HELP...Fish are dying

Shuladog

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
29
Reaction score
16
Location
Snohomish
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have a fairly new tank that was started at the end of 2020. It's a Reefer 525xl. I cycled with a small pair of clowns and everything was going well. Along the way I added a Yellow Tang, a Blue Dot Jawfish, a Bicolor Blenny and a small Blue Tang (not all at once but over about 6 weeks). I also was given another clown fish and a few BTAs. About a 2 weeks ago I saw some "black ich" on the Yellow Tang and some large black "splotches" on the Blue Tang. I researched and decided that I would treat the tank with PraziPro, based on a thread from Humblefish. A few days after dosing, my Jawfish (in the tank over a month) started going downhill. He lasted about a week and then died with some sort of small wounds on his side and maybe some white patches as well. I chalked that up to Blue Dot Jawfish Disease because I know that they can be hard to keep. The Blue Tang became less and less visible but then after a 20% water change, seemed better. He died two days ago. The next day my Blenny died (he looked fine and was eating the night before). Last night one of my Clownfish died. He too was eating yesterday and had no visible signs of disease that I could see. The limited small pieces of coral that I have are all alive but not really thriving. The shrimp seem fine, as do the hermits. The snails are seem like they are not doing too well.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

My water parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .03
temp 77
Salinity 35
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,485
Reaction score
23,571
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Change water


pull all fish re fallow

qt them medically treat based on symptoms

re intro

if you choose any other method they’ll die.



what’s being applied there is what you’ll want to use. As we collect ideas here for your treatment, compare them to ideas being used there in frequency and outcome.
 
OP
OP
Shuladog

Shuladog

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
29
Reaction score
16
Location
Snohomish
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Change water


pull all fish re fallow

qt them

re intro

if you choose any other method they’ll die.



what’s being applied there is what you’ll want to use. As we collect ideas here for your treatment, compare them to ideas being used there in frequency and outcome.
I have been doing 15 gallon water changes weekly since setting up the display tank.

I have a QT tank set up. It is a 10 gallon tank and is at the tail end of cycling with ammonia 0, nitrites at .05 and nitrates at 3. Should I treat that tank with anything or just add the fish and observe?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,485
Reaction score
23,571
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
my best relay from watching fish disease control is that the main tank must be host starved to earn today's top retention rate.

it isn't that other aged systems here don't naturally suppress disease, its that bringing yours up to that maturity and luck level will take too long vs fallow and quarantining, well done on your preps so far. Nice way to begin the hardware assembly for all that, the payoff will be a diverse fish loading earned. I know of no bottled additives that fix the main tank other than one off testimonies. For patterned events I'd have to refer there, because anything else is single-point review and that above is a collection of ten new challenges a day plus feedback logged for a decade. so its not that the doser against ich can't work, its that in the thread logs qt and fallow works to retain the highest number of living fish.


As you can see in that forum, even folks with matured systems present with fish disease when fallow and qt is skipped or in cases where it fails, its not 100% effective. its just the most updated means; the highest retention rate among fish disease approaches.

once its all set back in place, feeding with ultra high quality feed seems to be the most important conditioning aspect from threads that do not have to use fallow and quarantine. I like that ordered system pairing the two options.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Shuladog

Shuladog

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
29
Reaction score
16
Location
Snohomish
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
my best relay from watching fish disease control is that the main tank must be host starved to earn today's top retention rate.

it isn't that other aged systems here don't naturally suppress disease, its that bringing yours up to that maturity and luck level will take too long vs fallow and quarantining, well done on your preps so far. Nice way to begin the hardware assembly for all that, the payoff will be a diverse fish loading earned. I know of no bottled additives that fix the main tank other than one off testimonies. For patterned events I'd have to refer there, because anything else is single-point review and that above is a collection of ten new challenges a day plus feedback logged for a decade. so its not that the doser against ich can't work, its that in the thread logs qt and fallow works to retain the highest number of living fish.


As you can see in that forum, even folks with matured systems present with fish disease when fallow and qt is skipped or in cases where it fails, its not 100% effective. its just the most updated means; the highest retention rate among fish disease approaches.

once its all set back in place, feeding with ultra high quality feed seems to be the most important conditioning aspect from threads that do not have to use fallow and quarantine. I like that ordered system pairing the two options.
Ok, I think I may be dealing with Brooklynella. I have removed the remaining 3 fish and gave them a fromilin / quickstart bath. I then placed them in my 10 gal QT. QT tank was at 0 ammonia, .05 nitrites and 5 nitrates. After 20 hours with fish in the QT the ammonia went up to .6 or so. Nitrites and Nitrates are the same.

Can I keep the ammonia down by doing water changes every day or 2 or am I going to have to find another solution?
 

Theulli

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 7, 2021
Messages
468
Reaction score
457
Location
At home
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok, I think I may be dealing with Brooklynella. I have removed the remaining 3 fish and gave them a fromilin / quickstart bath. I then placed them in my 10 gal QT. QT tank was at 0 ammonia, .05 nitrites and 5 nitrates. After 20 hours with fish in the QT the ammonia went up to .6 or so. Nitrites and Nitrates are the same.

