Help! Tank is crashing!

[KrissyMo88]

Hey everyone!

New to reef2reef! Nice to meet you!

I have a 110 gallon tanks, predator tank and having massive issues. I had 10 fish going into the weekend and 4 left. The last fish I added was my hummu trigger and it’s been approx. 2 weeks.

I noticed scratching on some fish and started treating with herbtana day and night treatments (all BigAls had).

After day 7 of a 10 day treatment, I started seeing bad deaths. My clown trigger, blue line trigger, porcupine puffer, dogface puffer and harlequin tusk all died within 72 hours. Also, everyone is affected in my display tank.

I’m currently in hyposalitity, raised tank temperatures, and have now been dosing super ich cure (as I was told this was ich from a few professionals).

Help!

Is this ich, or marine velvet? Anything else I can do? Really hoping to cure before my 3 year old golden puffer or other triggers pass.

Thanks in advance!

P.s not sure how to post photos of fish, but will try to figure out!

 

[MSB123]

If you select “upload file” at the bottom, you can choose a picture

 

[jpcrash1]

I am sorry for what your going through. Have you tested your water?

 

[Dom]

The rate at which you are losing fish suggests that something sinister is at work here, possibly Velvet. But we need more information.

Please post a complete list of your latest water test results, along with the age of the test results.

Also:

Have you noticed anything unusual in the behavior of the fish?
Are they swimming into the flow of power heads or the return?
Are they hiding in the rock work?
Are they breathing heavy?
Are they rubbing themselves against the rock work?
Any visible signs of illness on the fish (flukes)?

Do you quarantine your fish before adding them to your display tank?

Photos would be helpful.

 

[artieg1]

Ich doesn't do this. Sounds very much like velvet or one of the other deadly parasites. Good news is you have a FOWLR, right, so you could conceivably treat with CP or copper in the tank. Otherwise you have to remove the fish and treat them, and consider letting tank go fallow for the applicable time period (ich longer than velvet). So sorry. I have been there. It is why I religiously QT each and every fish. Ich is an annoyance and more of a moral issue (is it fair to let your fish suffer?), not a mortality issue. Velvet will wipe your tank and drive you from the hobby in anguish. The only good news is that QT protocols for ich are the same as for velvet.

 

[KrissyMo88]

Thanks for all your help! Here are the photos.

Tested water, and it’s spot on. Nitrates are little at 20 but I’ve been feeding large with frequent water changes to encourage hunger with garlic. All food varieties even live food.

Breathing heavy (puffer) but all other only show scratching.

No unusual swimming behaviour, though my puffer is stationed at the bottom of the tank (he’s in the worse condition).

 

[Jet Sled]

Looks like velvet to me. That white powdery dust appearance on the fish and your super fast die off rate along with them scratching is something I first experienced when I came into the hobby last year. Treated my fish with Chloroquine Phosphate and still have my 3 chromis and pair of clowns that survived. There is a nice guide for treatment in the fish disease section stickies. Some good people over there puting alot of work in for the hobby! I would check it out.

 

[rkpetersen]

Whether crypto or velvet, immediate treatment with either copper (Copper Power plus Hanna checker recommended strongly) or chloroquine phosphate is needed.
Optimally in a separate quarantine tank although in a pinch you could treat in a FOWLER, although it will be difficult maintaining therapeutic drug levels there.
Assume it's velvet because that's the worst. A freshwater dip followed by an acriflavine bath may help the fish a lot in the short term, but won't eliminate the disease.
The treatments you've been using won't ever cure velvet or crypto, at best they might suppress it for a while.
Here's a summary of effective treatment: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499437

 

[w2inc]

Chloroquine Phosphate is some times hard to find, but it works really well and really fast!

I wont debate Crypto or Velvet but the treatment is the same for either. I am on board with @rkpetersen for the protocol of you think your fish can handle it.

I Do like Hyposalinity for several reasons, but it is easy to go too far with it. I would never try it without a refractory type of salinity gauge. I would also want to be sure my gauge was calibrated correctly.

I wish you the best.

 

[cmcoker]

Set your temperature back to normal, elevated temp will lower dissolved oxygen making it even harder for the fish to breathe. Sounds velvet-y to me as well, you have recieved some good options already, as you probably have figured out, you will need to act quickly to save the remaining fish.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Agree with Velvet, QT all fish treat with either copper or CP. your DT will need to go fallow for 6 weeks. Unfortunately none of the. Treatments you are using work with Velvet. You can give your fish a FW dip to buy them some time but as you’ve seen velvet kills extremely fast.

 

[KrissyMo88]

Thanks everyone! I’m going to do the freshwater dip tonight, and will try cooper. I have a golden puffer so will do half the dose to ensure the puffer makes it okay.

I have put in super ich cure last night (unsure of ick of velvet) but wanted to see if anyone had experience mixing these two and fish safety. I can put in the carbon for 24 hours if needed but had my yellow tang die today.

Any insight?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Was it the powder or liquid?

 

[artieg1]

Voice of experience here. There is no fixing this quickly, the parasite is in the tank. I hate to say this, but I would not focus directly on the fish. You need a complete treatment plan that addresses the tank. If it is a predator tank and you have no inverts, you can treat the tank itself with copper or CP. Copper and CP don't "cure" the fish. Copper and CP kill the parasite when it drops off the fish as part of its life cycle. There is no curing the fish, they survive or they don't. You want to wipe out the parasites in the tank when they drop off the fish (which they must do) as part of the life cycle.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Personally, I would remove a good bit of your live rock... if not all of it... into a large brute or similar with a heater and powerhead to keep it “alive”. It’s going to be VERY difficult to control copper fluctuations in a tank full of live rock. Plus, any die-off can have a negative impact on your water quality.

Any CUC will need removed as well to treat in-tank. They can go into the “rock container” as well. The entire container will have to remain without fish for 76 days.

In the place of rock in the tank, to provide hiding places and reduce aggression. Add a bunch of PVC pieces and elbows.

You’ll need to treat the tank at therapeutic levels for 30 days, and then remove the copper and monitor for the remainder of your “fallow period” for the rock container.

After 76 days, if there is no re-occurring symptoms in the tank... remove the PVC and replace the rock and CUC.

That’s what I would suggest in this scenario!

 

[Captain Quint]

I hate to welcome you aboard under these conditions.

You've already gotten good info and not much more I can add at the moment. I'm sorry you and your critters are going through this.

 

[KrissyMo88]

Was it the powder or liquid?

Liquid!

 

[ngoodermuth]

Liquid!

The liquid is malachite green, which is pretty toxic stuff and I’m not sure it will show up on copper test kits.

Here is an article on wet web media, I’ve honestly not used it myself:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/malachitegreen.htm

I’d do as large a water change as possible and run carbon or a poly filter for at least a few hours before starting copper, to be safe.

 

[MnFish1]

Ps - agree Velvet - and your rock work looks nice:). Good luck with the treatment.

 

[KCSUMPS]

What has been your final outcome? Just had a similar event in a reef tank and working a tank tear down and QT with copper now... Lost all but one fish (of 15)...