A sad, sad 4th...

underwaterfirefighter · Jul 4, 2009

I woke up this morning to find all the fish in our 90 gal deceased.:cry: We lost our desjardinii tang, dragon wrasse, manderin goby, and scooter blenny. They all seemed very happy and ate their dinner yesterday evening. I do think I got all of the corals transplanted to our other tank before they were affected by whatever has happened. The corals have acclimated well and were puffed up with feeders out this evening.
I checked our water parameters and everything was as should be except for a slight elevation in amonia. A few zoas, palys, and shrooms that I was unable to transplant seem to be doing fine (still in the 90). The hermit crabs, emerald crabs and most snails made it. But our cleaner shrimp died. Any insights on what may have caused this?
Thanks
Dave and Lisa

ReefDoctor · Jul 4, 2009

Really almost any elevation of ammonia will kill fish... what do you mean by "Slight"? ... Often a domino effect... something die? a sea apple? Filtration issue? heat? usually happens slowley rather than overnight

Blackhawk Fan · Jul 4, 2009

What did you feed them?

Yellowtang · Jul 4, 2009

Thats a bummer. The slight elevation of amonia was probably just the dead fish. Man I hate mysteries like that. I did hear once that a guy found a bad pump that leaked something into the water but it took most of the coral too. please let us know if you find something

JR,

underwaterfirefighter · Jul 4, 2009

Thanks for the responses. They just got a litle bit of flake, Ocean Nutrition.
Dave and Lisa

dbarker · Jul 4, 2009

Sorry for your loss. That is very disturbing and I hope you find out what caused your fish to die. Please keep us updated. Debbie

Sikryd · Jul 4, 2009

That sucks!
My guess would be an oxygen issue. It can be compounded by too much Co2 from running the A/C in the summer.

Cherish · Jul 4, 2009

I'm very sorry for your loss.

But I feel your pain... I came home from fireworks to discover the 12g tank was off for some reason, everything off. I reset the outlet to get the flow going again and it worked... but then I smelled burning! There was smoke coming out of the back of the tank in the compartment that houses the heater! I immediately unplugged it and pulled it out - it was broken and steaming like mad.

The whole tank got electrocuted. The clownfish is swimming circles and going sideways. The duncans are wide mouthed with tentacles retracted... sad day here, too.

underwaterfirefighter · Jul 4, 2009

Thanks everyone. If we can figure out what happened I will certainly post it. It is disturbing to say the least. We are still new at reefing, but I don't understand what would cause the fish to die and yet the corals seem to be fine.
Tahnks again,
Dave and Lisa

underwaterfirefighter · Jul 4, 2009

Cherish,
Sorry to here that, Not a good day at all.

Dave and Lisa

JR's Reef · Jul 5, 2009

I'm sorry to hear bout your loses and hope you stay in and replace them

underwaterfirefighter · Jul 5, 2009

Thanks Joey,
We are definately staying in. We have a 29 gal bio cube and a solana 34 set as well. We have a new-used 120 we have been gathering equipment for. I think we are going to go ahead and break down the 90 and get the 120 up and going. We are debating if should keep any of the sand and live rock from the 90 or start with fresh.

Dave and Lisa

BigRed · Jul 5, 2009

I hope you guys figure out everything that happened and ar able to let us know so that we can take precautionary steps to prevent anything from happening to our tanks...

Reef Goddess · Jul 5, 2009

Did you guys have a dsb that might have gotten disturbed in the move?

Aynesa · Jul 5, 2009

Dave, Lisa, ditch the live sand and rock, and maybe even clean the corals before you move them over. Whatever did this, a few bucks in live sand and rock isn't worth the risk of taking it to the new tank.

Could it have been a temperature spike?

Russellaqua · Jul 5, 2009

My brother recently had this happen to him as well. There's a disease (the name of which eludes me at the moment) that can wipe out a tank. It's very hard to spot and kills only fish. I'll try to get the name of it from my cousin who runs a fish site and get some pointers to help keep it from happening again.

Sikryd · Jul 5, 2009

Russellaqua said:
My brother recently had this happen to him as well. There's a disease (the name of which eludes me at the moment) that can wipe out a tank. It's very hard to spot and kills only fish. I'll try to get the name of it from my cousin who runs a fish site and get some pointers to help keep it from happening again.

This is probably what you are thinking of - but there should had been some signs. Not just overnight.
Who knows though - this hobby is a trip sometimes!

What is Brooklynella?

Brooklynella is a type of saltwater ich caused by an infestation of the ciliated protozoan Brooklynella hostilis. It is most closely and commonly associated with subfamily Clownfish members of the Damselfish family, and therefore is typically referred to as Clownfish Disease. Although this parasitic scourge similar to others requires a fish host to survive, it is not particular in its quest to find one. Angelfishes, tangs or surgeonfishes, wrasses, jawfishes, and seahorses among others will host Brooklynella. These protozoa reproduce asexually by means of simple binary fission through conjugation, which is why they are able to multiply so much more rapidly than Cryptocaryon (Marine Ich/White Spot Disease), and Oodinium (Velvet/Coral Fish Disease), and why it can kill fish within a few days and even hours upon recognition. For this reason accurate diagnosis and immediate treatment of all fish exposed to these life-threatening organisms is critical.

tc269 · Jul 5, 2009

Did you clean anything with bleach? I know some one that used bleach to clean there diatom filter one and they didnt rinse it out well. the bleach killed all the fish and shrimp but the corals looked better than ever?? Just an idea to through out there.

Russellaqua · Jul 5, 2009

Sikryd said:
This is probably what you are thinking of - but there should had been some signs. Not just overnight.
Who knows though - this hobby is a trip sometimes!

What is Brooklynella?

Brooklynella is a type of saltwater ich caused by an infestation of the ciliated protozoan Brooklynella hostilis. It is most closely and commonly associated with subfamily Clownfish members of the Damselfish family, and therefore is typically referred to as Clownfish Disease. Although this parasitic scourge similar to others requires a fish host to survive, it is not particular in its quest to find one. Angelfishes, tangs or surgeonfishes, wrasses, jawfishes, and seahorses among others will host Brooklynella. These protozoa reproduce asexually by means of simple binary fission through conjugation, which is why they are able to multiply so much more rapidly than Cryptocaryon (Marine Ich/White Spot Disease), and Oodinium (Velvet/Coral Fish Disease), and why it can kill fish within a few days and even hours upon recognition. For this reason accurate diagnosis and immediate treatment of all fish exposed to these life-threatening organisms is critical.