s gill health by taking regular fish respiration rates. This is a simple matter of counting the number of gill beats in one minute for a representative fish in the aquarium and then rechecking the respiration rate every few days to watch for any elevation in that rate.

Newly acquired fish that are not being treated prophylactically should have their respiration rate checked daily, as these fish are the ones at greatest risk of developing this disease. The actual respiration rate is not that important, it is a rise in the rate that must be monitored for.

Different species of fish will respire at different rates. Smaller fish breathe faster than large ones, and fish in warmer water will respire faster as well. Typically, tropical fish will respire between 60 and 120 gill beats per minute. If you can’t view the fish for a full minute, you can try counting for 15 seconds and multiplying the result by four.

Knowing your fish’s normal baseline respiration rate is vital; any rise in that rate above 30% (and not attributable to something else, such as the fish being chased by a tankmate) should be viewed as a possible symptom of this disease.

Treatment
Treatments for Amyloodinium cannot be performed with invertebrates present, yet the entire tank usually needs to be treated in order to eradicate it. Copper sulfate at 0.20 ppm for 14 days is one often-used cure. Chloroquine at 8 to 15 ppm as a 30-day static bath is another treatment that has been used with good success.

Performing freshwater dips or lowering the tank’s temperature is rarely effective. Likewise, hyposalinity treatments (sometimes recommended for Cryptocaryon treatments) will not work for Amyloodinium.



Jay Hemdal

 

[Reefer Reborn]

My stock was healthy for 2 years
2 perculas
1 watchman
1 firefish
1 lawnmower
1 pj cardinal
1 molly
Then I went crazy and purchased a small royal gramma a Small azure damsel and a half top damsel over the course of 3 days.
I did no QT. I added some PVC pipe and some extra Life Rock for more hiding spots.

aftet about 2 days the half top went into hiding and died overnight. And everything seemed ok in the tank otherwise. I did dose some prazypro as a precaution because I notice a small lesion in front of the half tops dorsal. A few days later my fish suddenly stopped eating and the clowns have Occasional white poop and
still don’t eat. I purchased HEX pellets and dosed prazypro again.
Last night I decided to put carbon back in the clean slate the system of medication. This morning I woke up to dead firefish that was eating about 2 days ago and stopped eating and died even though he looked healthy. (No heavy breathing not covered in spots)

I am seeking an alternative treatment but don’t know what.
My PJ looks heather but does not eat.
My gramma looks healthy but does not eat
Watchman has a small lesion on his body does not eat.
Can’t find the azure he ran into a rock and is hiding but not eating.
the molly is in the sump he is eating.
Lawnmower looks healthy but is not eating.

Thanks for your help and quick response. My water is good and so are all of my invertebrates such as snails and crabs. I have done a 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks.
I think it is velvet too. Although the fish don’t look too bad I can sense the Black portion of the clowns may be ever so muted.

 

[Rickybobby]

One thing I have learned this year getting back into the hobby qt is the most important thing period. Sorry for your losses. If I do much as buy one snail it goes into qt for 80 days now

 

[Reefer Reborn]

You are 100% correct. All of my fish were quarantined and I kept them for 2 years and I just wanted a few more fish so I added the damsels thinking they would be hearty and I would away with it just once. Well I am paying for it now. My clowns should be dead by the morning and the azure sometime tomorrow.
I think once the dust settless any survivors I will QT and leave my DT fishless for 2 months. I sold my QT equipment a while back and I think it’s too late to try and do a hospital tank this Velvet is too quick.

 

[mattzang]

h2o2 bath every fish en route to a sterile tank then copper them

i had a fish come down with velvet and immediately h2o2 bathed every fish in there with it and then ran copper (it was an observation tank so not a DT) and saved the rest

 

[Reefer Reborn]

h2o2 bath every fish en route to a sterile tank then copper them

i had a fish come down with velvet and immediately h2o2 bathed every fish in there with it and then ran copper (it was an observation tank so not a DT) and saved the rest

Thanks for your help, I think it is a long shot but if I have live fish tomorrow perhaps I will do this. What do I have to lose.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Reefer Reborn]

Another seemingly healthy fish dead in 24 hours

 

[artieg1]

If it is that quick, velvet is the most likely culprit. Take a deep breath. Consider a QT setup for any survivors, while you let your DT go fallow.

 

[Reefer Reborn]

Update, I lost the Lawnmower Blenny but the remaining fish, Royal Gramma, Watchman Goby, Azure Damsel, Molly and Pajama Cardinal and 1 Clown are still living and some are eating.
I will be transferring the living to a QT this weekend.