Something killed all my fish?

[exalectric]

Did the packaging ever come into contact with the DT water?

Yes, but they were all floated in the 40gallon tank before we opened and transferred them. A ball of chaeto was in the 75g before release. But not in the biocube. Although just from handling the bags and opening them and touching the CUC could have transferred something but it would be a small quantity so id think it would have to be something pretty lethal?

 

[ReefPiracy]

Take a dying coral from a failed system and place that coral into another. That dying coral can chase that next system to failed as well. Depends on what state.

 

[exalectric]

Take a dying coral from a failed system and place that coral into another. That dying coral can chase that next system to failed as well. Depends on what state.

There aren’t any corals in the 75g. It’s a fish only system.

 

[MarkDarnell]

I just received a 120gal standard snail only crew from RC, put it in yesterday morning. Zero issues observed at this point. Will update if anything happens, but I have always purchased from Jeff with zero issues.

 

[mike550]

@exalectric sorry to hear what happened to you.

But in hindsight I had a CuC order from reef cleaners and soon afterwards I lost several fish as well. I remember one bag smelling a bit “funky” but as a newbie I didn’t think much of it and most of the snails seemed okay. So maybe there is a connection?

I never thought to quarantine a CuC but maybe now I should be. Or at least buying more locally.

 

[exalectric]

@exalectric sorry to hear what happened to you.

But in hindsight I had a CuC order from reef cleaners and soon afterwards I lost several fish as well. I remember one bag smelling a bit “funky” but as a newbie I didn’t think much of it and most of the snails seemed okay. So maybe there is a connection?

I never thought to quarantine a CuC but maybe now I should be. Or at least buying more locally.

Maybe. There could be some connection that my tanks are relatively small water volume to many others systems, so it just was more dramatic loss. I wouldn’t have questioned it either if we lost one or two fish. But they’re all gone within 72hours which makes me think something catastrophic got into the water. Especially since the biocube was the first to show signs and lose fish, probably means whatever it is was more concentrated in there and it took longer the affect the fish in the bigger tanks. We lost the last clownfish and cardinal this morning, 3 days after adding cleaners.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. It can be so frustrating to not know what happened and why to our animals. I could not begin to guess what happened without witnessing everything myself. I hope you can recover and move on.

I will say, I had a shipment from Reef Cleaners and it got delayed by the post for 4 days. All snails came in dead (caveat): These were Turbos, so you can imagine the smell. I tried to acclimate the ones that may have been alive (they were very suspect, but I did anyway. Had hopes for like three of them.). Put in sump and DT for about 24hrs. They were dead and I took them out immediately. No issues with any current livestock though.

The scarlet hermits all survived and are in the system with no issues. Good luck to you!

 

[brandon429]

In my opinion we cannot rule out a cross contamination event six weeks ago, manifesting as a brook wipeout or some internal issue coincidental to the new clean up crew

adding anything wet from another reef six weeks ago can be ruled in as a potential source of the issue

 

[Dbichler]

Only common thing between tanks with dead fish is bag contact with dt water. Something was on the bags. Zero other explanations. In my opinion. If it were in the air all of your tanks would have been effected. Disease would have been in one tank only if you qt and it slipped through.

 

[Rmckoy]

How was the acclimation from their bag to your tank preformed?

-never add their bags to float in your tank
-Never add their water to your system ,
-Observe their fish for min 1 week prior to buying .

 

[exalectric]

How was the acclimation from their bag to your tank preformed?

-never add their bags to float in your tank
-Never add their water to your system ,
-Observe their fish for min 1 week prior to buying .

So it seems the potential issue is: we floated their bags (closed still) in our tank for a bit.

Other than that, we added all the CUC to large gallon bags, added fresh mixed salt water (since they ship with basically no water and just damp paper towels) and sealed and floated those. Then carefully picked out each snail and hermit checking for dead ones and put them into our tanks.

 

[Rmckoy]

So it seems the potential issue is: we floated their bags (closed still) in our tank for a bit.

