Mass fish death?

RJKain-777 · Nov 13, 2020

Hey guys, recently we moved, I kept half the water and then made new water, everything was fine for the first week or 2 then my powder blue, bicolor blenny, orchid dotty back all died. Today my lavender tang, sohal tang, clown fish, wrasse and chromis all died within hours of eachother.

I’m not personally home to visually inspect the fish, but my wife said they were all fine last night when she went to bed, and they all ate this morning. No signs of Ich or velvet or any discolouration of the body either.
What could have killed all my fish?

JasonK84 · Nov 13, 2020

Anything different about the setup post move? List full set a params for people to help there. Any possible contaminant. Air freshnwer, etc. how long ago was the move. How long was rock and sand out of water? Ammonia? Also, you say no signs of parasite but do you QT? Did the fish vacation anywhere while tank was being moved?

JasonK84 · Nov 13, 2020

@Jay Hemdal @4FordFamily @HotRocks

RJKain-777 · Nov 13, 2020

JasonK84 said:
Anything different about the setup post move? List full set a params for people to help there. Any possible contaminant. Air freshnwer, etc. how long ago was the move. How long was rock and sand out of water? Ammonia? Also, you say no signs of parasite but do you QT? Did the fish vacation anywhere while tank was being moved?

to be honest I didn’t test the water after the move other then salinity .
Tank was moved October 27th
Rock never left the water , was moved in a 45 gallon brute can.
the sand was still in water as well, left it in the bottom of the tank with about an inch of water.
The move was 5 minutes (one side of town tot he other) and tank was reset back up within a few hours.
no I don’t QT, that’s why I’m asking what possible things could cause this. There’s no signs of ich or velvet on the fish.

Jseimo · Nov 13, 2020

First off I’m sorry for your loss. I’d probably guess if you reused the sand you unlocked pockets of ammonia in the tank making it toxic

tylr9m482 · Nov 13, 2020

Jseimo said:
First off I’m sorry for your loss. I’d probably guess if you reused the sand you unlocked pockets of ammonia in the tank making it toxic

My guess would also be the sand stirred up during the move and caused your issues. I'm getting ready to move myself and will be ditching all my current sand, already have my new bags of live sand waiting to replace it with. But at the end of the day it could have been anything really..

Jay Hemdal · Nov 13, 2020

Given the time frame, I would say you should test for ammonia. The fish loss isn't likely to be directly related to the stress of the move, but it is within the time that ammonia could have peaked. You said you used half old water - but the water contains very few beneficial bacteria. Did you move any live rock and/or filter media to the new tank? If so, then ammonia is less likely, but if not, that could be it. Other than that, as others said, look for external poisoning issues. Does you tank have any invertebrates in it? If so, and if they are fine, then poisoning overall becomes less likely and a fish disease would be a strong possibility.

Jay

RJKain-777 · Nov 13, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Given the time frame, I would say you should test for ammonia. The fish loss isn't likely to be directly related to the stress of the move, but it is within the time that ammonia could have peaked. You said you used half old water - but the water contains very few beneficial bacteria. Did you move any live rock and/or filter media to the new tank? If so, then ammonia is less likely, but if not, that could be it. Other than that, as others said, look for external poisoning issues. Does you tank have any invertebrates in it? If so, and if they are fine, then poisoning overall becomes less likely and a fish disease would be a strong possibility.

Jay

All my rock came with it, 100lbs of rock that’s been love for 5+ years.

I did notice my turbo snails dead but my astrea and hermits were fine.

JasonK84 · Nov 13, 2020

I’m leaning towards ammonia. Dose prime to save everyone remaining and get a very large water change going. Remove anything dead you can find. Sniff your snails.

RJKain-777 · Nov 13, 2020

JasonK84 said:
I’m leaning towards ammonia. Dose prime to save everyone remaining and get a very large water change going. Remove anything dead you can find. Sniff your snails.

Thanks , I will do that

Jay Hemdal · Nov 13, 2020

RJKain-777 said:
All my rock came with it, 100lbs of rock that’s been love for 5+ years.

I did notice my turbo snails dead but my astrea and hermits were fine.

Less likely to be ammonia then. Some inverts dying along with the fish tends to rule out fish disease, so we are back to some unknown poisoning issue. I think the moving of the tank is a red herring - not related at all. Trouble is, that will take a bit of sleuthing on your part, since it could be any number of things. For example, 50 years ago, my little sister dumped some pennies in my tank. Afraid I'd get mad, she covered them with the gravel. I didn't find out about it until I tore the tank down months later in frustration because it killed every fish I put in it....

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Nov 13, 2020

On the New water- was it RODI or tap water from the sink?
If RO, what is the TDS of the new water?
Can you give us the most recent readings:
Ammonia
Nitrate
PH
salinity

Have you cheacked for stray voltage ( putting hand in water, you would feel a sting)

RJKain-777 · Nov 13, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
On the New water- was it RODI or tap water from the sink?
If RO, what is the TDS of the new water?
Can you give us the most recent readings:
Ammonia
Nitrate
PH
salinity

Have you cheacked for stray voltage ( putting hand in water, you would feel a sting)