All fish dying but corals are still healthy

[badstorm48]

I’m having an issue. So, about 2.5 weeks ago I bought a new fish a small clown tang to put in my 65 gallon reef tank. In it was a tribal blenny, clown fish, blue tang, 3 chromis and fairy wrasse. So the clown tang was doing fine he was eating and swimming but noticed ich pop up tried lowering the salinity for .25 to .22. Didn’t work he died and then my blue tang caught it and he died about a week apart. I was like okay maybe it’s over I know tangs are prone to parasites. Then my clown fish caught it which really surprised me and he died a few days later. Now it had a short break between the tang and clown. This happened in the past week. Simply put all of my fish are dwindling away one by one about 3-4 days apart. After the clown the wrasse died. I thought it was the end. I talked to my lfs and my tank is by a window so he told me to put insulation around it so I did to help keep temp under controls. Thought a lot of this was happening from bad temp swings. Made sense to me. I’ve got my water tested at the lfs and he never gave me numbers just trusted him. He would say your water is dirty do a water change so I would and it would be good. I do a water change of 15 gallons every week now and that keeps my water clean from what he says. So needless to say idk numbers. Today my blenny died which really shocked me since I saw no signs. Just seems he dropped dead all of a sudden. Now I’m coming here to see what people think. To add with temp swings I know I was running on the warmer side so I bought a temp controller to help keep the heater from over doing it. So I hooked a fan up to blow over the water when the lights are on to keep the water cooler and it has worked. Idk what to do honestly.

 

[badstorm48]

As of now. I have 3 chromis that seem to be doing fine but I thought the blenny was fine.

 

[Dimmy007]

Sounds to me more like velvet.

 

[Dimmy007]

#reefsquad

 

[HotRocks]

It does sound like velvet. Do you have a QT?

You will want to get your remaining fish into copper ASAP if you are indeed dealing with velvet.

 

[Dimmy007]

Heres an article on velvet.

Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/Velvet-(Amyloodinium-ocellatum).217570/

 

[Big G]

Did you notice any symptoms on any of the fish? White spots, rapid breathing, goldish/white dusting on their skin, swimming into flow like powerheads, twitching?

 

[ShaunRobinson]

Sorry to hear this, with the speed the fish are dying it does sound like Velvet to me most likely brought in by your clown tang. I have my doubts ich would kill them all so quickly. Sadly you need to remove all remaining fish into a hospital tank and treat with either copper or cp. I would also advise reading up on the basics of saltwater aquariums and buying no more fish until you are happy and can at least test your water yourself.

 

[badstorm48]

All the fish had white spots like ich so I thought that but it was a lot of white spots and happened fast. Unfortunately I do not have a quarantine

 

[ShaunRobinson]

All the fish had white spots like ich so I thought that but it was a lot of white spots and happened fast. Unfortunately I do not have a quarantine

Then I would get one set up before you go any further in the hobby mate. It can be done on a budget and doesn’t need to be anything special. I use a plastic 65l container to quarantine mine. It will save you a lot of hassle going forward.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

All the fish had white spots like ich so I thought that but it was a lot of white spots and happened fast. Unfortunately I do not have a quarantine

Craigslist is a great place to buy a complete tank setup for a QT (tank, hob filter, heater, etc) for cheap.

 

[beaslbob]

Did you notice or measure and ammonia spikes or pH drops?

Did you use any gloves moving stuff around in the tank?

Anything else you did differently before these problems?

 

[badstorm48]

I have been getting my water tested pretty regularly through out this issues. I get my water tested at my lfs which he hasn’t given me numbers just usually tells me if it’s dirty or not. Though, through out this he has told me my water is pretty good. There was one time I got it tested and he said there was a slight trace of nitrites and I did a water change that day and got it tested a week later and it was gone. I told him I had a fish die that I could not get to and he rotted away in the tank so thinking that’s why course they haven’t popped up since and I have done 2 tests since that one. I usually never wear gloves when I go in my tank though I wash them with dawn before I do anything in it. Though, I think the issue was temp swings with it being next to a not so well insulated window and having a heater that wasn’t calibrated right so I noticed my tank was sitting at 81 to 82 degrees on the regular. I bought a temp controller which has my tank at 77 to 78 now and insulated my tank. I also believe with my wife burning candles in the house the chemicals got in the water making fish sick and the temp being high also causing them to get weak and ultimately get sick and die. I have gotten her to stop burning candles and such so that should fix the issue. Going to see if I can get qt set up if the wife permits it so I can watch them for a few days or week before deciding to put them in the tank so if they get sick I can treat them with out hurting the tank. Hopefully this works. I recently moved a few months ago and prior to that the tank was up for a good year and a half. I had a 40 before that for a couple years and my clown was going on 3 years old as well as the blenny and the blue tang was going on 2 so it sucks to lose them. Though with adjusting to the new house I should have everything good now. I’m going to watch and monitor the tank for a month or 2 before putting anything in the tank besides corals as they are doing fine and healthy.

 

[Seamore2001]

Sorry to hear about your troubles - that's really tough. Along with the QT, I'd strongly recommend buying a basic test kit. You can pick up the API Saltwater Master testing kit from Amazon for $22. Easy to use and cheaper than just about any one of the fish you've lost. Getting your LFS to do testing for you is convenient, but you need to be able to know and track what's going on in your tank yourself - you owe it to yourself and your livestock.

