HELP! Lost 3 fish in 2 days :(

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

Hello,
As the title states, yesterday morning I woke up with my Yellow Assessor having passed away. This morning, I lost both my clownfish and my coral beauty angel. We have not introduced anything new to the tank in over a month, and we did a water change last Wednesday. Tested the water last night, PH was at 7.9 (a little low I believe), and Nitrates were .20, I know some people say to run at or around 0, and other say that 10 to 20 is fine, especially with no protein skimmer we should be showing something, please correct me if I'm wrong. Salinity is reading at 1.023. Of the fish that passed, the Assessor was the newest (had him a little over two months), the Angel we've had for closer to 6-8 months, and the clownfish was almost 5 and a half years old. I can't find anything that is obvious that is wrong with the tank and now I'm worried because I still have a shark nosed goby and a yellow watchmen goby in there and I'm very fearful for them.

The clownfish is the only one that really exhibited any signs of anything wrong, as he looked like he was suffering from Brooklynella, both the Angel and the Assessor didn't show any physical signs of infection.

Just looking for some help at figuring out what might be going on in the tank before I lose anything else.

Thank you!

eatbreakfast · Oct 27, 2015

Is the heater working properly? With changing weather if a heater fails fluctuating temps can be very stressful, but it may be something else entirely.

Diesel · Oct 27, 2015

Looks like you brought in some kind of parasite.
Some parasites can linger for months before they get effective to damage or in your case kill your fish.
You water quality can be better but it ain't that bad that fish should die from it.
Have any idea where you are with Ammonia and Nitrite?

miyags · Oct 27, 2015

whats your ammonia?

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

@eatbreakfast - Heater appears to be working just fine (it's new only approximately 4 months old) and I have two digital thermometers in the tank, lowest I've seen the temperature at is about 76.3, usually runs between 77 and 78.

@Diesel - I'm not sure where I'm at with Nitrite or Ammonia, I have test kits coming in the mail tomorrow. I just feel like we are beating our heads against the wall, it pains me to feel almost "helpless" because I don't know what to do or what to fix or how to fix it because I haven't identified the problem yet so I'm almost afraid to look at the tank because I don't know what may or may not have happened.

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

@miyags if I remember correctly, ammonia was at 0 last night. We took our water sample into a local store that tested it since I am waiting on the test kits to arrive in the mail on 10/28.

miyags · Oct 27, 2015

If its not the water,then when you introduced your last fish it might of had ich. It took a month for it to multiply out of control. I think if it is velvet they might of died sooner. Look into QTing your remaning fish. I use cuppramine and prazipro to treat.

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

@miyags thank you for the suggestion, in looking around a few of the other posts while I was here this morning I kept thinking there was a possibility of ich but I wasn't sure. The shark-nosed goby has had what we thought were spots on his face here and there but they seemed or seem to have come and gone over time. In reading a little more about ich, I know that it will leach on to a host fish, then fall off and re-attach at night which might be what is going on. We don't have a QT tank right now, I know people in other posts mentioned using a rubbermaid container or something, can anyone provide any details or instructions? Wasn't sure if this tank needed to be cycled properly, or what? Thanks again!!!

miyags · Oct 27, 2015

You can click on forums on main page. go to fish diesease and treatment. look at HF for QT instuctions, he has a great write up

4FordFamily · Oct 27, 2015

Yeah sounds like a parasite. I have not had brook to my awareness, but I have had in and velvet. Some velvet strains can hide and not show classic outward symptoms on many fish. Had this happen for a 3 month period before a chevron tang did finally. It was living in the gills and even dead fish were not showing standard symptoms to identify the issue. I kept fixing oxygen saturation, nitrates, large water changes assuming that some chemical got in, etc each time thinking those were the issue. Nope. Sneaky velvet strain.

melypr1985 · Oct 27, 2015

I actually agree with it being velvet. Your clown showed signs and the rest are dying rather quickly for ick. Here is the link to a write up on velvet from Humblefish http://reef2reef.com/threads/defeating-marine-velvet-disease.217570/

Diesel · Oct 27, 2015

Check out the behavior of the two goby's remaining, goby's have a reputation that they build up a immune system a lot stronger than other fish.
Don't buy any other fish for a few weeks and mean while get a hand on maintaining your tank at acceptable levels in range on where you want to be.
Look around if you can find a cheap 10 or better 20 gallon tank with a HOB filter and a heater that you can startup as QT.
When ready for new fish QT them as in observe for any diseases as Ick or Velvet or others.
I don't treat my fish when in QT but observe them and feed them lots of live food to start the immune system.
When I see Ick I'm not worried but all other stuff I will start a treatment process.
Ick is easily to fight with a tank transfer for two weeks.
If have more questions just fired it up, many awesome reefers here that can help you on your way to success of a great reef tank.

Humblefish · Oct 27, 2015

Kory Miller said:
The clownfish is the only one that really exhibited any signs of anything wrong, as he looked like he was suffering from Brooklynella, both the Angel and the Assessor didn't show any physical signs of infection.

Can you describe in detail why you think the clownfish had brook? What symptoms were you seeing? The more details you can provide (physical/behavioral symptoms) will help confirm if, in fact, you have brook in your tank. Brook is most often confined to clownfish & damsels, but I've seen it spread & kill other fish as quickly as velvet sometimes.

Breakthecycle2 · Oct 27, 2015

I had a velvet a wipeout. That's what this sounds like to me. Velvet, outwardly can resemble brooklynella.

