What is killing my fish?!

[madtownguy]

How did you find it and are there any natural predators to worms or mantis shrimp that won't wipe out everything else?

It was a long long time ago, I think I used what is in the link below and it worked. I had a huge worm in one. Never had a problem after I removed him. Although you should be able to see worms at night, I think I purchased something too for help getting rid of them like a long tweezers. I apologize it's been over 10 years. I've been told you should hear the mantis shrimp, but I never found one of those. I had more than one worm. And you could see them come out a little at night. There's conflicting reports online whether a bristle worm will eat a fish. Your blue tang missing is odd.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewi...tent=ES09550&gclid=COmvzJzgiscCFVcSHwodhjUPmw

 

[madtownguy]

My tank had a lot more live rock when I had a worm problem, I think at night you will see them. Just shine a flash light in when it's dark they won't stick out far like .5inch, but they could be 6-7 inches long. It would be nice if it were easier to diagnose, I know I tried a bunch of things first to kill viruses and stuff. Finally one fish store guy said it could be mantis or worm, that's what ended up stopping the deaths. My fish would seem perfect one day, and then dead the next. I lost a about a 6 inch beautiful naso tang, really sucked. It's a big part of the reason I stopped for so many years.

 

[4FordFamily]

How's this?

Yes I still can't find the guy, I'm going crazy trying to figure out where the blue tang is. I haven't been able to see him for going on three days I'll check my ammonia again now...

My hippo tang (back in my ich management days) would come down with ich with high stress situations (moving tanks, moving her to a new tank, etc) and she would disappear for up to a week and emerge parasite free.

She eventually got velvet and died. I'm not proud of my practices, not very humane.

 

[Jnharris22]

My hippo tang (back in my ich management days) would come down with ich with high stress situations (moving tanks, moving her to a new tank, etc) and she would disappear for up to a week and emerge parasite free.

She eventually got velvet and died. I'm not proud of my practices, not very humane.

I'm trying everything I can to not grow the tank too quickly and I've made sure my levels are balanced out before adding new inhabitants. The blue tang I've had in this tank for almost a month and he's never hidin this long. The only things I added since he went into hiding was a few heads of euphyllia and my superman coral but everything is doing great besides the fish I've lost in the past week.... I haven't seen an ammonia spike so I'm guessing he has to be alive somewhere..?

 

[Harold Green]

Did you look behind the tank stand and in the overflows?

 

[Jnharris22]

Did you look behind the tank stand and in the overflows?

HE'S ALIVE!!!!!!!

I just found him in the craziest little hiding spot between two of my rocks. I had to pull them apart but sure enough he was just hiding!

 

[4FordFamily]

HE'S ALIVE!!!!!!!

I just found him in the craziest little hiding spot between two of my rocks. I had to pull them apart but sure enough he was just hiding!

I was going to say don't rip him out it will just make him hide more!

It's usually not good when they hide a lot.

 

[Jnharris22]

I was going to say don't rip him out it will just make him hide more!

It's usually not good when they hide a lot.

I didn't really "rip" him out I just slowly moved the rocks until I spotted him and I put it right back. He's comfy again in his hiding spot but yes this is unusual. I'm going to do a 20% water change as I'm picking up some ammonia now and better safe than sorry right??

 

[vedros74]

Are any of the fish breathing faster than normal or not eating? The fish that died did they hide or scratch up against rocks? Just trying to tell you what I seen with my tank. When the white lights were off and the Blues were the only ones the velvet stuck out like a sore thumb.

Yes good point the blue light definitely helps spot symptoms

 

[vedros74]

My blue hippo used to sleep and hide by wedging itself in between 2 rocks sideways. Hopefully it was just resting. Best of luck

 

[4FordFamily]

My blue hippo used to sleep and hide by wedging itself in between 2 rocks sideways. Hopefully it was just resting. Best of luck

They do this often but when they aren't well or they're new to the tank (or you've done something very invasive like moved rocks around) they'll stay hidden for up to two weeks IME. Usually 1-6 days and they're back if they're going to make it.

 

[madtownguy]

I didn't really "rip" him out I just slowly moved the rocks until I spotted him and I put it right back. He's comfy again in his hiding spot but yes this is unusual. I'm going to do a 20% water change as I'm picking up some ammonia now and better safe than sorry right??

I've never heard someone saying you can do too many water changes so you are probably right. But odds are you moved the rock to find the fish and then did a water test. The rock probably shook off some ammonia and that is probably what showed up on the test. Do your fish always seem totally fine and then die? Or are they kind of half dead and then eventually bite the big one?

