mp2022
Active Member
I have a 9 month old 40sh gallon mixed reef tank with roughly stable parameters for a while now and long story short have had a relatively rapid die off of many of fish without preceding signs of a sickness while at the same time my corals are growing very well and inverts are healthy. Only change is that around the time this started I began dosing vibrant and fluc for out of control bubble algae and Bryopsis refractory to non chemical means including taking out all my live rock in one sitting and scrubbing everything clean.
Stocking before this all began:
2 mated Percula clown (purchased full grown)
Adult yellow striped blenny (purchased full grown)
Orchid dottyback
Watchman goby
Court jester goby
All these fish were purchased around the same time 7-8 months ago and had been doing well.
A little over a month ago I found my court jester goby had jumped out of the tank. I then purchased a cardinal fish to replace it which was immediately murdered by the Percula clown pair within a day. About 2 weeks later, my yellow striped blenny went from being vibrant and very active to dead with no signs of ICH or velvet or physical damage. And then today I found the male Percula dead, again with no signs of disease or damage. The female seems fine.
I have 2 tunze 6075 going basically at full blast, and return pump for 20g sump so there is plenty of water movement in tank. I feed flakes twice a day with an automatic feeder, and once a week give a mysis shrimp pellet.
I bring up a murdered cardinal fish by the clowns as a potential indicator stress in the tank.
I really have no idea what is going on - has anyone experienced this when everything else in the tank seems to be going fine and there are no physical signs of fish illness (apart from sudden death…)? Can vibrant kill of fish? Thanks in advance.
Other details.
Water temp 78, salinity 33ppm, Ammonia 0, nitrate 15-20 and requires dosing, phosphate generally 0.04-0.06 and requires dosing although random bump to .11 today so decreased dosing amount (i am assuming this spike is related to algae death), alk 9.2, ca 420-430, mg 1230.
Inverts - bunch of urchins, all sorts of snails, pitho and emerald crabs, sea cucumber, a couple of starfish
I have probably 30 or corals all purchased as frags - mostly SPS (including acros and montis), LPS, and soft. The Montis and LPS are growing very quickly, and all the acros have excellent color and polyp extension.
Stocking before this all began:
2 mated Percula clown (purchased full grown)
Adult yellow striped blenny (purchased full grown)
Orchid dottyback
Watchman goby
Court jester goby
All these fish were purchased around the same time 7-8 months ago and had been doing well.
A little over a month ago I found my court jester goby had jumped out of the tank. I then purchased a cardinal fish to replace it which was immediately murdered by the Percula clown pair within a day. About 2 weeks later, my yellow striped blenny went from being vibrant and very active to dead with no signs of ICH or velvet or physical damage. And then today I found the male Percula dead, again with no signs of disease or damage. The female seems fine.
I have 2 tunze 6075 going basically at full blast, and return pump for 20g sump so there is plenty of water movement in tank. I feed flakes twice a day with an automatic feeder, and once a week give a mysis shrimp pellet.
I bring up a murdered cardinal fish by the clowns as a potential indicator stress in the tank.
I really have no idea what is going on - has anyone experienced this when everything else in the tank seems to be going fine and there are no physical signs of fish illness (apart from sudden death…)? Can vibrant kill of fish? Thanks in advance.
Other details.
Water temp 78, salinity 33ppm, Ammonia 0, nitrate 15-20 and requires dosing, phosphate generally 0.04-0.06 and requires dosing although random bump to .11 today so decreased dosing amount (i am assuming this spike is related to algae death), alk 9.2, ca 420-430, mg 1230.
Inverts - bunch of urchins, all sorts of snails, pitho and emerald crabs, sea cucumber, a couple of starfish
I have probably 30 or corals all purchased as frags - mostly SPS (including acros and montis), LPS, and soft. The Montis and LPS are growing very quickly, and all the acros have excellent color and polyp extension.
