Fish are dying

[TheLove]

Hi...

A friend referred me to seek out help here.

My fish are dying in the 120L 7 months old tank.
Many of them have been in this tank for 3-5 months. They have been dying one by one for the last 10 days.

My dearest fish:

 

[TheLove]

The ones before that tang:

And

And

The behavior were the same: hiding; panicky; sometimes they swam panickly and ran into a rock, ade them seizure and after a while back to normal but they were counting days after that incident. What was strange that each fish died the same way.

Help identifying cause of death please. Thank you.

 

[Debramb]

I can’t help you, but I’m so sorry for you’re beloved fish loss
Debra

 

[Thaxxx]

Are there any survivors left in your tank?
Any of them recent additions?
. @Jay Hemdal

 

[excell007]

how many fishes do you have on this 30G tank? they don't look sick, it could be aggression. the experts may see something on the dead fishes. sorry for the lost of your pets.

 

[TheLove]

Are there any survivors left in your tank?
Any of them recent additions?
. @Jay Hemdal

This tang was the last one.

I had 6 fishes : bimaculatus anthias died first, a few days later another bimaculatus anthias, after that fairy wrasse, then swallowtail, blenny then the recent one : yellow tang.

All those fish were introduced to the tank 3-5 months ago and they got along well.
No inverts were introduced after fish.

New additions were corals, around 1-2 months ago the recent SPS.

This made me very nervous

 

[TheLove]

how many fishes do you have on this 30G tank? they don't look sick, it could be aggression. the experts may see something on the dead fishes. sorry for the lost of your pets.

Yellow tang was alone in tank for almost a week.

I had 6 fishes : bimaculatus anthias died first, a few days later another bimaculatus anthias, after that fairy wrasse, then swallowtail, blenny then the recent one : yellow tang.

 

[Hugh Mann]

What are your water perameters? Tank temperature?

You say added coral a month ago, did you quarantine them?

Is it just fish dying, or are any corals/inverts also effected?

Other, more informed folks will get back to you I am sure, but my guess if it's just fish is some sort of disease. You say they were running into rocks and seizing, were they rubbing themselves against the rock, or shaking their heads?

Were they hiding during the day, or also when the blue lights were on?

Any swimming into flow, powerheads, filter, ect?

Do you still have any of their bodies? If so, I'd suggest a freshwater dip to check for flukes just to eliminate one possibility.

 

[Tamberav]

All that was in a 30g tank? Could it be oxygen?

I would also think they would be under some stress from being in a 30g which may have let velvet set in their gills and take them out quickly before spots formed on the body. Just guessing.

Also check for stray voltage.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

As the others have said, that was a lot of fish for a 120 L aquarium. I don't see anything remarkable in the pictures. It is obviously after-the-fact now, but was the fish's respiration rate elevated? The dashing behavior could indicate Velvet (Amyloodinium) but the relatively long time for the deaths to happen seem to point away from that. The other issue, as noted could be low oxygen levels due to crowding, high temperature or lack of aeration. There is another issue that can develop in aquariums - the oxygen level may have been o.k., but there could have been high carbon dioxide from a lack of breaking the water's surface tension. I've seen that cause fish loss over time, and the fish can become frantic. However, rapid breathing would be seen in those fish.

Jay

 

[TheLove]

What are your water perameters? Tank temperature?

You say added coral a month ago, did you quarantine them?

Is it just fish dying, or are any corals/inverts also effected?

Other, more informed folks will get back to you I am sure, but my guess if it's just fish is some sort of disease. You say they were running into rocks and seizing, were they rubbing themselves against the rock, or shaking their heads?

Were they hiding during the day, or also when the blue lights were on?

Any swimming into flow, powerheads, filter, ect?

Do you still have any of their bodies? If so, I'd suggest a freshwater dip to check for flukes just to eliminate one possibility.

Water parameter for last 4 weeks (i do 19L WC everyweek):
Mg = 1460, 1520, 1440, 1420
Dosing Mg 1 ml/day
Alk = 9.5, 9.5, 9.3, 9.1
Dosing Alk = 1 ml/day
Ca = 390, 370, 390, 360
Dosing Ca = 14 ml/day (devided by 9 timepoints per day)
Dosing Kalk = 30 ml/day (devided by 19 timepoints per day)
NO3 = 1, 5, 5, 5
PO4 = 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 0.04
Salinity = 33 ppt
Temp = 25-26 using chiller
pH = before going to work 8.21 (3 hours before tank sunrise), return from work 8.32 (3 hours before tank sunset); photoperiod = 12 hours.

No coral QT. Dip protocol for coral: Revive, Bayer, Lugol, rinse.

Snails are ok. I have some cyano & gha. Could be some dino, idk.

