Have I killed my partners fish, feel so guilty!

[helpneeded123]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the correct place to post sorry if not but I don’t know much about reef fish. Anyway as the title says I think I may have almost wiped my partners reef tank out, bit of back story……

My partner had a fish in his tank which need to come out and be moved as it was being aggressive so I helped him as we had to move some rocks ect and had both my hands and arms in the tank, about an hour after we moved the fish his shrimps, crabs and a few fish started passing away one by one, my partner is quite experienced with reef tanks he did all his usual tests and said all his parameters look good, he’s done a large water change and everything seems to have settled but he’s lost six items in his tank.

As we couldn’t work out what had gone wrong we did a bit of research and read high iodine can be too toxic to fish and crustaceans, I am currently receiving treatment for thyroid canacer and have recently undergone RIA treatment ( radio active iodine) I am out of my isolation period and fully safe to be around people but my body still omits low levels of iodine radiation and I was wondering if I had caused this by putting my hands in the tank.

We are going to have a water tested by the local pet store but its closed for the weekend so I thought would pose here to see if anyone had any advice or thoughts over the matter as I feel so guilty my partner could of lost some expensive fish because of me, thank you in advance for reading

 

[DirectCherry]

I don't have any input, but I'll bump this for you

 

[Lavey29]

Sorry for your losses but honestly any time you put hands into the water there is always a risk of contamination albeit minimal generally. Even candle odor floating in the air can cause tank issues. While your theory has some probability I would not say there is definite proof. Could be lotions, soap from washing, etc...or could be what you suggest. Water changes and running carbon best approach now. Good luck with your treatment and hope you have a speedy recovery.

 

[Tcook]

Had nothing to do with your treatment. Was there a deep sandbed that was disturbed?

 

[o2manyfish]

The chances it is your fault is very slim. More that likely when you were moving all the rocks around to catch the fish you disturbed and released pockets under the rocks that were areas of anaerobic filtration. Pending the size of the tank and the amount disturbed there could have been significant increases in ammonia or sulphur ( i think it's sulphur that's a byproduct of anaerobic bacterial filtration) that was released into the water columun, which could have resulted in the experience you and your partner had.

With a properly filtered and mature fish tank these bursts of toxicity would have been quickly rectified by the biological filtration in the reef and being able to detect this hours after the fish died might not be possible making all parameters look good while the death says things should be otherwise.

Dave B

 

[helpneeded123]

Hi guys, thank you so much for the replies, disturbing the sand makes a lot of sense as it’s a very mature tank been running for years, I think when I just saw the that iodine could be harmful and the coincidence of my treatment I freaked out but this has put my mind at ease a bit. The guy who owns our local fish store is also a good friend so he coming over tomorrow to do some more in-depth test to see we can get to the bottom of it, maby we will never know. My partner bought a six line wrass without doing his research, what an idiot and it was picking on other fish which is why it had to come out and go into a separate tank, our friend is going to take and rehome it, thanks again, what a fab forum so much knowledge, been reading for hours so much interesting info