Lost all but one fish in less than 12 hours.

[Bentonb]

This. Sucks.
Pre-story stock list-
Falco Hawk
Tri Color wrasse
Starry Blenny
Various Corals (not affected by this story)
CUC consisting of hermits and snails
a Not doing so hot acid rain nem

Story starts beginning of last week when I picked up a pair of Thunder Maroons at the LFS, I put them in a breeding box to acclimate them to each other and the tank mates. Took them out after a day of one severely beating up on the other. Lost the beta thunder maroon 2 days later. Wrote it off as a casualty of clown pairing.
Algae has been an issue the past couple of weeks, so decided to order a tiny yellow tang, pincushion urchin and a gold strip maroon (to replace the lost thunder), from saltwaterfish.com they all showed up healthy and did fine when I acclimated them and added them Tuesday.
Woke up this morning to both clowns dead. One was stuck to my MP10 the other stuck to the overflow teeth. Also the starry blenny was MIA.
Went to work and blamed the Falco hawk as the tail from the gold striped maroon (the one stuck to the overflow teeth (which is how I found the first thunder maroon) was missing almost all of its tailfin). Came home and found the tri colored wrasse had jumped, and the yellow tang was stuck to the mp10, but not tore up like the clowns. Starry blenny still MIA.
Tested my water and everything checks out.
pH-8.2
Nitrates, 0-5ppm
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Salinity - 1.023 (swings a bit with evaporation, but never below 1.022)

Could the falco hawk have killed everything? obviously the wrasse died via carpet surfing, but could the hawk have pestered it into jumping? The hawk won't let hermits live past a week, so I feel like I'm constantly replenishing those. Also he nips at new fish, but never nipped at the wrasse or the tang.

I'm at a loss, I lost a couple fish a month ago due to an ammonia spike. The corals are doing just fine, apart from the algae. Could use some advice for that too if you wouldn't mind.

 

[jelazar]

Lost all of your fish in 12 hours? Looks like you have a relatively small tank. My bet is low oxygen.

Was the skimmer and MP10 running when you had the loss? What sort of return pump do you have?

 

[Bentonb]

Lost all of your fish in 12 hours? Looks like you have a relatively small tank. My bet is low oxygen.

Was the skimmer and MP10 running when you had the loss? What sort of return pump do you have?

I have two mp10s, the return pumps are the two stock pumps that come with the cobalt c-vue45 and yes the skimmer was running the whole time. Also there's plenty of surface agitation.

 

[mattzang]

Redlands!

I had basically the same thing happen in my tank a few months back. Although my issue was going to one of the LFS (Calimesa one that I can't recommend..) and that guy telling me to buy dry rock/dry sand and just pour in instastart and immediately add all 8 fish I wanted. Worked for a couple of weeks, until it didn't. I went to sleep one night worrying my flame angel was acting weird, woke up to all of the fish dead. Except my sixline wrasse and a valentini puffer.

Looks like your tank is older, though. I have nowhere near enough experience to help you figure it out, but I can't say I'm sold on any of the LFS around here.

 

[4FordFamily]

Any cleaning products used nearby? Any construction?

It doesn’t sound like the culprit but trying to cover the bases... I’m at a loss

 

[Amoo]

That looks like the algae I get when I let my phosphates bottom out. Like a literal 0ppb. I would be you have the same, but completely unrelated.

The only thing I can think of that would take down that many fish that fast would be velvet.

@4FordFamily any other disease related questions you can think of?

 

[Bentonb]

Any cleaning products used nearby? Any construction?

It doesn’t sound like the culprit but trying to cover the bases... I’m at a loss

No, no one was even home.

 

[Bentonb]

That looks like the algae I get when I let my phosphates bottom out. Like a literal 0ppb. I would be you have the same, but completely unrelated.

The only thing I can think of that would take down that many fish that fast would be velvet.

@4FordFamily any other disease related questions you can think of?

I can't say I'm familiar with symptoms of velvet, but all of the fish came from the same ultimate source and are shipped with the yellow antibiotic water. If that matters.

 

[Denisk]

Can’t help to why your fish are dying so quickly however I would recommend not buying anymore for a little bit. I would take it a little slower. It appears you aren’t quarantining your fish and are putting them into a stressed environment as your algae looks like Dino which can be toxic to fish, cuc, and corals. I’m not saying that’s the corporate but I would look into it. It definitely would not help the situation. Best of luck!

 

[Bentonb]

Can’t help to why your fish are dying so quickly however I would recommend not buying anymore for a little bit. I would take it a little slower. It appears you aren’t quarantining your fish and are putting them into a stressed environment as your algae looks like Dino which can be toxic to fish, cuc, and corals. I’m not saying that’s the corporate but I would look into it. It definitely would not help the situation. Best of luck!

Not quarentining, don't have a separate system. I don't plan on adding anything until the algae is gone. Also going to try to remove the Falco hawk.

 

[Neighhoma]

I agree. Remove the falco. Do a large water change and retest. If all parameters are fine, then add 1 fish like a clown. Monitor for a few weeks and then add another.

Just an observation, your nitrates are quite low for the amount of fish you added. Are you exporting via macro algae or pellets? If not, you could be getting ammonia spikes with fast fish additions. That could also cause fish to die.

