ID Help Please

[SpyC]

This happened a few weeks ago and I unfortunately don’t have any photos, but maybe with the order of events someone can give me a few ideas of possible culprits.

I had one clownfish in the tank for about 4 weeks before adding another clown, royal gramma, and sharknose goby. All fish were active and eating well until 12 days after introduction to the tank. At this time I fed LRS fish frenzy. The following day the sharknose goby started showing labored breathing and what looked like a fluffy white larger spot on its fins. Eventually he disappeared and all I never found the remains. 2 days later the original clown was doing loop da loops and unable to swim any other direction besides back flips. The newer clown was also struggling to swim. The royal gramma was nowhere to be found. I started mixing water for a 20% water change while I tested ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Ammonia was 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 10 using ted sea test kits. The original clown died before completing the water change. The new clown started acting normal after the water change. The next day I found the new clow and royal gramma dead. All lps and soft corals were looking great during the entire time. Tank was 3 months old.

I am torn between marine velvet due to the speed at which everything died, a different parasite to cause the brain issues with the clown doing backflips, or a mixture of a few things. The tank has been sitting fallow for 3 weeks and I don’t plan on adding fish until Jan 1st.

woth this limited information, what is everyone’s guesses caused the mass death?

 

[lapin]

Velvet and/or Brooklynella

 

[SpyC]

Brook was my other guess. All of the photos I have seen of brook match what I saw better than velvet, but didn’t think brook would wipe out the other species so quickly.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Very hard to assess or conclude without pics
As brook would have not hit the other fish as with the clown, if velvet, you would have noticed;
Labored breathing
Fish gasping at surface
Loss of appetite
Swimming in front of power heads
Cloudy eyes

with brook:
Mucus around face
Lethargic behavior
Moping around on the bottom
Stop eating

 

[MnFish1]

what looked like a fluffy white larger spot on its fins

This sounds like lymphocystis - which is a viral infection - and not usually harmful

2 days later the original clown was doing loop da loops and unable to swim any other direction besides back flips.

Could be flukes, a parasite (velvet/brooklynells), etc. see below

The newer clown was also struggling to swim.

How did you acclimate the new clown

The royal gramma was nowhere to be found.

All of this sounds like a disease - could be velvet - could be flukes. It's impossible to say. Do you have any living fish in the tank? You could treat with Prazipro - or merely leave the tank fallow?

 

[SpyC]

Very hard to assess or conclude without pics
As brook would have not hit the other fish as with the clown, if velvet, you would have noticed;
Labored breathing
Fish gasping at surface
Loss of appetite
Swimming in front of power heads
Cloudy eyes

mid brook:
Mucus around face
Lethargic behavior
Moping around on the bottom
Stop eating

Yea, I knew it would be nearly impossible to settlw on one culprit but even having some general ideas helps me come up with a plan. I did notice some labored breathing on the sharknose goby. The others seemed fine. At one point I thought I saw the newer clown’s head getting akinnier, but it also could have always been that way and I never noticed.

All fish were devouring food. Swimming was not in front of a powerhead, no gasping at the surface, and the eyes look clear.

also did not notice lethargic behavior or mucus buildup on their faces.

the tank is currently fishless and will be fallow until the first week of January.

forgot to add the acclimation. We floated for about 45 minutes with the lights off. The fish came from a few different systems with varying salinity and not enough water in each back for their own drip acclimation in buckets.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yea, I knew it would be nearly impossible to settlw on one culprit but even having some general ideas helps me come up with a plan. I did notice some labored breathing on the sharknose goby. The others seemed fine. At one point I thought I saw the newer clown’s head getting akinnier, but it also could have always been that way and I never noticed.

All fish were devouring food. Swimming was not in front of a powerhead, no gasping at the surface, and the eyes look clear.

also did not notice lethargic behavior or mucus buildup on their faces.

the tank is currently fishless and will be fallow until the first week of January.

forgot to add the acclimation. We floated for about 45 minutes with the lights off. The fish came from a few different systems with varying salinity and not enough water in each back for their own drip acclimation in buckets.

For future acclimation, float bags 20 mins or so for equalization of temperature to the tank they are going in and then match salinity of the future tank. Here is my typical acclimation:

After floating,

Transfer fish and water into a clean bucket
Then . . . .
Measure the Ph, salinity and temperature of the bag water. If you can, make up some water in a container that has exactly the same measurements as the bag readings and move the fish right over, then you can add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6 times (almost 1.5 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out. Fish in shipped bags produce carbon dioxide and ammonia. The carbon dioxide lowers the pH of the water in the bag, That in turn makes the ammonia non-toxic to the fish. When you acclimate them, if not done just right, you drive off the carbon dioxide faster than you are diluting the ammonia. That raises the pH of the water in the bag, and that in turn, makes the residual ammonia very toxic to the fish. Sometimes, the fish will die right in the bag