Fish behavior:
Morning = 1/4 cube of frozen mysis + 1 drop of AF FishV
Then nori 1/6 sheets.
Midday : feeder dropping a little bit New Life Spectrum pellets + Ocean nutrition formula 2 pellets.
Afternoon: 1/6 cube of homemade reef chili (salmon, scallop, shrimp, a drop of brightwell aquatics garlic),
Then another 1/6 sheet of nori.

Normal behavior: all fish would race to feeding.
Began with small anthias being chased by bigger anthias during feeding (maintaining dominance position); suddenly it hit a rock and seizure, drifting with current. I put the anthias easily in acclimation box because of seizure condition. Other fish were still normal.

Minutes after being put in the box, that anthias swam back normally.
24 hours in the box was quite stressful then i let that one back to reef, only to found the next day it was died. Other anthias still eagerly ate food. A few days later bigger anthias won't come out during feeding then a few days later was found dead. Then one by one had the same fate. This hiding behavior occured during brightlight and blue light.

No rubbing on rock, no visible ich or velvet, no shaking head. No swimming near powerhead.
Looking at the first dying anthias i thought it was HLLE.

Last fish alive was YT, during morning feeding it was suddenly panick and swam thru a rock making him paralyzed then I got the chance to scoop him out into QT for PraziPro treatment. But 36 hours later it also died.

Post mortem dipped in fresh water (sorry idk what to look for this flukes)

 

[TheLove]

All that was in a 30g tank? Could it be oxygen?

I would also think they would be under some stress from being in a 30g which may have let velvet set in their gills and take them out quickly before spots formed on the body. Just guessing.

Also check for stray voltage.

I did check for stray voltage.
Around 11.3 v AC, no DC.
After flipping some electrical sockets then it became 6.2v AC. Touching water didn't give electrical shock.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That Anthias definitely has some external disease issue. It could be an acute bacterial infection, but really, I cannot rule out protozoans or even fluke infestation. I can't tell from your dip photograph if it could be flukes, not enough detail. I may have missed this, but did you observe the respiration rate on these fish? That would be key in ruling out Amyloodinium at this point...if the respiration rate increased, I would say that that was the issue.

jay

 

[Arabyps]

I'm no expert, but the picture of the Anthias in the acclamation box looks like velvet. Tomants could have been on the coral and hatch 45 days after adherence to the hard surface. See https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/coral-invert-quarantine-time-frames.487/

 

[TheLove]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

As the others have said, that was a lot of fish for a 120 L aquarium. I don't see anything remarkable in the pictures. It is obviously after-the-fact now, but was the fish's respiration rate elevated? The dashing behavior could indicate Velvet (Amyloodinium) but the relatively long time for the deaths to happen seem to point away from that. The other issue, as noted could be low oxygen levels due to crowding, high temperature or lack of aeration. There is another issue that can develop in aquariums - the oxygen level may have been o.k., but there could have been high carbon dioxide from a lack of breaking the water's surface tension. I've seen that cause fish loss over time, and the fish can become frantic. However, rapid breathing would be seen in those fish.

Jay

Faster respiration could be a little, as i thought it was because of stress thus hiding. Not like gasping.

I did check ammonia it was <0.15 with salifert.

Tank turnover rate is about 100x with 3 powerheads. 2 of them are toward surface. Bare bottom tank.

pH 8.21-8.31 sometimes can reach 8.35.

I thought if it was a velvet outbreak then all fish would die within just days.

 

[Cole.mormon]

What is the g ph turnover

 

[Cole.mormon]

Lower the turnover the turnover should be around 1000 p
Gph

 

[Cole.mormon]

Also no tangs in a 30 gal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Faster respiration could be a little, as i thought it was because of stress thus hiding. Not like gasping.

I did check ammonia it was <0.15 with salifert.

Tank turnover rate is about 100x with 3 powerheads. 2 of them are toward surface. Bare bottom tank.

pH 8.21-8.31 sometimes can reach 8.35.

I thought if it was a velvet outbreak then all fish would die within just days.

As I said before, I would have expected that velvet would have caused fish loss much faster, but I'm struggling to come up with another solution. It sure seems like it might have been velvet to me. I'm just guessing here - but perhaps velvet, infecting established fish, shows different symptoms? We normally see velvet in new fish, and perhaps in longer term captives, it presents differently?

Jay

 

[TheLove]

What is the g ph turnover

Tank 120L (30G)
Two rossmont powerheads (5800lph & 4600lph) facing each other tilt upward, setting at max pulse 24hours (0.25 sec pulsing) giving the water body rocking all over.
And 1 maxspect jump 2k (7000 lph) with 8 flow program throughout the day. Almost 60%-100% all the time.
Therefore turnover i guess at least 14600 lph/ 120l --> >100X