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

Sorry for the slow replies guys, my e-mail notifications weren't coming through. However, I think that the clown may have had brook because his skin was "peeling" at least one of his white stripes appeared that way on Sunday, yesterday the peeling looked better, today he's dead, so I'm not quite sure but that is my uneducated, and fortunately / unfortunately inexperienced with fish disease opinion. I'll check out the read up on velvet, I know there is no "quick fix" but right now I don't know what else to do, I know there is no miracle cure, but I'm also trying to educate myself so that I do the right thing, don't throw money here, there, and everywhere towards guessing at a problem, and solve it and learn so that I can handle it, if / when it occurs in the future.

We have an old 30 gallon tank which I could use as a quarantine, any suggestions as far as how to go about setting it up? How long to let it cycle? I've got a spare heater, an older HOB filter, and the tank / stand. Should I let it cycle naturally, or try to speed it up using something like bio-spira?

Also, anything else I can try to do immediately in the interim of waiting for the QT tank? I want to try and help the gobies if at all possible. Thanks again, i'll be checking back! GREAT FORUM HERE.

4FordFamily · Oct 27, 2015

Kory Miller said:
Sorry for the slow replies guys, my e-mail notifications weren't coming through. However, I think that the clown may have had brook because his skin was "peeling" at least one of his white stripes appeared that way on Sunday, yesterday the peeling looked better, today he's dead, so I'm not quite sure but that is my uneducated, and fortunately / unfortunately inexperienced with fish disease opinion. I'll check out the read up on velvet, I know there is no "quick fix" but right now I don't know what else to do, I know there is no miracle cure, but I'm also trying to educate myself so that I do the right thing, don't throw money here, there, and everywhere towards guessing at a problem, and solve it and learn so that I can handle it, if / when it occurs in the future.

We have an old 30 gallon tank which I could use as a quarantine, any suggestions as far as how to go about setting it up? How long to let it cycle? I've got a spare heater, an older HOB filter, and the tank / stand. Should I let it cycle naturally, or try to speed it up using something like bio-spira?

Also, anything else I can try to do immediately in the interim of waiting for the QT tank? I want to try and help the gobies if at all possible. Thanks again, i'll be checking back! GREAT FORUM HERE.

Freshwater dips and I think formalin or methelyn blue would help. [HASHTAG]#Humblefish[/HASHTAG] could advise further, I am less of an expert than he!

melypr1985 · Oct 27, 2015

If it were me.... I would get the gobies into that QT right away. You have all the equipment for it, just add an ammonia alert badge, seed a sponge with the biospira and there ya go. Put the gobies in and start treatment with copper as explained in the link above. No need for a cycle. Just keep an eye on that badge and change with water if any ammonia shows up. No matter what, I would definitely leave that display fallow.

Fresh water dip -as stated above- is a great idea on the way to the QT

jadwv2210 · Oct 27, 2015

Kory Miller said:
Sorry for the slow replies guys, my e-mail notifications weren't coming through. However, I think that the clown may have had brook because his skin was "peeling" at least one of his white stripes appeared that way on Sunday, yesterday the peeling looked better, today he's dead, so I'm not quite sure but that is my uneducated, and fortunately / unfortunately inexperienced with fish disease opinion. I'll check out the read up on velvet, I know there is no "quick fix" but right now I don't know what else to do, I know there is no miracle cure, but I'm also trying to educate myself so that I do the right thing, don't throw money here, there, and everywhere towards guessing at a problem, and solve it and learn so that I can handle it, if / when it occurs in the future.

We have an old 30 gallon tank which I could use as a quarantine, any suggestions as far as how to go about setting it up? How long to let it cycle? I've got a spare heater, an older HOB filter, and the tank / stand. Should I let it cycle naturally, or try to speed it up using something like bio-spira?

Also, anything else I can try to do immediately in the interim of waiting for the QT tank? I want to try and help the gobies if at all possible. Thanks again, i'll be checking back! GREAT FORUM HERE.

I would go ahead and get the HOB filter cleaned up and ready to go. You can take the filter media for it be it a sponge or whatever as long as it's not carbon and throw it in your sump or display to start accumulating bacteria for the nitrogen cycle. Using a product like Biospira would be a great idea. Just don't use an ammonia detoxifier with any medications as it can make them toxic.

Kory Miller · Oct 27, 2015

Okay,
So here is the current plan. I wanted to pitch this before we spend any money or do anything just to see if anyone sees any flaws in the plan so that I can correct it now before proceeding:

Reuse our 30 gallon (extra tank).. This tank was used for 5 years as a saltwater tank prior to the current 55 gallon, it was disassembled in September, obviously we would clean it again prior to use as a QT tank.
Clean / Reuse our HOB filter (I believe it's a Tetra / Whisper that is suitable for at least 30 gallons if not larger)
Clean / Reuse our heater (again suitable for the 30 gallon tank)
Purchase Acriflavine to treat (not sure if we should use this in both the display tank and QT tank or?)
Add bio-spira to QT tank
Run HOB filter without filter media (not sure if this needs to be done for the future or just a few days / during treatment?)
Not sure how soon we can move our gobies to the QT tank, and if we should add any of the Acriflavine to that tank prior to adding the fish or not?

Also plan on doing the fresh water dips on both fish as well.

Anyone see any issues with this or have any other details / things we may have missed? Since we are limited to only just Petco in the immediate area most of this stuff will need to be purchased online so hoping to place the order tonight so we can get things up and going ASAP.

Again thanks for the help we'll be checking back in soon!

jadwv2210 · Oct 27, 2015

You can use the filter media for the HOB filter as long as the media does not contain activated carbon. If there is carbon in the filter it will strip the medications from the water before they have a chance to treat the fish.

If there is no sponge or similar filter option made for your filter you can go to the pet store and purchase some filter pads or bio balls to put into the filter for the bacteria to live on. Just don't use a sponge from the grocery store for cleaning because they contain antibiotics to prohibit the growth of bacteria which is the opposite of what you want.

I'm not versed on the medications personally but hopefully someone who is responds soon.