 

[Bentonb]

I agree. Remove the falco. Do a large water change and retest. If all parameters are fine, then add 1 fish like a clown. Monitor for a few weeks and then add another.

Just an observation, your nitrates are quite low for the amount of fish you added. Are you exporting via macro algae or pellets? If not, you could be getting ammonia spikes with fast fish additions. That could also cause fish to die.

It was a slow addition, the only not so slow additions were adding the clown pair, then one died. Then I added the small tang and another clown. Never more than 2 fish at once. Is that still considered quickly?
I've ordered some neophos in order to get phosphates up, aka trying to fight the dinos.

 

[uutank]

This. Sucks.
Pre-story stock list-
Falco Hawk
Tri Color wrasse
Starry Blenny
Various Corals (not affected by this story)
CUC consisting of hermits and snails
a Not doing so hot acid rain nem

Story starts beginning of last week when I picked up a pair of Thunder Maroons at the LFS, I put them in a breeding box to acclimate them to each other and the tank mates. Took them out after a day of one severely beating up on the other. Lost the beta thunder maroon 2 days later. Wrote it off as a casualty of clown pairing.
Algae has been an issue the past couple of weeks, so decided to order a tiny yellow tang, pincushion urchin and a gold strip maroon (to replace the lost thunder), from saltwaterfish.com they all showed up healthy and did fine when I acclimated them and added them Tuesday.
Woke up this morning to both clowns dead. One was stuck to my MP10 the other stuck to the overflow teeth. Also the starry blenny was MIA.
Went to work and blamed the Falco hawk as the tail from the gold striped maroon (the one stuck to the overflow teeth (which is how I found the first thunder maroon) was missing almost all of its tailfin). Came home and found the tri colored wrasse had jumped, and the yellow tang was stuck to the mp10, but not tore up like the clowns. Starry blenny still MIA.
Tested my water and everything checks out.
pH-8.2
Nitrates, 0-5ppm
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Salinity - 1.023 (swings a bit with evaporation, but never below 1.022)

Could the falco hawk have killed everything? obviously the wrasse died via carpet surfing, but could the hawk have pestered it into jumping? The hawk won't let hermits live past a week, so I feel like I'm constantly replenishing those. Also he nips at new fish, but never nipped at the wrasse or the tang.

I'm at a loss, I lost a couple fish a month ago due to an ammonia spike. The corals are doing just fine, apart from the algae. Could use some advice for that too if you wouldn't mind.

Something exactly similar happened to me almost a month ago. Evansi anthias was acting weird, gone thin and weak in just an evening. Fed rest of my fishes at night, all were doing fine.
Boom next morning I woke up to sea of dead. Fishes falling left right and centre. Only 2 fishes survived one clown and a sand sifter goby. The goby was completely unaffected and hence I left her in tank only. But the clown was breathing heavily, I quickly took it out of tank and started a copper dose on her, fearing a velvet outbreak. Dead body of firefish was found after two days, my hammer was munching on her and had eaten almost whole of its torso.
I could attribute the loss to only nearby construction and varnishing.

 

[4FordFamily]

If you’re not quarantining infections and/or velvet are likely your culprit.

Any hiding from light? Redness? Deteriorating fins (noticed this in your text), reclusive behavior? Spots? Disclosing? Dusting appearance? Swimming in to powerheads? Swimming up towards the top of the tank? Heavy/fast breathing?

 

[NeuroticAquatics]

My guess is Velvet, simply due to the quick deaths and that it’s not always as easy to spot as something like Ich. In my experience, it kills quick. I’ve heard Falco Hawks can be nasty but it seems odd that it is killing everything if you don’t observe it being aggressive all the time.

For what it’s worth...since you are from Redlands, I would not buy online. I’d buy from your local store since he seems to get pretty healthy fish and does an attempt at treating fish (although I disagree with his “my fish don’t need to be quarantined” sales pitch).

I’d pull the hawk, let the system go fallow and kind of do a reboot.

I’m sad to hear about your loses but I’ve learned my lesson and I now QT and treat everything, no matter what.

 

[Billldg]

Agree with @4FordFamily , not quarantining is possibly the culprit, I know it can be costly and a pain, but QT'ing fish is worth it in the long run when u start to stock your tank. Good luck.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

From the pics it looks like you might have some dinoflagellates to me... strings of brown snot with bubbles? Lots of threads on here about it, something to look into. I believe some forms of dinos can release toxins. Anyone feel free to correct me.

 

[Mombo]

Seems like you're adding in fish pretty quickly when you do add them. How long has the tank been running? Is it a 45 gallon? Why the lower salinity?

 

[Bentonb]

Agree with @4FordFamily , not quarantining is possibly the culprit, I know it can be costly and a pain, but QT'ing fish is worth it in the long run when u start to stock your tank. Good luck.

Wouldn't velvet have killed the Falco hawk?

 

[Bentonb]

Seems like you're adding in fish pretty quickly when you do add them. How long has the tank been running? Is it a 45 gallon? Why the lower salinity?

Almost 10 weeks, and it's a 45g total volume aio with a ~40g display. Salinity doesn't swing more than. 002 points, I have an aio, but also a skimmer. So salt comes out and fresh goes in, I top off with salt every now and then in order to keep salinity up.