Fish are dying and I don't know what to do!! :(

Sebastiancrab

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That's the thing, I don't see a picture. I can click 'expand' and then I get a blank box. Nothing to click on ;)
Ok, try this one. If it doesn't come up, go to BulkReefSupply.com and in their search box type "Poly Filter". This is the company that has all the great reefing videos on Youtube.

Hopefully, Jay will get with you soon. He is the resident "doctor" and gives the best advice. If you have trouble catching your fish to put in your hospital tank, I suggest getting some "tulle" netting material at your local hobby/fabric store. I section off parts of the tank and/or wrap around rocks to narrow down the areas the fish can escape to.

 

Jay Hemdal

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Oh okay, no the corals look fine. At least something that's going right... :relieved-face: Yeah, parasites seem possible. But I wonder if that was what killed the other fish since I never saw anything strange and none of them had white, stringy poo..
In almost every case, when the corals are fine but the fish are dying it is NOT water quality, but rather some fish disease. There are almost never any exceptions to this.
Are you seeing any rapid breathing?
What’s wrong with the coral beauties eyes?
The stringy feces is pretty severe, may be an internal infection like coccidea or sprionucleous.
Jay
 
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Rmckoy

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I agree with some comments about something possibly leaching from the rocks
What ever scape redo’s could have stirred up detritus releasing toxins into the water .
 

vetteguy53081

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If the nitrates ammonia were high wouldn't the corals show stress before the fish though?
Corals - No. They respond to elevated slk-ph-calcium-salinity and temperture. Nitrate is a nutrient source until it gets sky high
 
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Ok, try this one. If it doesn't come up, go to BulkReefSupply.com and in their search box type "Poly Filter". This is the company that has all the great reefing videos on Youtube.

Hopefully, Jay will get with you soon. He is the resident "doctor" and gives the best advice. If you have trouble catching your fish to put in your hospital tank, I suggest getting some "tulle" netting material at your local hobby/fabric store. I section off parts of the tank and/or wrap around rocks to narrow down the areas the fish can escape to.

Thanks, it's working now! I will check if it's available in the Netherlands. BrsTv is great, I've watched a ton of their videos ;)
 
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In almost every case, when the corals are fine but the fish are dying it is NOT water quality, but rather some fish disease. There are almost never any exceptions to this.
Are you seeing any rapid breathing?
What’s wrong with the coral beauties eyes?
The stringy feces is pretty severe, may be an internal infection like coccidea or sprionucleous.
Jay
Hi Jay, I didn't manage to catch them at night, and didn't want to cause more stress, so I gave up... I did found the coral beauty dead today :worried-face: His eyes were looking like there was a white 'glare' over them. In my first post I put a YT video link with a short clip of him were you can see.. The foxface was breathing very fast last night and I expected him to die as well. But I'm amazed he is still alive and not breathing as fast anymore. He does look a bit pale still and I see some brownish and white 'spots' on his body... There is, with the fox face, only one fish left. A P. hexataenia and he does not show any signs of sickness. And my shrimps also seem unaffected by all this.
 

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Hi Jay, I didn't manage to catch them at night, and didn't want to cause more stress, so I gave up... I did found the coral beauty dead today :worried-face: His eyes were looking like there was a white 'glare' over them. In my first post I put a YT video link with a short clip of him were you can see.. The foxface was breathing very fast last night and I expected him to die as well. But I'm amazed he is still alive and not breathing as fast anymore. He does look a bit pale still and I see some brownish and white 'spots' on his body... There is, with the fox face, only one fish left. A P. hexataenia and he does not show any signs of sickness. And my shrimps also seem unaffected by all this.
You may have multiple fish disease issues going on here. The rapid breathing indicates gill disease, the white on the eyes could be bacteria or flukes. The stringy feces could be internal protozoans. Once fish loss has begun, it is unlikely to be able to sort this out in time to save other fish. Sorry, but you may need to just ride this out and regroup afterwards.
Jay
 

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Disease imo. You said you added corals early July. Anything wet can bring in disease.

