Fish dying

[amharcourt]

First time posting- I have a 300 FOWLR and my fish are dying. Everything has been good. Fish were all thriving, it has been cycled since August 2023. We went on a short 4 day vacation the 28th of February and I had a friend taking care of my tanks. When we were headed home she called me because my lionfish had died and so had my harlequin tusk. She pulled them out of the tank and I did a water change the next morning although my levels all tested good except my nitrate was elevated to 80 ppm. I woke up the next morning and my flame angel had died and slowly over the next two weeks I have pretty much lost everything else. Porcupine puffer, dog faced puffer and now my panther grouper. The only thing left in the tank is a Picasso trigger and California stingray. And the ray seems unbothered. I am running a reef mat 1200, Red Sea reefer 900 and I just recently added a media reactor with biopellets . I am at a loss. The panther grouper that just passed I noticed was red around his gills… my levels are as follows:

API (only thing I can get around here)
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 80
Ph 8.2
Phosphate- 0.50
Salinity- 1.21
Temp- 75

Any ideas what I am dealing with? I will attach the picture of the panther grouper. I am thinking possible Marine Velvet

 

[vetteguy53081]

First time posting- I have a 300 FOWLR and my fish are dying. Everything has been good. Fish were all thriving, it has been cycled since August 2023. We went on a short 4 day vacation the 28th of February and I had a friend taking care of my tanks. When we were headed home she called me because my lionfish had died and so had my harlequin tusk. She pulled them out of the tank and I did a water change the next morning although my levels all tested good except my nitrate was elevated to 80 ppm. I woke up the next morning and my flame angel had died and slowly over the next two weeks I have pretty much lost everything else. Porcupine puffer, dog faced puffer and now my panther grouper. The only thing left in the tank is a Picasso trigger and California stingray. And the ray seems unbothered. I am running a reef mat 1200, Red Sea reefer 900 and I just recently added a media reactor with biopellets . I am at a loss. The panther grouper that just passed I noticed was red around his gills… my levels are as follows:

API (only thing I can get around here)
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 80
Ph 8.2
Phosphate- 0.50
Salinity- 1.21
Temp- 75

Any ideas what I am dealing with? I will attach the picture of the panther grouper. I am thinking possible Marine Velvet

Nitrate likely higher followed by ammonia. Hanna brand is reliable and if you go online, there are numerous outlets that sell Hanna. The mouth open suggests low oxygen and can be from over feeding, disease such as flukes and the pink facial area suggests infection but can be associated with post-death.
Sting ray does not thrive well with high nitrates and I would suggest to take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at
Can the sitter remember if the fish were breathing heavy, lethargic or even darting across the tank?

 

[Jekyl]

Any recent additions to the tank? Are fish quarantined before being added?

 

[amharcourt]

Nitrate likely higher followed by ammonia. Hanna brand is reliable and if you go online, there are numerous outlets that sell Hanna. The mouth open suggests low oxygen and can be from over feeding, disease such as flukes and the pink facial area suggests infection but can be associated with post-death.
Sting ray does not thrive well with high nitrates and I would suggest to take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at
Can the sitter remember if the fish were breathing heavy, lethargic or even darting across the tank?

This is where I am really confused!!! They all acted just fine until about 2 hours before their death. My sitter said they were all fine in the afternoon and by bedtime dead… I do not have any fish stores anywhere close that test water. Salt Lake City is the closest and it is almost 3 hours. I am awaiting Hanna testers but until then!!! All I have or can get are the API.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is where I am really confused!!! They all acted just fine until about 2 hours before their death. My sitter said they were all fine in the afternoon and by bedtime dead… I do not have any fish stores anywhere close that test water. Salt Lake City is the closest and it is almost 3 hours. I am awaiting Hanna testers but until then!!! All I have or can get are the API.

Until you get those new kits, Change water at 3-5 gallons daily in the event those levels are higher than anticipated.

