Majority of Fish Died Overnight

[EliMelly]

Well, I’m currently in pretty much tears. Overnight my Achilles, yellow tang, Wantanabe Angel, flame angel, fire shrimp and others all died.

They were all breathing heavily last night and I sat there knowing there was nothing I could do at 11:00 PM on such short notice and it may be the last time I would see those fish. I’ve had a lot of those fish since I’ve started the hobby and feel heartbroken right now.

Anyone have any suggestions for next steps? My clowns still seem to be ok, hippo tang is hiding, firefish, hawkfish, eel, and my wrasses are hiding so I’m not sure…

Wow what a crappy way to start the day.

Quitting isn’t an option as I just upgraded to a 200 gallon but what a kick in the face.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

EliMelly Welcome to the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Forum!

The #fishmedic team and other knowledgeable members of our community will do our best to help you resolve your questions. Please provide as much of the following as you are able:

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)
• Current water quality measurements
• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

If you can help us by providing as much of the above info as possible, it will make diagnosing and providing recommendations for treatment MUCH easier! The Fish Medic team will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, other members of our community may also share their experience with similar situations and advice that they may have regarding your situation.

You may also feel free to provide a more detailed description of the condition if you wish to share more info than the above list.

Additionally, these links may be useful while you await a response:

• CURRENT QT PROTOCOL LINK
• HOW TO ASK FOR DISEASE DIAGNOSIS HELP LINK

 

[brandon429]

what is your disease prevention protocol

did you stock fish first, then corals to build up the tank/what's the details on disease controls beyond qt. curious if there were any entry pathways for pathogens in the buildup order etc/ reason asking: to learn preventatives by studying post patterns.

 

[EliMelly]

what is your disease prevention protocol

did you stock fish first, then corals to build up the tank/what's the details on disease controls beyond qt. curious if there were any entry pathways for pathogens in the buildup order etc/ reason asking: to learn preventatives by studying post patterns.

So originally I started with QT only, but had an ich outbreak when adding in a conditioned fish. I was new to the hobby and made the mistake. I after fed live worms etc and worked on building fish immunity.

Fast forward a year, I got a new tank and added an Achilles that I bought on reef 2 reef. Tang looked great in person and first week but then developed ich. I’ve had a small outbreak in the tank but none of the fish other than the Achilles have shown any major signs.

Last night alarms went off in my head as all of the sudden all the fish were breathing really quickly.

I realized it was late at night and I didn’t have a treatment tank ready or the necessary supplies so I sat in front of my tank hoping for the best but knowing it may be the last time I see the fish.

 

[EliMelly]

what is your disease prevention protocol

did you stock fish first, then corals to build up the tank/what's the details on disease controls beyond qt. curious if there were any entry pathways for pathogens in the buildup order etc/ reason asking: to learn preventatives by studying post patterns.

I did fish before corals in both tanks.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Unfortunately, I have no answers, but I DO empathize. Same thing happened to me years ago. Everything went in a matter of a couple of days. I never figured it out. I'm very sorry this happened to you.

 

[EliMelly]

Unfortunately, I have no answers, but I DO empathize. Same thing happened to me years ago. Everything went in a matter of a couple of days. I never figured it out. I'm very sorry this happened to you.

Thank you I appreciate it.

 

[Sharkbait19]

How are the current fish acting?
If shrimp and other inverts died, you can generally rule out fish diseases. I’d be looking more at an environmental issue.
Any power outages? Is all equipment running properly? Any contaminants?

 

[brandon429]

that is a good first go attempt on qt efforts. there's so many different entry points for disease it's truly I think the top challenge in reefing, keeping disease at bay or maintained/not killing fish. bringing in wet items repeatedly as we stock up the tank with corals, CUC makes keeping biosecurity a challenge, I read that here

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

something's really changed lately in reefing. in 2006 disease issues were not like this, permeating every trophic level of the hobby

 

[EliMelly]

How are the current fish acting?
If shrimp and other inverts died, you can generally rule out fish diseases. I’d be looking more at an environmental issue.
Any power outages? Is all equipment running properly? Any contaminants?

No outage, all equipment seems to be fine, what would a contaminant be?