The rock is just a coincidence, maybe a little excess stress messing around in there.

I wouldn’t keep a bunch of Tangs without a skimmer personally. They are high oxygen needs fish but that’s not the cause imo but if gills are compromised by disease and no skimmer, it may be adding to the issue.

If you don’t QT your fish or even everything wet, unfortunately some people don’t have a great outcome. I would fallow the tank (no fish).
 
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You may have multiple fish disease issues going on here. The rapid breathing indicates gill disease, the white on the eyes could be bacteria or flukes. The stringy feces could be internal protozoans. Once fish loss has begun, it is unlikely to be able to sort this out in time to save other fish. Sorry, but you may need to just ride this out and regroup afterwards.
Jay
So do you think that the rescaping in the tank may not be the source, but it could be what triggered the disease? By causing stress they became susceptible for anything that was slumbering in the tank? So let's say I accept that it may be to late and I let the last 2 fish be in the tank and (maybe) they pull through, how long should I wait before I can even think about re stocking the tank? 2 months? Or should I try and catch them, put them in a separate tank so they can't infect my main display anymore and the parasites/disease cycle gets broken up? I hope you know what I mean ;)
 
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Disease imo. You said you added corals early July. Anything wet can bring in disease.

The rock is just a coincidence, maybe a little excess stress messing around in there.

I wouldn’t keep a bunch of Tangs without a skimmer personally. They are high oxygen needs fish but that’s not the cause imo but if gills are compromised by disease and no skimmer, it may be adding to the issue.

If you don’t QT your fish or even everything wet, unfortunately some people don’t have a great outcome. I would fallow the tank (no fish).
What do you mean by 'fallow the tank'?
 

Tamberav

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What do you mean by 'fallow the tank'?

remove all fish and let the tank sit without any fish for for mine 45 days at 81-82 degrees. Longer at lower temps. NO cross contamination of any kind.

This is so the parasites die out without a host.

 

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The foxface was breathing very fast last night
Have you read my earlier post from yesterday? This observervation from you makes me 100% certain that at least part of your recent deaths are due to low oxygen levels because you dont have a skimmer.
Maybe in combination with a gill disease but not the sole reason.
It could have been already too late but if you put an areation stone inside your tank, you may have saved your fish.

From now in dont leave your tank without areation through the night or you will lose more animals. I am talking from experience.
 
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I don't agree on the oxygen part... My tank has done fine without one. There are lots of examples of other tanks who run without a skimmer. I do 15% water changes every week, I have lots of surface agitation. I do believe that the breathing is caused by some sort of disease that prevents the fish from getting enough oxygen, but not because there is not enough of it in the water.
 

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Yes, live rocks that came out of saltwater that were dried out = dry rocks. Man made rocks are different all together; they're not rocks; they're not made in nature. Although I did okay with some early versions of these rocks, I wouldn't recommend anyone to use them. Those things are made from materials that are not natural to the reef. It's not like they go into the ocean to collect these raw materials for production. The bonding agent and paint used to fabricate is suspect in eyes. It might be safe for a while..
I have been under the impression that live rock is any rock that was ever in the ocean or cured and dry rock is 'man-made' which means mined in a limestone rock mine and never soaked in water. Not really man made but not real coral reef rock.
 

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I don't agree on the oxygen part... My tank has done fine without one.
Thats no evidence.
A fresh tank doesn't have these issues, but every day your nitrosomonas and nitrobacter count and detrius increased until the bacterial load was too much for the tank and oxygen levels dropped. You even said you had increased nutrient levels as of late, which means more food for your oxygen consuming bacteria.

In my 15 years of reefing I've run all of my tanks without a skimmer and ever time the oxygen levels dropped dangerously low after some time during the night. After that i have put an areation stone inside each of them. I even borrowed a 2000 bucks expensive probe to check so i have proof.
Every one of my tanks has an areation stone with air pump set on a timer for the night.
I highly recommend to you to do that too but it's your choice.
 
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