Fish Sick. Need help.

[hobbyreefer]

180 gallon water volume.

Tank is about 3.5 months old.

I have had a few fish die recently and some of the others don't look well.

I do not have a quarantine tank (very much regretting this-blah,blah,blah).

I need help identifying what disease(s) is in the tank and I would love a reasonable plan of attack.

Here are the symptoms:

1. B&W clown fish has mouth wide open for 2-3 days
2. Memic tang has white flakes on fins (I don't see anything on the body)
3. Blue tang has a spot on body (maybe flukes)
4. Unicorn tang has cloudy eye and hiding a lot (cannot get a great picture)
5. 1 of my golden nugget clown pair died last night
6. I had a regal tang for about 10 days and it died last night - not sure if related. It would only nip at live clams.
7. It's hard to tell, but it looks like several tangs have white flakes just on the fins.

1. 3 chromis appear fine
2. 2 shrimp are fine
3. Cardinal fish looks fine
4. RBTA is fully open and appears fine
5. Most of the fish still eat and actively swim around tank

Salinity is 34 ppt
Phos is .19 -been reading 0 for the last month and I've been feeding a ton recently to get it up. Yesterday was the first time I've ever received a Phos reading
Nitrate 10 - also been reading 0 until yesterday
Dkh 7.6 (stable)
CA 450
Mag ~1400
API ammonia kit appears to be showing .25 (for whatever that's worth) - I do have a dead clown under the rocks that I have not been able to remove yet, but I'm thinking the API is giving a false positive.


Please help me with a reasonable plan. I do not have a quarantine tank but I have 2 40 gallon brute trashcans currently being used for fresh and salt water. I have a few extra heaters and pumps.

Should I remove ALL fish and put them in the brute trash cans? I was thinking I could move one of the large marine pure blocks from my sump and dump a bottle of bio-spira

This option would require me to remove all rocks from the DT and would be a huge pain...

Should I treat the DT with prazi?

The tank is new so I would rather resolve this now, but pulling everything out and starting over is a major bummer.

Here are some pictures. I only have an iPhone and it's really hard to get anything useful...

 

[hobbyreefer]

Do any of the experts have a suggestion?

 

[Layll318]

#reefsquad based on what I see, I would think it’s ich. But I am no expert

 

[Peace River]

@HotRocks @4FordFamily

 

[CuzzA]

Pull fish for qt. Fallow tank 76 days. Qt new additions. Looks like ich and bacterial infections.

 

[Birdbrains?]

That seem like very stressed out fishes.
Perhaps you are looking at it wrong, perhaps the clownfishes are getting rejected by the other inhabitants, or, perhaps the maroon clownfishes have been trying to dominate the tank and now half the fishes are stressed halfway to death; their health falling to one issue or another; one clownfish is dead and another have the very common physical battle damage of clownfishes (popped jaw).

I always hear people say, never move a fish until you see no other choice in order to save it's life. These fishes does not seem that sick, most people I know, would all say, give it time, don't rush. Perhaps you should just give them rest and keep an eye out for bullies and figure out if you need to separate some of the fishes before they kill eachother. Fish are not humane creatures, they will not show eachother mercy, and perhaps you stocked this tank alittle fast

 

[Qasimja]

i think you are dealing with marine velvet i see some dusting on the mimic tang

 

[hobbyreefer]

My LFS store that I trust also suspects marine velvet. I do not have a quarantine tank. Is there any reason against using my existing brute trashcan?

 

[4FordFamily]

I think you have multiple ailments. Cloudy eyes are usually caused by velvet or flukes, and then now you have bacterial infections as a result of these afflictions. Removal to a quarantine tank, tank left fallow 76 days, and treatment in copper will handle velvet and ich (30 days or 14 if transferred to a completely sterile QT sharing nothing with the first other than the fish). You’ll need to do daily baths in cipro or baytril for the infections.

If you add the trifecta instead for infections (kanaplex, metroplex, and furan 2) with the copper it could be too much for your biofilter and remove oxygen but it is another option.

For the flukes, if present which I suspect they are, a prazi pro bath before adding to the QT will give you a head start but you’ll need to dose it twice in QT 5-7 days apart. That’s mixing a lot of meds, which is why I recommend antibiotic baths in a separate tank— one that will need to be sterilized after every use to avoid reinfect ich or velvet since no copper will be present (bleach).

You'll need lots of Biospira for quick cycling the QT multiple times, and bubblers and power heads in each QT for oxygenation.

With so much going on, this is a lot of work. I believe you can do it!

 

[4FordFamily]

My LFS store that I trust also suspects marine velvet. I do not have a quarantine tank. Is there any reason against using my existing brute trashcan?

You won’t be able to see how effective the medications are is the primary issue with this.

 

[hobbyreefer]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. This is going to be very hard for me. I just don't have a lot of extra time. Here is my short term plan of attack.

Fill existing brute 40G trash bin with saltwater and bring up to temperature. I will add an 8x8 block of marine pure from my DT sump. I will add a pump and probably drop in a bottle of bio spira. I just picked up a bottle of Copper Power from the LFS, so I will add the correct dosage.

Then I will remove all rocks from my DT and net all fish putting everything in the 40 G. I have about 15 fish so this sounds like a bio load issue but I'm not sure what other options I have.

I will then probably rely on large water changes and bacteria filtration over the next few days. I will also start looking for a couple of 40 gallon tanks that I can convert to proper QT systems.

Either Way, it sounds like I need to run the DT without fish for 45+ days and I need to properly quarantine any new additions (duh).

Anything else? I'm a complete noob when it comes to QT process...

 

[Birdbrains?]

My LFS store that I trust also suspects marine velvet. I do not have a quarantine tank. Is there any reason against using my existing brute trashcan?

Well, your fishes doesn't seem very sick. Every expert I know, would say that there is zero reason to remove any of the fishes from their permanent home at this point, expect you cannot have different species of clownfish like that.

They would tell you to observe the fishes closely. Whenever a fish feels any stress, it's entire system shuts down for 12 hours.
So each time a fish is stressed, for a full 12 hours, the body of that fish, cannot combat neither sickness or infection.
Everytime..

The fishes will not really understand why they are being moved and they will not understand why they are in a water change bucket.

So yes, that is a really bad circumstance.

You have to decide either to leave your fishes in their permanent home, or, to put your DT fallow and make a completely new start with a properly set up quarantine tank, so that you can have a more sterile tank. I do not recommend sterile tanks since you will then end up with fishes that have approximately zero immunity.

I do not suggest that you throw your fishes into a bucket and flush them with meds.

The stuff on the fins seem like normal fish immunity battling ich and if your fishes get some peace and rest they will probably fight it off by themselves. The popped jaw is a physical damage and will either recover by itself or you will need to help the fish by popping it back into place for it.

But to put two different species of clownfish into a bucket when they are already fighting, would be animal cruelty.

Hurry slow and good luck with everything.