Can I keep the ammonia down by doing water changes every day or 2 or am I going to have to find another solution?

I don't think there is an answer to the bottom question. I literally just went through this same process a month ago - you stock up on water as much as you can, test constantly, and do water changes to a frequency and degree according to what you're seeing on the tests. You may need large water changes daily. On the other hand, if the tank was almost cycled and had 0 ammonia prior to introducing fish as you mention above, the spike may be relatively short lived, and you just need to do water changes to keep ammonia at levels survivable by your fish.

I am guessing you don't have rock/sand in the QT? One thing I did that seemed to work nicely, if it's bio load you're concerned about, is I made a 'substrate' out of filter sponge. Gets you some extra surface area for (as my son and I like to call it) happy bacteria, and it's inert so it won't mess with your treatments. Just used some pvc pipe to weight it down.
 
OP
OP
Shuladog

Shuladog

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
29
Reaction score
16
Location
Snohomish
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
my best relay from watching fish disease control is that the main tank must be host starved to earn today's top retention rate.

it isn't that other aged systems here don't naturally suppress disease, its that bringing yours up to that maturity and luck level will take too long vs fallow and quarantining, well done on your preps so far. Nice way to begin the hardware assembly for all that, the payoff will be a diverse fish loading earned. I know of no bottled additives that fix the main tank other than one off testimonies. For patterned events I'd have to refer there, because anything else is single-point review and that above is a collection of ten new challenges a day plus feedback logged for a decade. so its not that the doser against ich can't work, its that in the thread logs qt and fallow works to retain the highest number of living fish.


As you can see in that forum, even folks with matured systems present with fish disease when fallow and qt is skipped or in cases where it fails, its not 100% effective. its just the most updated means; the highest retention rate among fish disease approaches.

once its all set back in place, feeding with ultra high quality feed seems to be the most important conditioning aspect from threads that do not have to use fallow and quarantine. I like that ordered system pairing the two options.
Do I need to worry about Nitrites in QT or just ammonia? I have been doing 40% water changes for the last 3 days ammonia is staying in check but Nitrites and Nitrates continue to climb.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,485
Reaction score
23,571
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
No I promise they’re neutral. It’s one less thing to worry about


check out how I asked the question here, didn’t leave any room for times we might need the know about nitrite:


ive never seen any reef organism people keep react to a positive nitrite reading. The ammonia control is all that matters, feel free to keep up water changes if you like, harmless oxygenation. If reefers dose bottle bac or prime or other oxygen sinks that is unideal, no harm in basic water changes if you’d like more purity. If your ammonia shows controlled and the water stays clear no cloud it means all is safe.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Shuladog

Shuladog

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
29
Reaction score
16
Location
Snohomish
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OK...Thank you for the help!
No I promise they’re neutral. It’s one less thing to worry about


check out how I asked the question here, didn’t leave any room for times we might need the know about nitrite:


ive never seen any reef organism people keep react to a positive nitrite reading. The ammonia control is all that matters, feel free to keep up water changes if you like, harmless oxygenation. If reefers dose bottle bac or prime or other oxygen sinks that is unideal, no harm in basic water changes if you’d like more purity. If your ammonia shows controlled and the water stays clear no cloud it means all is safe.
 

Deyan

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
79
Reaction score
53
Location
Lake Worth
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have a fairly new tank that was started at the end of 2020. It's a Reefer 525xl. I cycled with a small pair of clowns and everything was going well. Along the way I added a Yellow Tang, a Blue Dot Jawfish, a Bicolor Blenny and a small Blue Tang (not all at once but over about 6 weeks). I also was given another clown fish and a few BTAs. About a 2 weeks ago I saw some "black ich" on the Yellow Tang and some large black "splotches" on the Blue Tang. I researched and decided that I would treat the tank with PraziPro, based on a thread from Humblefish. A few days after dosing, my Jawfish (in the tank over a month) started going downhill. He lasted about a week and then died with some sort of small wounds on his side and maybe some white patches as well. I chalked that up to Blue Dot Jawfish Disease because I know that they can be hard to keep. The Blue Tang became less and less visible but then after a 20% water change, seemed better. He died two days ago. The next day my Blenny died (he looked fine and was eating the night before). Last night one of my Clownfish died. He too was eating yesterday and had no visible signs of disease that I could see. The limited small pieces of coral that I have are all alive but not really thriving. The shrimp seem fine, as do the hermits. The snails are seem like they are not doing too well.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

My water parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .03
temp 77
Salinity 35
Jaw fish require cooler water as well. I’d slow down with additions and take it slow.. I got a clown that gets black spots but it’s because it likes to lay on top of palys... fish is fine but I admit looks funky I think your problem was not doing enough research and moved to quick adding things that wouldn’t work just because you thought they looked cool. Sorry to come across a bit of a jerk but I gotta call it how I see it. I’ve made that mistake in my early days (1st set up) with time you will learn unless you quit the hobby.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 38 50.0%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 40 52.6%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 16 21.1%
  • None.

    Votes: 19 25.0%
  • Other.

    Votes: 7 9.2%
Back
Top