Lost 4 fish quickly - now I need to know what steps to take?

[Steven Goff]

This does sound eerily like a parasite. These days. if you don't quarantine, the odds of adding velvet to your tank with 4 fish added is probably almost 100%. Velvet isn't a parasite you can manage, the vast majority of the time. It's much more common than it used to be, leading many to begin quarantining. Uronema is also becoming far more common.

That fish does look a bit beat up. A freshwater dip on a remaining fish in a dark bucket would be my first step, you're looking for small "sesame seed" looking things dropping off, these would be flukes, most likely. This doesn't mean you don't have other issues but it's a starting point. Flukes can eat at the fins, but I am leaning toward that being another fish picking on it, pre or postmortem.

Sorry for the trouble

How long does it take for flukes to kill a fish?

 

[4FordFamily]

How long does it take for flukes to kill a fish?

Generally quite a bit of time but a weak fish theoretically in a few days

 

[Steven Goff]

The tank did have flukes years ago, before I bought it. Could the flukes have come with the live rock?

 

[jtl]

You may never know the cause. There is always a reason but the average reefer can only spot the obvious. I have lost fish to flukes before I knew what they were and to other unknown causes, even after I qt'd. My approach was to not stress over it, not to say it didn't bother me, and let the strong survive. I once bought a pair of clowns, after a few months one died, I bought a replacement and it died but the original survivor lived on but I never bought another one.

 

[Dom]

I've learned the hard way that I must QT the fish that I bring into tank. I trusted the opinion of my LFS and now I have this problem.

I think my water is good, taken samples down to LFS and they confirm.

Question: If you were unhappy with the information from the LFS regarding QT, why would trust them with your water sample?

 

[Nachyo-cheese]

Sorry to hear
What fish were they exactly that died? Also, what fish do you have that are doing okay?

Did the 4 that have died all come from one particular LFS/online store, within a few months or have you had them for a while?

Right. There are certain fish that can be prone to things others are not.

 

[Steven Goff]

Question: If you were unhappy with the information from the LFS regarding QT, why would trust them with your water sample?

Different LFS

 

[Steven Goff]

I took closeups of one clown. I see tiny white spots. Is this what’s wrong?

 

[BeejReef]

get the hospital tank up. Im afraid you're about to get rough news.

 

[BeejReef]

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-terror-identifying-and-treating-marine-velvet.26/

To be clear, I'm in no way qualified to diagnose, but very fast action will be needed if it is.

@ngoodermuth @HotRocks @3Ford1AstonFamily

 

[ajmidget]

Right. There are certain fish that can be prone to things others are not.

Yep, I'm also guessing the others that made it through so far did so as they are more hardy fish.

 

[ScottR]

White spots! That’s the culprit. Probably ich or velvet. Good luck my friend.

 

[ngoodermuth]

That is definitely velvet... and fits the description of the other deaths. I’d move quickly.

1) freshwater dip all fish (keep an eye out for flukes as well, as it is very possible to have more than one parasite)

2) Acriflavine bath - if you aren’t able to quickly source acriflavine (ruby reef rally or API Fungus Cure) then a peroxide bath is another option you might consider.

3) Hospital tank with either Chloroquine Phosphate or Copper. If you go with copper, you’ll need to get a corresponding test kit and ramp up the copper level over no longer than 48 hours if possible. If the fish aren’t tolerating the copper well, this can be problematic.

If you can get CP, that would give you the advantage of being able to go straight to therapeutic levels right away.

I will post links for all of these ^ for more detailed dosing/usage instructions.

 

[ngoodermuth]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acriflavine.282887/

https://humble.fish/hydrogen-peroxide/

https://humble.fish/chloroquine-phosphate/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/

And here are links to all of the helpful QT tips and tricks, including managing ammonia:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/thread-links-to-all-things-quarantine-fish-inverts.602917/

 

[RobertN]

For the future, you might want to be very careful with thinking that a fish in a particular LFS is ok if it is swimming around, looking active, and even eating in the store. I've discovered the hard way that some stores are probably using low levels of copper in their fish bins to suppress any symptoms of something like velvet in their fish. It isn't at levels high enough to properly eradicate the velvet in the fish, so when you get the fish home and put it in your display, if it was infected the chances are fairly good that it will develop the full infection and die--often quite fast if it has velvet.....and very possibly kill off a number of your other fish.