Other than that, we added all the CUC to large gallon bags, added fresh mixed salt water (since they ship with basically no water and just damp paper towels) and sealed and floated those. Then carefully picked out each snail and hermit checking for dead ones and put them into our tanks.

Fresh mixed salt to their bags ?
I’m not sure how long they were in the bags, of if they expel ammonia in the same way as fish ,
The longer they are in bags , the ammonia is toxic but once opened ..
I can’t remember exactly how that works , I’d have to read again .

my typical acclimation process is dump livestock and their water into a large bucket ,
And slowly dripping my tank water
With covid stuff happening , I can see sanitizer being on the bags, but in such small amounts can’t see that contaminating the tank enough to wipe everything out that fast .


Did you test parameters between their water and yours ?

test for copper ?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Really seems unlikely it was the snails or bags. We may never know.

Do you scrub the snails with toothbrush prior to adding ever? I started doing this when I got pyramid snails. But, I also have a tank I keep new cuc in before adding to DT. Usually. I did not for that order as they do not carry fish and I really needed them for hair algae. Did not work out anyway.

 

[exalectric]

Fresh mixed salt to their bags ?
I’m not sure how long they were in the bags, of if they expel ammonia in the same way as fish ,
The longer they are in bags , the ammonia is toxic but once opened ..
I can’t remember exactly how that works , I’d have to read again .

my typical acclimation process is dump livestock and their water into a large bucket ,
And slowly dripping my tank water
With covid stuff happening , I can see sanitizer being on the bags, but in such small amounts can’t see that contaminating the tank enough to wipe everything out that fast .


Did you test parameters between their water and yours ?

test for copper ?

The reef cleaners acclimation process specifically says don’t drip acclimate which is why we just popped them into new water. But I don’t think any of their water got into our tanks unless it was what few drops transfer on/in shells.
And no unfortunately we didn’t test their bag water at all.
I don’t think it was copper because the corals In the 40g and biocube are fine.

 

[Rmckoy]

The reef cleaners acclimation process specifically says don’t drip acclimate which is why we just popped them into new water. But I don’t think any of their water got into our tanks unless it was what few drops transfer on/in shells.
And no unfortunately we didn’t test their bag water at all.
I don’t think it was copper because the corals In the 40g and biocube are fine.

So weird …..
but I’m sure there is a simple explanation
Is it possible there is a predator that was introduced as a hitchhiker such as a mantis ?

 

[Hydrored]

It seems unlikely to be airborne, because the other tanks in the same areas are fine, as well as all the freshwater tanks that don’t have lids on them at all.

Also it appears the snails and hermits are all fine. But we did lose the coral banded shrimp in the 40g and a peppermint shrimp in the small tank. I haven’t been able to find the emerald crabs but we rarely see them anyways.

With losing inverts my guess is still some sort of contaminants

 

[brandon429]

Read this carbon copy thread reefcleaners cuc and fish loss

All my fish died in 24 hours

Well here’s the deal I have about 5 tanks and I recently ordered snails and hermits and some other inverts from reef cleaners and I put them in 3 of my tanks and within 48 hours all my fish have died in those 3 tanks and the tanks, I didn’t put any in all those fish are fine and I have only had...

www.reef2reef.com

@exalectric are you the same poster as that poster

 

[exalectric]

Read this carbon copy thread reefcleaners cuc and fish loss

All my fish died in 24 hours

Well here’s the deal I have about 5 tanks and I recently ordered snails and hermits and some other inverts from reef cleaners and I put them in 3 of my tanks and within 48 hours all my fish have died in those 3 tanks and the tanks, I didn’t put any in all those fish are fine and I have only had...

www.reef2reef.com

@exalectric are you the same poster as that poster

That is indeed the grumpy husband creature. Why he’s ranting on r2r in the middle of the night, I don’t know because I’ve literally sent him this thread.

 

[brandon429]

It’s totally ok


getting second opinions from another forum is ok / people do that on cycling posts all day long not a prob at all.
I would be interested to see what other forums think and how they troubleshoot the event. Patterns that result from all the collection will be best indication