 

[ZoaCollector]

Are you saying to treat without further diagnosis or are you just saying to use nitrofurazone once I've pin pointed the issue?

If it's ich or velvet, secondary bacterial infections occur because of open wounds.

Always use a quarantine tank for meds such as nitrofurazone, cupramine, ect...


Nitrofurazone will help with gram negative and some gram positive bacteria infections. It's also disrupts certain protozoan life cycles. Some say it helps disrupt the ich life cycle.

Always follow exactly the dosage per gallon or liter of water.

Correct dosage is key*

Make sure your QT or quarantine is perfectly balanced in water chemistry temp and ph before adding fish.

Best of luck!

Team ZoaCollector

 

[Jnharris22]

If it's ich or velvet, secondary bacterial infections occur because of open wounds.

Always use a quarantine tank for meds such as nitrofurazone, cupramine, ect...


Nitrofurazone will help with gram negative and some gram positive bacteria infections. It's also disrupts certain protozoan life cycles. Some say it helps disrupt the ich life cycle.

Always follow exactly the dosage per gallon or liter of water.

Correct dosage is key*

Make sure your QT or quarantine is perfectly balanced in water chemistry temp and ph before adding fish.

Best of luck!

Team ZoaCollector

Ok I definitely have Ich after closer inspection. The blue tang had it after he came out and ended up just laying next to my cleaner shrimp which cleaned off his one side then he flipped over and let him do the other so now he's good to go BUT now I'm seeing small amounts of Ich on one of my clowns and my yellow tang so I need to get them quarantined asap. I need more info about it so here are my questions.

Are you saying to put my fish in a separate QT or quarantine tank and can I just use my 13 gallon which is currently empty?

Once I have separated my fish out what about my corals are they at risk?!

After the fish are out am I treating the quarantine tank or the display and sump and in what ways can I encourage a speedy recovery?

When can I expect to return my fish to the display tank?

 

[4FordFamily]

Ich only affects your fish.

Yes remove all fish. Run tank fallow 72 days. Do lots of water changes when ammonia appears (may be daily 75%, buy sea chem ammonia badge so you know) and treat with cupramine.

 

[mcarroll]

At the risk of being a repeat, just one piece of advice after you get a handle on things: That livestock list is insane for a two month old tank. If I were guiding you through setting up this tank, it wouldn't have been that full even after the first year...or maybe ever. Try your best to take your time with acquisitions - get to know their personalities, needs and weaknesses for at least a month or few before moving to the next acquisition. This also gives you more time to make these mistakes (and learn from them) without subjecting all these critters to it. Give yourself a chance to get some experience under your belt! This time is time everyone needs to give themselves in this hobby...

 

[Harold Green]

Mcarroll, I tried to give the same advice on another post a while back and another member all but told me I was 100% wrong. He insisted you could load the tank with the maximum bioload the tank equipment could handle as soon as the tank finished cycling. Not my view, especially for beginners who should start very slowly and learn good husbandry before fully stocking. In some cases one fish is a good starting point, depending on the fish and tank setup. There's a big difference between what an advanced aquarist can do and what a beginner should do. Before we learned better we used to cycle a tank with damsels. They were really tough fish and perhaps beginners should start with them until they learn to maintain a marine tank. They're cheap, and not bad looking fish. They will generally eat anything at any time. True most of us don't want them in an established tank but it's a good way to avoid killing some expensive fish while learning how to keep a marine tank running in the long term. Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels there's a learning curve for beginners. As for me after forty years of marine tanks I'm beginning to feel I really know very little of the hobby and care of marine animals. It's the small successes that we find makes the hobby worthwhile.

 

[mcarroll]

Harold, well said. [emoji106]

We all need to be better at knowing our limits and being human. To quote a source I can't recall: To be human is to err. These are things all too easy for us to forget and take for granted. Especially because we all tend to think of ourselves as "experienced" just because we're adults, when there's no real correlation.

 

[20 gallon nano]

How's this?

Yes I still can't find the guy, I'm going crazy trying to figure out where the blue tang is. I haven't been able to see him for going on three days I'll check my ammonia again now...

I have also lost one of my fish before, it was a purple dottyback, it was there one day and the next day it just disappeared, my guess is that it must of died and the bristle worms dragged it into a hole and finished it off with there friends. Do you have any star fish?or could of been my chocolate chip who finished it off.

 

[20 gallon nano]

Since fish died after you added the butterfly, im the thinking its some type of disease. I would catch the fish and move them to a quarantine tank. Maybe some internal infection or parasite?

I agree with you on this, the new fish that you introduced to your tank could of had a dasease on him and got the rest of the fish killed.