Something slowly killing my tank

[laurendonatella]

Good morning everyone and happy holidays – I’m really hoping you all can help me figure this out.
I am in the process of watching my second fish in three months die. The first fish I lost was a beautiful banana wrasse and he went from eating and swimming like normal to not eating, complete loss of color, laying on the sand bed, and dying within 48 hours. Seemed to be triggered by stress from me adding a trigger fish a few days before (the wrasse had been used to being the top dog in the tank). My second fish that I am currently watching and who is not doing well as a one spot fox face. He has gone from swimming and eating like normal, to not eating and a complete loss of color, to laying on the sand bed within 24 hours and now it is not looking good for him. All other fish seem to be doing just fine and I haven’t had any other losses. At first I thought my wrasse had a parasite and I treated my reef tank two rounds of Prazi pro but lost the wrasse nonetheless. And at that point, no one else had any symptoms and it’s been a good three months since that loss so I figured whatever happened was specific to the wrasse. But not I see the exact same symptoms in my fox face. Whatever this is, it doesn’t seem to be taking over the whole tank unless that one fish is stressed, but when it overtakes their immune system, they go down hill and ultimately die within 24-48 hours.

please help- really want to figure out what this thing is so I can effectively treat it!

thank you!

 

[Fishy212]

Trying to think outside the box,
Besides asking about your tank, age, parameters etc, did your wrasse or foxface have cloudy eyes? If you say nothing else in your tank is showing any signs, it does not sound like any of the diseases I have researched. Let us know what else you have in your DT.

 

[Reefpuck]

Giving more details about your tank/water parameters/etc would be helpful.

 

[laurendonatella]

Trying to think outside the box,
Besides asking about your tank, age, parameters etc, did your wrasse or foxface have cloudy eyes? If you say nothing else in your tank is showing any signs, it does not sound like any of the diseases I have researched. Let us know what else you have in your DT.

Wrasse did have cloudy eyes and was also yawning a lot at the end. My fox face maybe has slightly cloudy eyes but haven’t seen any yawning in him.

 

[laurendonatella]

Wrasse did have cloudy eyes and was also yawning a lot at the end. My fox face maybe has slightly cloudy eyes but haven’t seen any yawning in him.

Sorry and tank is about 9 months old and these are the only two losses the tank has had.

 

[Sashaka]

Did you quarantine or prophetically treat your fish before putting them in the tank? My guess is some parasite is hiding in the gills or stomach because of the yawning. It may even be low oxygen levels in the water causing the yawning and then secondary infections causing the sudden deaths.

Maybe #ReefSquad can add some direction?

 

[laurendonatella]

Yep- QT everything for 8-12 weeks before it goes in the DT. I treat everything prophylactically with Prazi pro but no other meds unless I see signs of something during QT.

 

[Terry Mattson]

You could try moving foxface to Quarenteen and treat with something mild like paraguard. Maybe it is stress in the tank but could also be just his time. What are your water parameters? SG, Cal, dkh, po4, ammonia, temp, PH, nitrates, and what other fish, invertebrates and corals you have?

 

[Uncle99]

Based on your description, I might suspect parasite, any treatment in DT for parasites does not work.
Is there a pic?

 

[raketemensch]

What's your ammonia level right now?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Cloudy eyes indicate bacterial infection as a secondary symptom, but definitely could be parasites or disease as primary.

Fish Diseases 101

Fish Diseases 101 The purpose of this article is to provide a quick reference for identifying both “Common Diseases” and “Not So Common Diseases” afflicting saltwater fish. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but should cover the vast majority of fish diseases encountered by the average...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[laurendonatella]

Based on your description, I might suspect parasite, any treatment in DT for parasites does not work.
Is there a pic?

Ammonia is 0. Just tested it yesterday and all other fish are ok

 

[laurendonatella]

.

 

[laurendonatella]

What's your ammonia level right now?

Ammonia is 0

 

[laurendonatella]

Based on your description, I might suspect parasite, any treatment in DT for parasites does not work.
Is there a pic?

Unfortunately my fox face died yesterday. Wouldn’t prazipro work for parasites? Is there something else I should try in QT? I’m thinking I should remove my fish and treat so whatever this is doesn’t impact my other fish.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Can you get some pictures of the other fish and post them. May help us.

 

[Greatdane]

Ammonia is 0

What test kit are you using

 

[brandon429]

Also was curious if you completed fallow phase before fish, and haven't added any items that didn't pass through a separate fallow tank to keep up input control. I think those details matter in helping diagnostics for current fish

 

[Sashaka]

Unfortunately my fox face died yesterday. Wouldn’t prazipro work for parasites? Is there something else I should try in QT? I’m thinking I should remove my fish and treat so whatever this is doesn’t impact my other fish.

I'm very sorry for your loss. It's never easy losing a fish we've invested our time, energy, and given our love to.
Another link to help you chose meds posted by @Humblefish : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/treatment-options-index.247573/

Prazipro works well most of the time, but there are resistant flukes so alternate meds should be used when Prazi does not do the trick; however, I'm leaning towards a secondary bacterial infection from the damage left by the fluke's as the likely cause of your loses. If a freshwater dip on the remaining fish in the tank shows signs of flukes, change the meds and medicate again for flukes. If a freshwater dip does not show any new signs of flukes on other fish in the tank, than it's likely the fish need to heal from the wounds left by the flukes the Prazipro dislodged. If they were my fish, I'd medicate with antibiotics, feed garlic and vitamin soaked food to build up the immune system and if you can get some probiotics, I'd add them to the tank as well to help boost the immune systems of the remaining fish. Good luck! Keep us posted.

 

[laurendonatella]

Extremely helpful- thank you so much and will do!