Unidentified Illness

[Kron Johnson]

Hello and thank you for your time.

i have a blue hippo tang, 2 black cap basslets and 2 Picasso clowns.
The blue hippo began flashing and rubbing himself against the rocks but I couldn’t find any other signs of illness. No spots. All other fish showed no odd behavior. I watched the blue hippo for a while- about 5 weeks. After several weeks I thought I might have seen some white spots on him but then other times I’d look and wouldn’t see much.

A local fish store recommended I use ruby reef rally and kick ich pro. I started using both of the products as recommended. By day 5 the blue hippo looked like he might be scratching less and was still eating well.
At night of day 5 one of my clowns was in the back left top corner near surface and didn’t eat. Day 6 the clown was dead. Night of day 6 the other clown showed similar behavior and by morning of day 7 was dead. No spots visible on the clowns or other noticeable anything that would point to what went wrong.

it is now 2 days later and one of the black cap basslets isn’t moving very much, hasn’t been out to eat, and is alive but isn’t moving. He’s just laying at the bottom in the rocks. theres no spots on him that I can see and he is bright purple so spots should be visible.
The blue hippo still looks like he might have a few white spots on him but they aren’t pronounced or easy to see in any way. He also appears to be doing fine and is the only fish who has a strong appetite.

So the only fish I thought was sick seems to be doing fine and the others who all seemed fine now seem to be dying off. I’m not sold on this being ich. I know tangs are ich magnets, but it seems like something else. If ich or velvet was killing these other fish, there should be some kind of noticeable spots on them right?

All of my parameters are fine and all of my invertebrates and corals are doing fine as well. Any ideas??

 

[Hugh Mann]

Velvet doesn't always present with spots. I recently had an outbreak and the only fish that presented were two black mollies.

There are other symptoms including light sensitivity, swimming into powerheads/current, rubbing. With how quickly it killed the clowns it sounds like velvet or flukes. Both have very similar symptoms, and are fortunately treated by the same medications.

Have you recently introduced any fish, coral, invertibrates or anything that velvet may have hitched a ride on?

 

[Kron Johnson]

Velvet doesn't always present with spots. I recently had an outbreak and the only fish that presented were two black mollies.

There are other symptoms including light sensitivity, swimming into powerheads/current, rubbing. With how quickly it killed the clowns it sounds like velvet or flukes. Both have very similar symptoms, and are fortunately treated by the same medications.

Have you recently introduced any fish, coral, invertibrates or anything that velvet may have hitched a ride on?

The newest fish is the blue hippo and he’d been in the tank for 2 months before this started. The only invert I added after that was a cleaner shrimp.

 

[Hugh Mann]

2 months is way too long, if it's Velvet, it works in days, or even hours. Depending on when it was introduced, maybe it came on the cleaner shrimp.

I'm definitely no expert, but that has been my experience with velvet. Haven't had to deal with anything else.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Spots are not always seen. Velvet seems likely, flukes possible.

Ruby reef rally has some use as a bath. Kick ich does nothing and neither will eliminate ich or velvet. Or flukes.

 

[AnneO]

You may see the spots more easily in the morning before the lights are fully on

 

[Kron Johnson]

Well everything is now dead except for the blue hippo. The fish that originally showed odd symptoms is now the only one alive.

Based on the speed at which the other fish went from symptom free to dead I’m guessing velvet or Brookynella. Still not positive which it is. But I’m pretty heartbroken.

 

[Kron Johnson]

Spots are not always seen. Velvet seems likely, flukes possible.

Ruby reef rally has some use as a bath. Kick ich does nothing and neither will eliminate ich or velvet. Or flukes.

Well that’s bad to hear, my LFS owner said she’d used them with great success since they reformulated this year. Rally is supposed to get rid of flukes and velvet according to the bottle.