 

[Marquarium]

Salinity is too low should be more around 1.025. Ask how much your sitter was feeding. Even I go crazy on food and can't get above 25 nitrates if I tried. (once upon a time I was posting threads with issues on nitrates tho!)

@vetteguy53081 is the best person to be helping he just needs accurate tests to help

For all your fish to have died while you were gone for only 1 week seems really odd even with high nitrate

 

[amharcourt]

They didn’t all die while I was gone, two died the night we came home and all the rest have been in the last two weeks. We did add the flame angel a few weeks ago but was in qt beforehand. From my understanding and all my reading, high nitrates wouldn’t kill fish. Is that true? My sitter only fed what she was told, the water is clear. I will wait for my new tests to come in, I am pretty sure the Picasso trigger is on his way out as well. He is still eating tonight but he is darting now and not swimming well.

 

[amharcourt]

Salinity is too low should be more around 1.025. Ask how much your sitter was feeding. Even I go crazy on food and can't get above 25 nitrates if I tried. (once upon a time I was posting threads with issues on nitrates tho!)

@vetteguy53081 is the best person to be helping he just needs accurate tests to help

For all your fish to have died while you were gone for only 1 week seems really odd even with high nitrate

I will raise my salinity, I thought it was a little low. My other tank I have running at 1.024

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Salinity is not the cause and raising it could cause more stress on the inhabitants. Do you have any inverts or corals?

If they are unbothered then you're most likely dealing with something sinister like velvet, especially if you didn't see any physical symptoms.

 

[amharcourt]

I have a pencil urchin and the stingray. They seem perfectly fine. I will raise my salinity slowly so it does not stress them.

 

[ReefGiant]

Very suspicious, for everything to happen so fast. Velvet may be a concern. Notice any signs of it?

 

[SudzFD]

They didn’t all die while I was gone, two died the night we came home and all the rest have been in the last two weeks. We did add the flame angel a few weeks ago but was in qt beforehand. From my understanding and all my reading, high nitrates wouldn’t kill fish. Is that true? My sitter only fed what she was told, the water is clear. I will wait for my new tests to come in, I am pretty sure the Picasso trigger is on his way out as well. He is still eating tonight but he is darting now and not swimming well.

Doubtful nitrates at that level would do any harm.

Any chance your sitter decided to “clean the tank” or the glass or something and introduced a chemical into the water?

 

[amharcourt]

Very suspicious, for everything to happen so fast. Velvet may be a concern. Notice any signs of it?

I am seriously thinking this is Velvet. I got a video of my trigger, last remaining fish…

 

[amharcourt]

Doubtful nitrates at that level would do any harm.

Any chance your sitter decided to “clean the tank” or the glass or something and introduced a chemical into the water?

No she is a fish person too, she does know the ins and outs

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

They didn’t all die while I was gone, two died the night we came home and all the rest have been in the last two weeks. We did add the flame angel a few weeks ago but was in qt beforehand. From my understanding and all my reading, high nitrates wouldn’t kill fish. Is that true? My sitter only fed what she was told, the water is clear. I will wait for my new tests to come in, I am pretty sure the Picasso trigger is on his way out as well. He is still eating tonight but he is darting now and not swimming well.

Welcome to Reef2Reef, sorry to meet under these circumstances.

Nothing in your water quality suggests that is the issue. The most intolerant fish to nitrate and low salinity is the stingray and that is still doing ok.

Having just an elasmobranch survive a disease outbreak is a hallmark of some fish diseases, most commonly ick. With that, every bony fish will die, but the sharks and rays will be fine. There are also some fluke ms that infect bony fish only. Sharks and rays can get velvet, but are a bit resistant.

Jay

 

[Dom]

Doubtful nitrates at that level would do any harm.

Any chance your sitter decided to “clean the tank” or the glass or something and introduced a chemical into the water?

It would take a lot of cleaning agent to cause this in a 300 gallon tank.