Sudden fish deaths

[ReefSTX]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on Reef2Reef. Unfortunately it is due to several mysterious fish deaths that have recently occurred in my reef.

System Information;

• 100 gallon cube (36x36x18)
• 40 gallon sump
• 60 lbs of live rock (mixed CaribSea Shapes/purple live rock)
  
• 60 lbs live sand (CaribSea Oolite)

System Parameters

• Alkalinity: 8.3 - 8.6 dkh
• Calcium:450 - 470
• Magnesium: 1400

Chemistry maintained via Geo 618 calcium reactor, and BRS kalkwasser through ATO.

Nitrate and phosphates near zero. Using cheato in refugium and GFO passively in mesh bag.
PH: 8 - 8.2
Temperature: 78 - 79F

System has been running for 1 year. Reef inhabitants include(d):

(2) Yellow tangs
(1) Purple tang
(1) Blue tang
(1) Coral beauty
(1) Sixline wrasse
(1) Melanarus wrasse
(5) Chromis

Within this past week I have lost 1 yellow tang, the coral beauty, sixline wrasse, and 2 chromis. Total of (5) fish deaths within the past week.

The first two deaths I did not notice any symptoms. By the time I began losing the chromis and wrasse I noticed rapid breathing and chromis near water surface. I added an airstone and tried to observe signs of velvet/ich. Did not see anything to elude to this. Today before the lights came on, all my fish were breathing rapidly so I decided to take them all out at the expense of tearing down the rock work in hopes of treating whatever this may be. I don't see any signs of parasites at least not visible to my eye on their exterior, I am left with what I do know which is rapid breathing and the fish slowly dying off. Tested my ph and it's been hovering around 8. Any ideas on what this could be?? Any and all help is greatly appreciated! I am worried I may end up losing all my fish and worst of all not know what is afflicting them to the point of death

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Was anything new added lately? Do you quarantine your fish?

 

[ReefSTX]

I do not QT any fish, I used to QT but never felt the need. Only recent change was the calcium reactor, but my ph seems steady at 8. I also have the effluent line going into the fuge to make sure co2 is scrubbed off as much as possible before entering the display... not sure what else it could be.

No new additions, all these guys (fish) have been in here for 1yr, newest additions have been in for about 6mos now.

 

[ReefSTX]

Could my ph really be too low?? I am seeing 8. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what this could be?

 

[Big G]

A simple first step would be to give your fish a freshwater dip to check for flukes. Just be mindful that the fw dip works the best on exterior flukes; flukes inside the gills will be affected by the fw dip but not as dramatically as skin flukes.
Use a dark bucket/container. It's a lot easier to spot the fluke bodies than with a light colored container.

 

[ReefSTX]

A simple first step would be to give your fish a freshwater dip to check for flukes. Just be mindful that the fw dip works the best on exterior flukes; flukes inside the gills will be affected by the fw dip but not as dramatically as skin flukes.
Use a dark bucket/container. It's a lot easier to spot the fluke bodies than with a light colored container.

Thanks Big G! I have prepared a dark blue bucket from Lowes to perform the dip.

 

[cmcoker]

Was anything wet added recently? You response about new additions seemed to only mention fish, but have you added new snails, rock, coral, etc lately?

Freshwater dip can also give some relief for velvet, which it sounds like to me based on short time of symptoms and multiple fish deaths..

 

[HotRocks]

pH shouldn't have anything to do with it. My fish in my acro tank are exposed to pH as low as 7.8 and as high as 8.4 as I play with things like a carbon dioxide scrubber etc.

Have you recently added any corals or rock? With the chromis, I would suspect Uronema.

 

[ReefSTX]

Was anything wet added recently? You response about new additions seemed to only mention fish, but have you added new snails, rock, coral, etc lately?

Freshwater dip can also give some relief for velvet, which it sounds like to me based on short time of symptoms and multiple fish deaths..

That was my initial thought as well but having dealt with velvet and ich in the past, I did not observe any physical characteristics that would point to it. Haven't noticed any powered white/sugary dust like coating on any of the fish. They look spotless, but I will say that the rate at which I have lost my fish has been consistent with something akin to velvet. They have all passed within a day or two from the first death, which was a week ago.

pH shouldn't have anything to do with it. My fish in my acro tank are exposed to pH as low as 7.8 and as high as 8.4 as I play with things like a carbon dioxide scrubber etc.

Have you recently added any corals or rock? With the chromis, I would suspect Uronema.

I did recently add 4 acros to my tank. First thing I did before acclimating them was to give them a dip in Melafix, however not sure that does anything at all for fish disease(s) that my hitchhike on frag plugs or the coral themselves. Is that possible? I know disease can be transmitted through rock, sand, etc., but is it also carried by coral? Would be interesting to hear from any seasoned reefers on here.

Thanks for your responses guys, really appreciate the support.

I have since freshwater dipped, to no avail, perhaps this is flukes contained in the gills OR Uronema I will have to look into that next. Not familiar with it.

 

[ReefSTX]

Forgot to add.

