My fish keep dying, need urgent help please!

[malenia]

I have a very healthy pico 5g tank with a lot of coral and 2 clowns that have been thriving over the last 7 months. 2.5 months ago I setup a new 15g IM. After a couple weeks of cycling with bottled bacteria & a live blood red fire shrimp I added 3 anthias from my LFS (there was no detectable ammonia with my salifert kit). After 5 days, the fish became weak, and died. I waited another 3 weeks, added a couple snails, hermits and some coral, as well as 2 clowns. Same thing, after 1 week or so, they grew weak and inexplicably died. Waited 3 more weeks before adding another pair of clowns which again died after roughly 1 week. Any help is much appreciated!

Tank: IM 15 with dry rock from LFS
Light: Kessil a360x (ramp-up to 40% max from 9am to 9pm)
Flow: AI nero 5 at constant 15% strength
ATO: Tunze Osmolator

What lives:

1. Blood red fire shrimp very healthy and happy, seems to be growing a lot.
2. There are a large amount of small insect-like bugs running around the glass and the rock, they look like small white cockroaches
3. 2 hermits and 2 snails have been doing good for over a month
4. mushroom coral, a blastomussa, a nephtea, an octospawn (not too happy, I think my calcium and alk is a touch low) and a 3 kinds of zoa

What dies:

1. 3 anthias, 2 pairs of clowns
2. I lost 1 torch (probably from adding too early to a tank not mature enough & with low C and alk)
3. 3 zoas melted away

I attached a full icp analysis in PDF

ammonia:

tank pics:

 

[1112-425XL]

Bump

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ultimately, I think you’ll find this is a fish disease issue and quarantining your own fish or buying pre quarantined fish will reduce this issue.
I would not house three anthias in a 15 gallon tank though.
Jay

 

[ARGYGANG]

I have a very healthy pico 5g tank with a lot of coral and 2 clowns that have been thriving over the last 7 months. 2.5 months ago I setup a new 15g IM. After a couple weeks of cycling with bottled bacteria & a live blood red fire shrimp I added 3 anthias from my LFS (there was no detectable ammonia with my salifert kit). After 5 days, the fish became weak, and died. I waited another 3 weeks, added a couple snails, hermits and some coral, as well as 2 clowns. Same thing, after 1 week or so, they grew weak and inexplicably died. Waited 3 more weeks before adding another pair of clowns which again died after roughly 1 week. Any help is much appreciated!

Tank: IM 15 with dry rock from LFS
Light: Kessil a360x (ramp-up to 40% max from 9am to 9pm)
Flow: AI nero 5 at constant 15% strength
ATO: Tunze Osmolator

What lives:

1. Blood red fire shrimp very healthy and happy, seems to be growing a lot.
2. There are a large amount of small insect-like bugs running around the glass and the rock, they look like small white cockroaches
3. 2 hermits and 2 snails have been doing good for over a month
4. mushroom coral, a blastomussa, a nephtea, an octospawn (not too happy, I think my calcium and alk is a touch low) and a 3 kinds of zoa

What dies:

1. 3 anthias, 2 pairs of clowns
2. I lost 1 torch (probably from adding too early to a tank not mature enough & with low C and alk)
3. 3 zoas melted away

I attached a full icp analysis in PDF

ammonia:

tank pics:

are the fish behaving weird before dying? laying on their sides, swimming into wave makers or refusing to eat? if corals are happy id assume parasites are to blame

 

[malenia]

are the fish behaving weird before dying? laying on their sides, swimming into wave makers or refusing to eat? if corals are happy id assume parasites are to blame

They seem ok first 2-5 days, then they stop eating, start looking a bit grim and either float away or get so weak that they get stuck in the AIO intake/powerhead

 

[malenia]

Ultimately, I think you’ll find this is a fish disease issue and quarantining your own fish or buying pre quarantined fish will reduce this issue.
I would not house three anthias in a 15 gallon tank though.
Jay

thank you for the comments jay! fwiw I got the 2 pairs of clowns at 2 different LFS and they both suffered the same fate.. sigh. and yeah anthias on a 15g were a mistake on my part.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

a 15 gallon is way too small for 3 anthias. It’s important to check appropriate tank sizes for fish

 

[OrionN]

I think the anthias died due to tank size, and the stress associated with this.
The two pairs of clowns likely was just bad clowns and sick to begin with. Or else what kill the anthias still hanging around in your tank and infected and kill the newly added fish.

 

[j.falk]

I would not house three anthias in a 15 gallon tank though.

^ This.

 

[ARGYGANG]

They seem ok first 2-5 days, then they stop eating, start looking a bit grim and either float away or get so weak that they get stuck in the AIO intake/powerhead

So basically all you can really do right now from my experience is let your tank sit fishless for 8 weeks then QUARANTINE a new pair of clownfish.

 

[malenia]

So basically all you can really do right now from my experience is let your tank sit fishless for 8 weeks then QUARANTINE a new pair of clownfish.

appreciate the suggestion! I will try that

 

[malenia]

^ This.

yeah as I said before, it was my mistake, bit of both, bad research and poor advise from LFS

 

[Sharkbait19]

Did the anthias have any red marks on them? Tank size was an issue, but uronema could have been the killer.
How did the clowns act? I agree that the best course of action would be a 60 day fallow and a qt tank for future fish.