Help me diagnose my multiple fish deaths

[Futuretotm]

Tank: 139 gallon 9 months old
Food: Frozen PE mysis, Reef frenzy 2-3x /day, TDO Chromaboost pellets, flakes

Fish deaths:
1 week ago: Banggai Cardinal - suddently dead, no external changes
1 day ago: Purple firefish - same
Today: Foxfax and diamond goby
Current: Melanarus was laying on its side yesterday. Another regular firefish also laying on the sand.


All above have been in my tank 6+ months with excellent appetite.
When I pull out the bodies, there is nothing on the outside of note. None of my CUC seem to touch the dead either.
Of note: my Starry blenny for the last month or more has been flashing/scrapping himself on the sand (I see this may be once a week)


Hypothesis one:
Internal parasites, Flukes - but sudden deaths?

Hypothesis two:
Frozen food I think was defrosted perhaps at my LFS

Hypothesis three:
I place frozen chunks of food in a cup and let them defrost. I feed the slurry over the course of the day.


In terms of the remaining: I can't really catch them in my tank. Here is my list.
Clown pair
Royal gramma
Coral banded shrimp
Mandarin
Blue spotted jaw fish
Starry blenny
Fox face yellow - Dead
Banggai cardinal - One is dead, 4 alive
Diamond watchman goby - Dead
SS star
Firefish x3 - one is laying on its side
Purple firefish - Dead
Leopard wrasse
melanrus wrasse - was laying on its side last night, unknown this am
Male lyretail anthias
cleaner shrimp
tail spot blenny
Purple tang

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dom]

Any recent additions to the tank? Of the fish currently laying on the bottom, how are they behaving (i.e.: labored breathing)?

Run carbon and do a healthy water change as a precaution. Also, point a power head toward the surface to increase agitation in case it is an oxygen issue.

Please post you latest test results.

 

[Futuretotm]

Any recent additions to the tank? Of the fish currently laying on the bottom, how are they behaving (i.e.: labored breathing)?

Run carbon and do a healthy water change as a precaution. Also, point a power head toward the surface to increase agitation in case it is an oxygen issue.

Please post you latest test results.

Recent addition: 1+ month ago Lyretail anthias, purple tang

Two fish were laying on the sand: Melanarus (normal breathing), Foxface (rapid breathing)

In terms of oxygenation: Will the skimmer by itself not do?



Running a large amount of Carbon.
Large AWC pending for tonight (at work currently)

pH 8.25 to 8.35
Alk 9.2 +- .1
Ca 400
Mg 1500
NO3 20
PO4 0.04

 

[Dom]

Recent addition: 1+ month ago Lyretail anthias, purple tang

Two fish were laying on the sand: Melanarus (normal breathing), Foxface (rapid breathing)

In terms of oxygenation: Will the skimmer by itself not do?



Running a large amount of Carbon.
Large AWC pending for tonight (at work currently)

pH 8.25 to 8.35
Alk 9.2 +- .1
Ca 400
Mg 1500
NO3 20
PO4 0.04

You are correct; skimmers do provide oxygenation. But it is also important to have good surface agitation to aid in gas exchange as well.

Do you quarantine new inhabitants?

 

[Tamberav]

I doubt is is the food as I have accidentally defrosted stuff and re froze it plenty.

Velvet can cause sudden deaths without visible symptoms. I would have expected the purple tang to show some though.

 

[Futuretotm]

You are correct; skimmers do provide oxygenation. But it is also important to have good surface agitation to aid in gas exchange as well.

Do you quarantine new inhabitants?

That last sentence, oof. No.

 

[Futuretotm]

I doubt is is the food as I have accidentally defrosted stuff and re froze it plenty.

Velvet can cause sudden deaths without visible symptoms. I would have expected the purple tang to show some though.

Interesting, I thought there would be multiple white dots though....
What boggles my mind is that my foxface was Fat as heck. He gobbles so much food daily that I was afraid he would be diabetic.

Amazing how they feel like family, I did not fathom I would feel guilt and sadness over a death of a fish.

 

[Tamberav]

Interesting, I thought there would be multiple white dots though....
What boggles my mind is that my foxface was Fat as heck. He gobbles so much food daily that I was afraid he would be diabetic.

Amazing how they feel like family, I did not fathom I would feel guilt and sadness over a death of a fish.

It is possible for velvet to kill so fast in the gills that you never see spots. Parasites go for the gills first. Signs are rapid breathing and swimming into powerheads if they have enough strength to do so. Some also become photosensitive. Sometimes flashing and such.

