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- Jun 26, 2019
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I had a Yellow Eye Kole Tang that went from healthy looking and eating to dead in the span of 2 1/2 days. Background of the tank, it is a 125 gallon FOWLR with a 29 gallon sump. The tank is an upgrade from my 15 gallon nano reef that got over run with algae (despite my best efforts). I broke down the nano reef 3 weeks ago and made the move over.
The rock wasn't brought over from the nano reef BUT I did bring over marine pure balls that had been in the tank for over a year, I thought this would save me from having to cycle the tank. The only live stock brought over from the nano was a pair of clowns and a snail. The first day I had it up I put in a yellow tang that I got from trading in the coral/clams I had in the nano. No, I didn't not QT (I know, I know.) It was like this for a week and everything seemed good, tang was eating and clowns were eating.
The following week I added the Kole Tang. Again everything seemed fine, both tangs were eating and being peaceful. So one week later I got a Powder Blue tang as I wanted to get the three tangs first and fairly close together to curb any fighting. The powder blue went in fine (slow acclimation like all the others) and he also was eating right away. The difference with him was that he would hide and lay under the rock during the day, but would come out every now again to swim around and eat before going back.
Fast forward to the following weekend (this past weekend) and I see what I think is ich on the fins of the powder blue. He still seems fine but now I am also seeing that the Kole Tang is laying down under the rock which he normally doesn't do much when the lights are on. Sunday the kole tang is starting to look bad. His swimming is erratic, hes not eating, and he's laying under the rock even more. Here is a video of this behavior:
Today he was looking even worse, laying on the bottom breathing heavily most of the time. This afternoon he was out of the rock but staying in one corner, swimming with only one fin and the other tucked against his body. About three hours after he started that, he was gone. I never noticed any white spots or anything like that on him. The only thing I noticed is the slight discoloration around his belly which I figured was from scraping against the rocks. From what I have read about ich, it doesn't seem like it would kill this fast. And he didn't have anything on him that looked like velvet.
The other fish seem fine. The powder blue doesn't lay down under the rocks anymore but still has what looks like ich on his fins (you can probably see it at some points in the video.) I did test my water and while ammonia is reading 0, I do have a high nitrite reading. I'm assuming I went too quick with adding fish and have overloaded the biological filter on the tank. I'm currently prepping a 30 gallon water change.
Any ideas on what this could be? Could it be water quality that caused this? Could ich do this without showing any actual white spots?
Tl/Dr:
The rock wasn't brought over from the nano reef BUT I did bring over marine pure balls that had been in the tank for over a year, I thought this would save me from having to cycle the tank. The only live stock brought over from the nano was a pair of clowns and a snail. The first day I had it up I put in a yellow tang that I got from trading in the coral/clams I had in the nano. No, I didn't not QT (I know, I know.) It was like this for a week and everything seemed good, tang was eating and clowns were eating.
The following week I added the Kole Tang. Again everything seemed fine, both tangs were eating and being peaceful. So one week later I got a Powder Blue tang as I wanted to get the three tangs first and fairly close together to curb any fighting. The powder blue went in fine (slow acclimation like all the others) and he also was eating right away. The difference with him was that he would hide and lay under the rock during the day, but would come out every now again to swim around and eat before going back.
Fast forward to the following weekend (this past weekend) and I see what I think is ich on the fins of the powder blue. He still seems fine but now I am also seeing that the Kole Tang is laying down under the rock which he normally doesn't do much when the lights are on. Sunday the kole tang is starting to look bad. His swimming is erratic, hes not eating, and he's laying under the rock even more. Here is a video of this behavior:
Today he was looking even worse, laying on the bottom breathing heavily most of the time. This afternoon he was out of the rock but staying in one corner, swimming with only one fin and the other tucked against his body. About three hours after he started that, he was gone. I never noticed any white spots or anything like that on him. The only thing I noticed is the slight discoloration around his belly which I figured was from scraping against the rocks. From what I have read about ich, it doesn't seem like it would kill this fast. And he didn't have anything on him that looked like velvet.
The other fish seem fine. The powder blue doesn't lay down under the rocks anymore but still has what looks like ich on his fins (you can probably see it at some points in the video.) I did test my water and while ammonia is reading 0, I do have a high nitrite reading. I'm assuming I went too quick with adding fish and have overloaded the biological filter on the tank. I'm currently prepping a 30 gallon water change.
Any ideas on what this could be? Could it be water quality that caused this? Could ich do this without showing any actual white spots?
Tl/Dr:
- New 125 gallon tank, cycled media brought over from nano (along with two clownfish)
- Yellow tang added during move to new tank, kole tang one week after that, powder blue one week after that
- Possible ich on powder blue
- Kole went from eating and acting normal to dead in 2.5 days
- Possibly water quality issues with high nitrite readings