 

[EliMelly]

that is a good first go attempt on qt efforts. there's so many different entry points for disease it's truly I think the top challenge in reefing, keeping disease at bay or maintained/not killing fish. bringing in wet items repeatedly as we stock up the tank with corals, CUC makes keeping biosecurity a challenge, I read that here

Biosecurity

A short introduction to aquarium biosecurity

www.reef2reef.com

I appreciate it. Feels like a big failure.

 

[Troylee]

Sounds like low 02 levels… I don’t think it was a disease if they all went that fast at the same time.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Well, I’m currently in pretty much tears. Overnight my Achilles, yellow tang, Wantanabe Angel, flame angel, fire shrimp and others all died.

They were all breathing heavily last night and I sat there knowing there was nothing I could do at 11:00 PM on such short notice and it may be the last time I would see those fish. I’ve had a lot of those fish since I’ve started the hobby and feel heartbroken right now.

Anyone have any suggestions for next steps? My clowns still seem to be ok, hippo tang is hiding, firefish, hawkfish, eel, and my wrasses are hiding so I’m not sure…

Wow what a crappy way to start the day.

Quitting isn’t an option as I just upgraded to a 200 gallon but what a kick in the face.

Wow! So very sorry to read this. I am sure you already know this, but the medical crew on here will need as much info as possible to help determine what may have happened. What are all of your parameters? What was the last thing added to the tank? Is all of your equipment running properly? is there enough surface agitation for oxygen exchange? Has anything been sprayed in the room recently that may have entered the tank? I know this is devastating, but in order to help you prevent in the future, everyone here will be very willing to help, they just need a lot more info.

 

[EliMelly]

Sounds like low 02 levels… I don’t think it was a disease if they all went that fast at the same time.

Makes sense I was planning on buying an airstone today. Would a skimmer help with that in the future? How can I prevent it from happening again?

 

[EliMelly]

Wow! So very sorry to read this. I am sure you already know this, but the medical crew on here will need as much info as possible to help determine what may have happened. What are all of your parameters? What was the last thing added to the tank? Is all of your equipment running properly? is there enough surface agitation for oxygen exchange? Has anything been sprayed in the room recently that may have entered the tank? I know this is devastating, but in order to help you prevent in the future, everyone here will be very willing to help, they just need a lot more info.

I haven’t tested Alk, Mg, and Calcium due to it being a new tank and not adding in corals yet.

Ammonia was at 0, strangely last night nitrates read 0 which didn’t make sense to me.

The surface agitation looked off to me I am not sure what caused it but didn’t seem like a lot of movement.

Last fish added was an Achilles about a month ago who was battling ich.

 

[Troylee]

Makes sense I was planning on buying an airstone today. Would a skimmer help with that in the future? How can I prevent it from happening again?

Skimmer would help tremendously… just general water movement over all and breaking the surface of the water at the top of the tank helps.. what do you have for flow in the tank?

 

[EliMelly]

Skimmer would help tremendously… just general water movement over all and breaking the surface of the water at the top of the tank helps.. what do you have for flow in the tank?

Two MP40s. I didn’t set the skimmer up yet because I was waiting for a new controller.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Likely not the case but things to consider on head scratcher fish deaths:

Non disease deaths could include palytoxin poisoning if you have any ugly brown/green palythoa (not larger polyps zoanthids often called palys) or lanthanum chloride dosing to reduce phosphates. Lack of O2 if you have a bad bacterial bloom over night (cloudy water).

 

[EliMelly]

Likely not the case but things to consider on head scratcher fish deaths:

Non disease deaths could include palytoxin poisoning if you have any ugly brown/green palythoa (not larger polyps zoanthids often called palys) or lanthanum chloride dosing to reduce phosphates. Lack of O2 if you have a bad bacterial bloom over night (cloudy water).

The water isn’t cloudy, I didn’t add a thing to reduce phosphates.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Air stone before skimmer for water movement as skimmer will remove inorganics increasing dissolved oxygen
As stated before, quarantine all fish and leave display fishless to allow protozoans to die off without a host and I suggest getting an Icp test done during the fallow period
It appears problems began with new introduction and ultimately all fish need to be treated
Therapeutic level 2.3 for a full 30 days with added aeration and monitoring of ammonia with a reliable test kit. Hanna copper test kit for copper