You can check for flukes by putting a fresh corpse in fresh water for 10 min in a dark container and see if anything comes off.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Tank: 139 gallon 9 months old
Food: Frozen PE mysis, Reef frenzy 2-3x /day, TDO Chromaboost pellets, flakes

Fish deaths:
1 week ago: Banggai Cardinal - suddently dead, no external changes
1 day ago: Purple firefish - same
Today: Foxfax and diamond goby
Current: Melanarus was laying on its side yesterday. Another regular firefish also laying on the sand.


All above have been in my tank 6+ months with excellent appetite.
When I pull out the bodies, there is nothing on the outside of note. None of my CUC seem to touch the dead either.
Of note: my Starry blenny for the last month or more has been flashing/scrapping himself on the sand (I see this may be once a week)


Hypothesis one:
Internal parasites, Flukes - but sudden deaths?

Hypothesis two:
Frozen food I think was defrosted perhaps at my LFS

Hypothesis three:
I place frozen chunks of food in a cup and let them defrost. I feed the slurry over the course of the day.


In terms of the remaining: I can't really catch them in my tank. Here is my list.
Clown pair
Royal gramma
Coral banded shrimp
Mandarin
Blue spotted jaw fish
Starry blenny
Fox face yellow - Dead
Banggai cardinal - One is dead, 4 alive
Diamond watchman goby - Dead
SS star
Firefish x3 - one is laying on its side
Purple firefish - Dead
Leopard wrasse
melanrus wrasse - was laying on its side last night, unknown this am
Male lyretail anthias
cleaner shrimp
tail spot blenny
Purple tang

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you get some respiration rates for any of the currently affected fish? Gill beats per minute can often tell me something. You can just count in 15 seconds and then multiply by 4. Conversely, posting a short video would allow me to try and get a count.

Hypothesis one:
Internal parasites, Flukes - but sudden deaths? - Not internal probably, but could be gill flukes. Typically though, you are correct, this is more of a chronic issue and wouldn't cause multiple fish losses all at the same time.

Hypothesis two:
Frozen food I think was defrosted perhaps at my LFS - food is often thawed and refrozen as it travels from the supplier to your store to your home. This degrades the food to some degree, but unless bacterial decomposition sets in, it won't cause acute fish loss (see below)

Hypothesis three:
I place frozen chunks of food in a cup and let them defrost. I feed the slurry over the course of the day. - You just need to keep that refrigerated, don't leave it at room temperature. If you do, bacterial action can make the food more dangerous to feed, especially if combined with hypothesis two.

In the end, your inverts are fine, right? That then always points to a fish disease (or problem with the food, but that is rarer).

Jay

 

[Futuretotm]

Can you get some respiration rates for any of the currently affected fish? Gill beats per minute can often tell me something. You can just count in 15 seconds and then multiply by 4. Conversely, posting a short video would allow me to try and get a count.

Hypothesis one:
Internal parasites, Flukes - but sudden deaths? - Not internal probably, but could be gill flukes. Typically though, you are correct, this is more of a chronic issue and wouldn't cause multiple fish losses all at the same time.

Hypothesis two:
Frozen food I think was defrosted perhaps at my LFS - food is often thawed and refrozen as it travels from the supplier to your store to your home. This degrades the food to some degree, but unless bacterial decomposition sets in, it won't cause acute fish loss (see below)

Hypothesis three:
I place frozen chunks of food in a cup and let them defrost. I feed the slurry over the course of the day. - You just need to keep that refrigerated, don't leave it at room temperature. If you do, bacterial action can make the food more dangerous to feed, especially if combined with hypothesis two.

In the end, your inverts are fine, right? That then always points to a fish disease (or problem with the food, but that is rarer).

Jay

Inverts are fine.
Possibly velvet, as I did see my foxface hyperventilating last night. + at the speed at which this disease is killing means that its at the gills and finishing off my fish, zero spots on their bodies.

I am running carbon
Increased peroxide dosing
Interestingly my Molly's havent shown any signs.... so much for them being canary fish...

 

[Dom]

Inverts are fine.
Possibly velvet, as I did see my foxface hyperventilating last night. + at the speed at which this disease is killing means that its at the gills and finishing off my fish, zero spots on their bodies.

I am running carbon
Increased peroxide dosing
Interestingly my Molly's havent shown any signs.... so much for them being canary fish...

Do you quarantine?