Help me please.....

[Clairestef]

Hi

I think I’m having major issues in my tank and not quite sure what is happening.

We added a blue hippo tang in our tank around 6 weeks ago stupidly do not have a quarantine tank so did not quarantine her, she was doing fine for a while and then we started to see a few spots on her so doing some research we started to feed some garlic and soak the nori in garlic we have since bought and started dosing polyp lab medic as we couldn’t catch her and thought it was best to dose the tank encase all the other fish had caught the white spot, soo we are up to 15 days dosing and a lot of the fish are looking scabby (looks sort of like sunburn and peeling scales)
Unfortunately my fairy wrasse died and now have found my black capped basslet dead
My blue cheek goby looks like he might be dying but is still eating and occasionally swimming around and also my female twin spot anthias looks scabby.
Not sure the cause of this and all my corals are fine.

Have done water changes and my water parameters have not changed

Salt - 1.025/6
Ammonia - 0.0mg
Nitrite - 0.0mg
Ph - 8.5
KH - 12dKH
Calcium - 400mg
Phosphate - 1.0mg
Nitrate - in between 25/50 mg
Magnesium - 1500mg

Have been dosing Red Sea no3-po4-x for a while now too and can not reduce the levels of phosphate and nitrate.
Added cheato in sump but sea hare munched it up.

Please can somebody help I hate losing fish thanks in advance

 

[Josh Kraft]

That white area on the one picture makes me think flukes.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

Freshwater dip would be a good way to rule it out.

Or Brooklynella.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

 

[artieg1]

Ich generally does not kill like this. I am guessing velvet or one of the other serious parasitic infections. This likely has nothing to do with water parameters, nitrate, etc. Garlic in food is not going to do anything. I know this hurts. I've been right there. It is why I QT everything now.

I would remove fish and treat in a separate tank where you can eradicate parasites without harming corals and inverts. I would leave DT fallow at least for the period of time needed for velvet (you could go longer and eradicate ich). All of this is available on, literally, thousands of threads on R2R. Search for "fallow" and follow instructions for treating the fish separately. I would not focus on saving the fish, though (the damage is done). I would focus on a plan forward for ridding your DT of the parasite by disrupting its life cycle by going fallow, and developing a plan for QTing fish before introduction to your DT in the future.

 

[Clairestef]

Thanks for replies
Can I ask in general how big dose a QT need to be? I have a small tank but think it’s too small to house all the fish in for 6 weeks. Plus I would need to tear down my whole tank to catch the fish.
If I did a fresh water dip can you put the fish straight back into the DT?

We are annoyed with our selfs as we was never going to get a hippo tang and for ages we didn’t get one but the guy in store talked us into getting one saying that if we didn’t have ICH in our tank then the hippo tang wouldn’t get it! So not sure if he had it previously!
Will definitely be quarantining everything that goes in from now on.

 

[Josh Kraft]

post up the size of your DT, and your stock list and some people will be able to chime in.

 

[Clairestef]

So we have a 6x2x2 DT with a 4x1x1 sump
Stock is
1 blue throat trigger
1 yellow tang
1 hippo tang
1 lipstick Naso Tang
1 black and white clown
1 orange and white clown
1 dwarf fire angel
Twin spot anthias pair
1 blue cheek goby
1 leopard wrasse
1 Valentini puffer
2 dart ‘fire’ fish
1 magnificent fox face
10 blue/green Cromis
1 fire shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
7 hermit crabs (various ones)
Nasarius snails
1 sea hare in sump

I have found two small tanks we had gold fish in years ago but think it’s a bit cruel for that many fish.

Please could someone tell me how you get ICH or Velvet does it come in with new fish or corals?
And also if I can get all the fish out can I leave the corals in the DT?

Thank you

 

[Josh Kraft]

That is a large amount of fish....

Please could someone tell me how you get ICH or Velvet does it come in with new fish or corals?
It can come in on anything. Here are the different stages.

* Trophont: The “feeding stage” of the parasite that attaches itself to the fish, commonly associated with salt or sugar-like “sprinkles” on the body or fins. These sprinkles are not the actual parasite, as all stages of ich are invisible to the naked eye. Each white dot is actually caused by excess mucous which forms around the area where a trophont latches onto the fish. This is the fish’s immune response to the parasite. With ich, the trophont burrows in under the epithelium (outer skin layer), is oval shaped, and ranges in size from 48 x 27 to 452 x 360 micrometers. A fish carrying trophonts doesn’t always have visible symptoms, as the gills are easier to penetrate, and those trophonts will be out of sight. Trophonts in the gills cause excess fluid to build up, making it more difficult for the fish to breathe.

* Protomont: The stage where the parasite drops off the fish, before becoming a tomont. Protomonts crawl around looking for surfaces to encyst upon.

* Tomont: The “encysted stage” which adheres to rocks, shells, substrate – and even possibly corals/inverts. Tomonts produce “daughter” tomites, which are then released into the water column as theronts.

* Theront: The “free swimming” stage which seeks out fish to infect/feed upon. Theronts are the only stage eradicated by chemical treatments (e.g. copper) and hyposalinity. It is also possible to cross contaminate with theronts by sharing water between tanks or via aerosol transmission. Once a theront finds a fish host and attaches, it becomes a trophont and the life cycle begins anew. (This can continue almost indefinitely until the theront life stage gets interrupted by copper, hyposalinity, etc.)

And also if I can get all the fish out can I leave the corals in the DT?

You can leave all corals / inverts in the tank and ich/velvet will starve to death.
This stuff can stay.
1 fire shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
7 hermit crabs (various ones)
Nasarius snails
1 sea hare in sump (not sure about this)

Keep in mind, what you have may not be ich/velvet, so starving it may not be the answer.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Are the clownfish showing any symptoms? The peeling/sloughing mucous is very much indicative of brooklynella... but clowns are very prone to this, so it would be uncommon for the clowns to be asymptomatic while other fish are struggling...

I agree, catching one of the affected fish for a freshwater dip is a good place to start. Some recent occurrences of flukes have been quite virulent, and accompanied by some pretty serious bacterial infections so I wouldn’t rule out flukes completely without performing a dip.

If no flukes show, then I’d say it’s very likely brook... or possibly velvet.

@HotRocks @4FordFamily @BigG @Frtdrmrose7

My gut says brook, but I’d feel better with a few more eyes on it