Help! Fish Dying

[TheYellowTang]

Hello. Sad day here in my home.
I just returned from a 10 day work trip. My family was taking care of all my animals while i was gone. My saltwater tank lost all its fish. Looks like they bought a fish with my nephew and it had a disease. Every night there after another fish died. When i got home one clown was left. It had a white tone to it and was trying to swim but could not. It was more darting around the tank then falling to the bottom. My Moorish Idol of 3 years was in that tank. I worked so hard to keep him and all of the fish healthy. This is really sad.

Now that there are only corals and inverts left where do I even begin with trying to fix this and make my tank safe to start again

 

[Reeflix]

(i am not an expert) but this sounds like velvet to me, pics might help, but if this is velvet then a fallow period would kill all of the parasites. @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

 

[Sharkbait19]

Welcome to the forum - sorry it’s under such terrible circumstances.
That really sucks - do you have any pictures or videos of the affected fish before death that can point to what the disease is?
If there are no fish left, the only thing to do is fallow the tank for at least 60 days and start over. Be sure to quarantine all new individuals so as not to get a disease outbreak again (and be sure to inform your family of the dangers of adding unquarantined fish).

 

[TheYellowTang]

(i am not an expert) but this sounds like velvet to me, pics might help, but if this is velvet then a fallow period would kill all of the parasites. @vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

I just looked up pictures of fish with velvet and it looks pretty similar. I will see if they took pics while i was away.

 

[Bpones]

Jesus that’s a nightmare. I’m sorry for your loss.

 

[TheYellowTang]

Welcome to the forum - sorry it’s under such terrible circumstances.
That really sucks - do you have any pictures or videos of the affected fish before death that can point to what the disease is?
If there are no fish left, the only thing to do is fallow the tank for at least 60 days and start over. Be sure to quarantine all new individuals so as not to get a disease outbreak again (and be sure to inform your family of the dangers of adding unquarantined fish).

Thank you so much for tour warm welcome. I can guarantee you they will never touch my tank again after the lecture i gave them. I just looked up velvet and the pictures seem to match. It was a quick turn around time from the time they were infected until they died. Does velvet work fast ?
Should i do a water change also now?

 

[Lavey29]

Sorry for your losses. Tank will need to fallow 45 to 76 days depending on what disease you think. Clowns are prone to brook more so then velvet.

 

[Sharkbait19]

With velvet, you typically won’t see any of the white spotting or coats - the main symptom will be fast breathing (accompanied by swimming into flow) followed by death. It is very fast acting and can wipe out a tank in days.
You can do a water change, but that won’t do anything about parasite load. Only a fallow will take care of that.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Velvet kills very fast. I agree with the others, take your tank fallow. Always, always quarantine! I too travel and suggest you take the following measures:

Wyze camera set up on tank and sump and check your tank a couple of times a day.
Dual automatic feeders set up on different times (in case one doesn't work). I use Eheims.
Dual thermometers with Inkbird controllers. For longer trips, put one in the DT. I run with 2 all the time.
Automatic airstone
Have a backup reefer friend or maintenance for hire person available in case of an emergency.

 

[Reeflix]

Does velvet work fast ?
Should i do a water change also now?

Velvet is an extremely fast killer, killed all of my fish (7) in about 3 days, I was quite the beginner then a completely freaked and couldn’t figure out what was going on, maybe if you vacuum your sand bed it would get rid of just a few parasites, but not enough to make a dent, I did a 75 day fallow and that was long enough, killed all of my velvet

 

[NCsalt]

Wait… they bought a fish and put it in your tank while you were gone?

Wow. I would be ballistic.

 

[MnFish1]

Sorry to hear this it seems like 'stuff' always happens when the aquarist is away.... Agree with what the rest have said - although I don't normally 'feed' my coral, depending on the type, you may want to consider it - depending on the type of coral you have... This will help keep your bacteria levels 'active' so that when you add fish back, you're less likely to have problems. Again - so sorry this happened. In case you didn't know - the recommended QT protocol followed here is a stickie at the top of the Disease Forum.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Please furnish pics and video to confirm velvet and in case have coppersafe and a Hanna copper test kit ready in case

 

[MnFish1]

Please furnish pics and video to confirm velvet and in case have coppersafe and a Hanna copper test kit ready in case

Unfortunately - the fish are dead.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Unfortunately - the fish are dead.

I omitted- “ for the future, have coppersafe,etc”