Cant go fallow with my tank because of a missing fish

[pureconcept]

I have been battling what i believe to be velvet. I have lost like 10 of my fish over time. I have 15 left.They stop eating then die the next day. No redness other than the gills and no wounds or markings on the body other than what seems to be a fading of color except for 2 fish one i swore i saw a ton of little dots like powdered sugar but when i captured him later and looked i didnt see anything. And another that looks like hes made of velvet with that shiny dusting. Anyway i decided to do it right and treat all the fish and let the tank go fallow. There are some corals and inverts but the tank is only a half a year old so its still doable. I gathered all the fish except for 1 that i cant find. Its a pearly jawfish. When i first got a pair of them one jumped out during acclimation and i had a hard time picking it back up. It went missing the next day. No body or fish to be seen for 3 weeks the. He appeared randomly one day. Super thin but alive. He was eating dug a burrow and seemed normal. The next day galfway through he disappeared again. I just looked under all rocks and removed half of them looking for him today. Because he reappeared once im thinking he has a really good hiding place in the roxks or he buries himself completely under the sand. I dont know if pearly jawfish do that though. I cant trust the fallow period if i dont find him or a body. Should i just take all the rocks out and dig through all the sand? If i dont find him in the sand i can just leave the rocks out and if hes in there he will eventually die? I hate the idea of reying to kill it and my rocks have algae and the bio filter all over it. Kf i kill all the rocks it might be an issue when i put them back in. Anyone have any ideas on what kind of game plan i should use? I dont want to kill it but if it is hiding in the tank and ruins the timing of the fallow period my fish will get reinfected and i'll be losing more than just 1. I also dont want to extend the quarantine while looking for it because i have an algae blenny that my daughtwr loves and it doesnt eat food i feed. Only eats thw algae on the rocks.i dont want it to die while in qt from a lack of food

 

[pureconcept]

Anyone have any recommendations? Or opinions about how to proceed? Or any fish illness that kills in 1 to 2 days after loss of appetite with virtually no physical issues or markings?just gilling and swimming towards power heads?. I saw no flukes when i gave two freshwater baths. Any advice on eitger tkpic would be apprecisted.

 

[pureconcept]

Btw its not an ammonia issue me and a lfs tested the water and said it was safe the only thing thats off is mt phosphates are high at 41 ppm. New fish seem to get sick fast in general but some of the older ones have been around for a bit. I feel velvet though might be more contageous but it also feels like its speeding up and cascading. I guess it would be exponensial growth.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,sorry to read ,poss velvet? lets call some expert help,best wishes..
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 #reefsqaud

 

[fachatga]

I can’t be much help but I do know jawfish dig holes and live in them. So that’s normal. That’s all I got to help. They prefer pretty deep ones. Have 5-6 inches of sand for them to be at home. Maybe some other stuff. I added some crushed coral and he takes bits for his den.

 

[pureconcept]

It's not possible velvet but I can't think of anything else that kills so consistently and has no or little to see on the body. If you have any ideas that would be great. I'm so afraid I'm going to use copper and ot does nothing

 

[pureconcept]

Yea I have/had 2 pearly jawfish. I caught the other one. And it liked to peek out of ita burrow. Came out for food. The one that was missing . I have no idea about

 

[Tamberav]

It could have died and if you have live rock... worms and cuc would make short work of its body. There may be no fish to find.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The rapid breathing and swimming into water currents is a primary symptom of Amyloodinium/velvet, however that disease usually kills quickly and doesn't typically leave any survivors beyond a week or so if untreated. Gill flukes kill more slowly, over weeks to months and some fish may not be affected.
It wasn't clear - how long has it been since you last saw the jawfish?

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

My first instinct was gill flukes also but if you said they were covered in powder- qt is first step
Velvet starts off small but then grow in size before dropping off. It has been said that velvet makes a fish look like it has been dusted with a fine powder, whereas ich is more like salt grains.
Chloroquine phosphate is the treatment of choice for velvet, but copper also works if symptoms are caught early on. These also work on ich, so if in doubt treating with Chloroquine or copper will have you covered both ways. A freshwater dip and/or chemical bath (discussed in more detail below) is recommended either before or during treatment, due to the severity of this disease; however these would only provide temporary relief and will not eradicate velvet.
I generally start with a 5 minute freshwater Dino followed with a 90 minute bath using Ruby Reef Rally. Temperature control and heavily aerate the bath water.
Treat for 30 days in a quarantine tank using either Chloroquine phosphate (60 mg/gal) or chelated copper such as Copper Power –@1.75 ppm).