 

[badstorm48]

Yeah I’ve thought of testers as well. What do y’all think of digital tester are they accurate such as the Hannah testers? I just like the thought of putting the water on the tester and it tells you what it is. Of course those are my thoughts and what my lfs is saying. I’ve never had a reason to not trust him as I’ve seen his tanks and they are beautiful. He’s pretty straight up and as I listed I feel those may be the issue. What do y’all think?

 

[acabgd]

Of course those are my thoughts and what my lfs is saying. I’ve never had a reason to not trust him as I’ve seen his tanks and they are beautiful. He’s pretty straight up and as I listed I feel those may be the issue. What do y’all think?

I would never trust an LFS that just tells me my water is "clean" or "dirty". That doesn't mean anything. Get yourself a testkit - Hanna if you prefer although they're not that easy to use, or Salifert which I prefer personally and stop believing everything your LFS says.

 

[Seamore2001]

It's genuinely not a question of whether or not you "trust" your LFS. It's a matter of you needing to understand the individual parameters of your tank and how they are changing over time. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate and PH are the key ones, especially for fish. If you know what's happening, you can understand what's going on and make informed decisions about what you need to do - and you can bring those test results to R2R and get better advice. As far as which test kit to get - I haven't used the Hanna testers so can't comment on it, but for basic testing Salifert, API, Red Sea etc. all make good test kits.

Really hope your remaining fish survive - Good luck!

 

[ShaunRobinson]

I have been getting my water tested pretty regularly through out this issues. I get my water tested at my lfs which he hasn’t given me numbers just usually tells me if it’s dirty or not. Though, through out this he has told me my water is pretty good. There was one time I got it tested and he said there was a slight trace of nitrites and I did a water change that day and got it tested a week later and it was gone. I told him I had a fish die that I could not get to and he rotted away in the tank so thinking that’s why course they haven’t popped up since and I have done 2 tests since that one. I usually never wear gloves when I go in my tank though I wash them with dawn before I do anything in it. Though, I think the issue was temp swings with it being next to a not so well insulated window and having a heater that wasn’t calibrated right so I noticed my tank was sitting at 81 to 82 degrees on the regular. I bought a temp controller which has my tank at 77 to 78 now and insulated my tank. I also believe with my wife burning candles in the house the chemicals got in the water making fish sick and the temp being high also causing them to get weak and ultimately get sick and die. I have gotten her to stop burning candles and such so that should fix the issue. Going to see if I can get qt set up if the wife permits it so I can watch them for a few days or week before deciding to put them in the tank so if they get sick I can treat them with out hurting the tank. Hopefully this works. I recently moved a few months ago and prior to that the tank was up for a good year and a half. I had a 40 before that for a couple years and my clown was going on 3 years old as well as the blenny and the blue tang was going on 2 so it sucks to lose them. Though with adjusting to the new house I should have everything good now. I’m going to watch and monitor the tank for a month or 2 before putting anything in the tank besides corals as they are doing fine and healthy.

I don’t want you to take this the wrong way it feel I have to be quite blunt here. There are most likely 2 reasons why you have lost fish here. No matter what you are telling yourself it has absolutely nothing to do with your wife burning candles in the house or your tank being next to a window.

You have already stated that your fish had spots, the first thing people do as soon as they see it they assume ich when in reality it could be something else entirely. Your fish likely had Velvet which kills very quickly and is indiscriminate as to which fish it attacks. The only other explanation here in my opinion is an Ammonia spike due to leaving a rotting fish in there. Again this will kill fish very quickly. You need to get your own test kit and understand what is happening in your tank and not trust your lfs no matter how good you think they are to tell you if your water is good or bad. A reputable lfs testing your water will give you a list of your results but there is really no substitute for testing your own water.

A quarantine tank is a good idea going forward. Good luck for the future.

Shaun.

 

[ccombs]

I put off a QT tank because I thought I could get away with it, and not having one cost me my whole tank. I put in a clean looking chromis that ended up having Uronema. Right now my tank and everything in it is being bleached. I lost 6 fish total to the parasite and have 2 that are barely hanging on. If I had spent the extra $100 to get a 20 Gallon QT from petco the first time around, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I have thousands wrapped up in the tank and so much time and energy, the worst feeling is looking at your tank broken down into all of its pieces and knowing you have several months on rebuild and recycling ahead. Not to mention new sand, bleaching and re-curing rock, etc.

Still not sure? Read my build thread and see how much it sucks lol.

Don't be like me, get a QT and make a home for it.

 

[ShaunRobinson]

I put off a QT tank because I thought I could get away with it, and not having one cost me my whole tank. I put in a clean looking chromis that ended up having Uronema. Right now my tank and everything in it is being bleached. I lost 6 fish total to the parasite and have 2 that are barely hanging on. If I had spent the extra $100 to get a 20 Gallon QT from petco the first time around, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I have thousands wrapped up in the tank and so much time and energy, the worst feeling is looking at your tank broken down into all of its pieces and knowing you have several months on rebuild and recycling ahead. Not to mention new sand, bleaching and re-curing rock, etc.

Don't be like me, get a QT and make a home for it.

Good post there my friend. Like most of us that quarantine you thought you would get away with it and did for some time until one day your luck ran out... Some people continue to be very lucky but a parasite or disease will catch most out eventually.

As you say, we think nothing of spending hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars on our tanks but are loathe to spend even a small amount on something that could save you a whole lot of time, money and heartache in the long run.