Going back to PH, I also doubted this since I have my effluent going into my refugium and top off with kalk, annnd also have an airstone in the sump for added oxygen exchange at night. I currently run my fuge at the same time as my display lights are on, do you think there may be a significant drop in ph occurring before lights come back on in the morning? My LFS suggested running the fuge opposite the display. They also said I would have to test ph in the middle of the night when ph would likely be at its lowest to have a more real assessment of the ph drop, that is to say the value that may be adversely low if indeed true.

 

[Big G]

My LFS suggested running the fuge opposite the display.

Yep. Most-many do this

And yes, parasites in the encysted form can hitchhike on frags, especially hard corals according to Noga. I always cut off old plugs and replace with a fresh one and dip the corals in Bayer.

 

[ReefSTX]

Yep. Most-many do this

And yes, parasites in the encysted form can hitchhike on frags, especially hard corals according to Noga. I always cut off old plugs and replace with a fresh one and dip the corals in Bayer.

Goodness, I became too lazy haha! Man, well I have pulled out all my fish, not sure what their outcome will be but they are in QT. At least the RR Pink Floyd acro I got survived the chaos ;Joyful

 

[ReefSTX]

Sadly the fish are all gone. The last symptoms I observed in my purple tang was either the onset of HLLE, or somehow burns? The skin was akin to HLLE in random patches in his body. The rest of the fish only exhibited rapid breathing, and in their final stages erratic swimming. FUDGE!

 

[Big G]

Sorry for your losses

 

[ReefSTX]

Sorry for your losses

It was very tough watching all this happen while trying to figure out the cause. Thankfully, everyone who provided information and suggestions here got me thinking in the right direction. After speaking with a few local reefers, we likely determined a dirty source of co2 as the cause for fish mortality. I did not acquire my co2 from a food grade supplier. We think dirty co2 from a local industrial supply may have injected the reef with secondary gasses that are highly detrimental to reef environments (of course with all this death going around). Luckily the corals, clams, and inverts are not affected, at least as far as I can tell. It seems this only caused harm to my fish.

Lesson learned. Will not be doing that again.

Now, I plan on purging out the 5lb bottle of co2, dosing the rest of my 2 part until I find the correct food grade source of co2 and restart the calcium reactor. Note a high note for myself but information like this has to be shared so that other reefers do not make these mistakes.

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep this thread updated to confirm if indeed co2 source was the culprit.

 

[ello42]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on Reef2Reef. Unfortunately it is due to several mysterious fish deaths that have recently occurred in my reef.

System Information;

• 100 gallon cube (36x36x18)
• 40 gallon sump
• 60 lbs of live rock (mixed CaribSea Shapes/purple live rock)
  
• 60 lbs live sand (CaribSea Oolite)

System Parameters

• Alkalinity: 8.3 - 8.6 dkh
• Calcium:450 - 470
• Magnesium: 1400

Chemistry maintained via Geo 618 calcium reactor, and BRS kalkwasser through ATO.

Nitrate and phosphates near zero. Using cheato in refugium and GFO passively in mesh bag.
PH: 8 - 8.2
Temperature: 78 - 79F

System has been running for 1 year. Reef inhabitants include(d):

(2) Yellow tangs
(1) Purple tang
(1) Blue tang
(1) Coral beauty
(1) Sixline wrasse
(1) Melanarus wrasse
(5) Chromis

Within this past week I have lost 1 yellow tang, the coral beauty, sixline wrasse, and 2 chromis. Total of (5) fish deaths within the past week.

The first two deaths I did not notice any symptoms. By the time I began losing the chromis and wrasse I noticed rapid breathing and chromis near water surface. I added an airstone and tried to observe signs of velvet/ich. Did not see anything to elude to this. Today before the lights came on, all my fish were breathing rapidly so I decided to take them all out at the expense of tearing down the rock work in hopes of treating whatever this may be. I don't see any signs of parasites at least not visible to my eye on their exterior, I am left with what I do know which is rapid breathing and the fish slowly dying off. Tested my ph and it's been hovering around 8. Any ideas on what this could be?? Any and all help is greatly appreciated! I am worried I may end up losing all my fish and worst of all not know what is afflicting them to the point of death

Check your salinity

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Sorry for your loss. If its wet I qt it. That includes fish, coral, snail, shrimp, cheato...

 

[ReefSTX]

Check your salinity

Oh I did not post that.

Salinity is at 1.025, also had my LFS test this as well. They read 1.024, within range I would say. Salinity seems to be okay

 

[HotRocks]

Oh I did not post that.

Salinity is at 1.025, also had my LFS test this as well. They read 1.024, within range I would say. Salinity seems to be okay

Fish don't care anyway. They can handle a very wide range. Corals would show signs of stress at both the high and low end way before it became a fish problem.

 

[ReefSTX]

Sorry for your loss. If its wet I qt it. That includes fish, coral, snail, shrimp, cheato...

Thanks dude. It sucks.

Good practice. I may start QT'ing coral, I setup a small 20g frag AIO that was collecting dust in the garage yesterday (collecting dust in garage, and setup at the garage. How appropriate [emoji1] [emoji16]). Likely going to have that as my coral QT since it's a stand alone tank.