Fish turning pale heavy breathing

[Jarbour88]

All my water parameters are great. I have tested them every day for the last month. Last night I saw my coral beauty and 2 clowns breathing heavy and losing color. This morning the coral beauty was dead. I need help please!

 

[Reefer40b]

Possible flukes...

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Gills looked enflamed .

Did you test ammonia? What are your actual parameter numbers?

 

[Jarbour88]

0 ammonia 0 nitrite 5ppm nitrate salinity is stable as is ph at 8.2. I didnt notice any problems until I added a 3rd powerhead to the tank, could it be stress?

 

[Jarbour88]

I have done a freshwater dip for both clownfish, after the dip, one has white dots on its fins gills and some on his body. Is this ich, maybe velvet?

 

[Big G]

Velvet usually attacks, unseen within the gills. Gulping for air, breathing heavy and often loss of color are symptoms of a lack of O2. This happens sometimes without ever producing the visual symptoms of the white spots we all watch for developing.
Freshwater dips will buy the fish some time. The dips remove a tremendous amount of the parasite but it's only temporary as the velvet parasites reproduce quickly almost geometrically in numbers.

Freshwater dip

Then a bath in an acriflavine product like Ruby Reef Rally (THIS STEP HAS SHOWN TO GREATLY INCREASE SURVIVAL RATES EVEN ON HEAVILY INFESTED FISH) for 60-90 minutes.

Then dose copper or CP.
CP doses right to therapeutic level and thus the advantage.
Copper, suggest a chelated copper like Copper Power or Coppersafe. Pre dose the QT to 1.0 ppm and then bring to therapeutic level of 2.0 ppm within 48 hours. Small regular doses throughout the day rather than just large doses are easier on the fish and allow you to observe for the occasional copper sensitive fish.

While dosing the copper or CP need to use an antibiotic to combat bacterial infection due to the tremendous numbers of insertion points of the velvet. Suggest at a minimum Kanaplex. Spectrogram is better. It is a mix of Kanaplex + Furan. Or if need be the trifecta of Kanaplex + Furan2 + Metroplex works very well and covers a very wide spectrum of bacterial infection.

 

[Jarbour88]

Thank you for the information. Any possibility of stray voltage being the cause of death? I am trying to explore and consider all avenues and possibilities. Thanks.

 

[Big G]

Thank you for the information. Any possibility of stray voltage being the cause of death? I am trying to explore and consider all avenues and possibilities. Thanks.

Here's a great thread with @Brew12 coaching on testing for stray voltage.

Advice - steps for testing for stray voltage

All, can someone give me a step by step guide to test for stray voltage using this multimeter?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Brew12]

Thank you for the information. Any possibility of stray voltage being the cause of death? I am trying to explore and consider all avenues and possibilities. Thanks.

Here's a great thread with @Brew12 coaching on testing for stray voltage.

Advice - steps for testing for stray voltage

All, can someone give me a step by step guide to test for stray voltage using this multimeter?

www.reef2reef.com

While I think stray voltage can cause issues, I don't believe it will directly cause fish deaths. Maybe HLLE at the worst. It's hard to harm a marine fish with electricity since the water is more conductive than they are.

I feel that most deaths people associate with stray voltage isn't from the voltage itself. It is contaminants released from the failed equipment that is putting the electricity in the water. All sorts of nasty stuff can be released from a failed pump or heater that remains energized. This is the #1 reason I am such a big fan of the GFCI/Ground probe combination.

Running GAC and/or Polyfilters along with a large water change is the best thing I know to do if you have this issue going on.

 

[Jarbour88]

Thank you. I have been researching a lot trying to figure out the cause of my fish loss, I recently had a large algae bloom which i read reduces oxygen significantly. Could this have been the cause? The fish were swimming a lot less and hanging out by the bottom of the tank before i noticed the quick breathing.

 

[Brew12]

Thank you. I have been researching a lot trying to figure out the cause of my fish loss, I recently had a large algae bloom which i read reduces oxygen significantly. Could this have been the cause? The fish were swimming a lot less and hanging out by the bottom of the tank before i noticed the quick breathing.

That could be the cause, especially if you don't run a skimmer and/or don't have a lot of air mixing on the surface of the tank.

 

[Jarbour88]

I do not have a skimmer but i had one powerhead at the surface of the water. Maybe this isn’t enough? I have a 40 gallon tank, should i maybe add another 2 power heads/skimmer?

 

[Keiki]

0 ammonia 0 nitrite 5ppm nitrate salinity is stable as is ph at 8.2. I didnt notice any problems until I added a 3rd powerhead to the tank, could it be stress?

Is the 3rd powerhead new? If you just added it and then noticed problems I would look into that.