Lost almost all my fish

[PNWRich]

I have lost 6 fish and have two more about to go this morning. Cleaner shrimp, CUC, and corals are all fine. I’ve posted in a Facebook Group and received diagnosis for every single fish disease in existence, stray electrical currents, ammonia, you name it. I went to my LFS and showed them the pictures that are attached and they ruled out all the diagnoses that were given and they were clueless.
The only thing I can think of is that the night before this disaster happened I was working with some tools and I dipped my dirty hand in the tank to catch a falling feeder lid. I suppose I had a contaminate on my hand, maybe residual WD40? I did a 20% water change and I’m on the second round of charcoal. Two fish seem unaffected. Two are retreating in a corner.
Fish are all quarantined and medicated and I haven’t added any in about a month. Parameters are:
Ph 8.12
Alk 9.5
Ca 481
Mg 1510
N03 9.9
PO4 .06
At a loss as to what to do next.

 

[Saltyreef]

Larger water change (think complete replacement) + more carbon. Add airstone or point powerheads to surface for more gas exchange.

 

[brandon429]

rule out ammonia, oxygen and testable params, rule in disease not yet identified

Finished Cycle

Hello, I finally finished my cycle. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 2.0. Cycle took 25 days using Dr Tim’s. I did the suggested 25% water change at 13 days. Do I need to do another water change before adding fish?

www.reef2reef.com

we do post history searches to define age of tank and disease protocols in place if any, those were missed here and we expect within the first eight months disease losses from skipping fallow and qt.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have lost 6 fish and have two more about to go this morning. Cleaner shrimp, CUC, and corals are all fine. I’ve posted in a Facebook Group and received diagnosis for every single fish disease in existence, stray electrical currents, ammonia, you name it. I went to my LFS and showed them the pictures that are attached and they ruled out all the diagnoses that were given and they were clueless.
The only thing I can think of is that the night before this disaster happened I was working with some tools and I dipped my dirty hand in the tank to catch a falling feeder lid. I suppose I had a contaminate on my hand, maybe residual WD40? I did a 20% water change and I’m on the second round of charcoal. Two fish seem unaffected. Two are retreating in a corner.
Fish are all quarantined and medicated and I haven’t added any in about a month. Parameters are:
Ph 8.12
Alk 9.5
Ca 481
Mg 1510
N03 9.9
PO4 .06
At a loss as to what to do next.

Possibilities are the solvents and petroleum from WD40 if you saw this right after your hand went into water. If there were signs prior to this such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite or elevated breathing, could be gill flukes or other issue.
Pics are a little fuzzy to determine anything unusual although anthias does show strange discoloration.
I believe mentioned. . . water change/carbon is a must to remove any possible contaminants

 

[Saltyreef]

Possibilities are the solvents and petroleum from WD40 if you saw this right after your hand went into water. If there were signs prior to this such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite or elevated breathing, could be gill flukes or other issue.
Pics are a little fuzzy to determine anything unusual although anthias does show strange discoloration.
I believe mentioned. . . water change/carbon is a must to remove any possible contaminants

Have you ever seen an anthias's night camoflauge colors? They get white stripes and spots all through the orange and pink.

I figured this may have been when the lights just came on.

 

[PNWRich]

rule out ammonia, oxygen and testable params, rule in disease not yet identified

Finished Cycle

Hello, I finally finished my cycle. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 2.0. Cycle took 25 days using Dr Tim’s. I did the suggested 25% water change at 13 days. Do I need to do another water change before adding fish?

www.reef2reef.com

we do post history searches to define age of tank and disease protocols in place if any, those were missed here and we expect within the first eight months disease losses from skipping fallow and q

Have you ever seen an anthias's night camoflauge colors? They get white stripes and spots all through the orange and pink.

I figured this may have been when the lights just came on.

LFS said this was typical of Anthias before death.

 

[PNWRich]

rule out ammonia, oxygen and testable params, rule in disease not yet identified

Finished Cycle

Hello, I finally finished my cycle. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 2.0. Cycle took 25 days using Dr Tim’s. I did the suggested 25% water change at 13 days. Do I need to do another water change before adding fish?

www.reef2reef.com

we do post history searches to define age of tank and disease protocols in place if any, those were missed here and we expect within the first eight months disease losses from skipping fallow and qt.

Thanks. I do not post here often so I’m not sure how you would know I skipped protocols. I purchased all my stock from from Dr Quarantine and they were conditioned and quarantined. That was my choice versus a QT tank which was not feasible for me.

 

[Rmckoy]

Possibilities are the solvents and petroleum from WD40 if you saw this right after your hand went into water. If there were signs prior to this such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite or elevated breathing, could be gill flukes or other issue.
Pics are a little fuzzy to determine anything unusual although anthias does show strange discoloration.
I believe mentioned. . . water change/carbon is a must to remove any possible contaminants

I would assume solvents such as wd40 are not water soluble and would float on the surface for a short period of time until skimmed off with mechanical filtration . Even that would have to be a significant amount to do any damage ?

 

[Saltyreef]

LFS said this was typical of Anthias before death.

Some fish will show their camoflage coloration upon death. Never seen this as an indication the fish is dying or close to death by any means though....

 

[PNWRich]

I would assume solvents such as wd40 are not water soluble and would float on the surface for a short period of time until skimmed off with mechanical filtration . Even that would have to be a significant amount to do any damage ?

To be clear it would have been very minimal. I did not spray any recently. I figure maybe very old residue.

 

[Saltyreef]

Thanks. I do not post here often so I’m not sure how you would know I skipped protocols. I purchased all my stock from from Dr Quarantine and they were conditioned and quarantined. That was my choice versus a QT tank which was not feasible for me.

Unless you used dry rock and dry sand plus quarantined all your corals and cuc in fallow system then its 100% possible you have disease.

 

[Rmckoy]

To be clear it would have been very minimal. I did not spray any recently. I figure maybe very old residue.

For what it’s worth .
I don’t allow any air fresheners. Candles , or any sprays in the house for the fear of contaminating the dt with no way of knowing what it was .
Also …. Limit putting hands in the tank without gloves .
both for your system and your safety

 

[Saltyreef]

When i lost fish this quick and to the same symptoms, it was a velvet nuke event and it was VERY QUICK and sudden.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

. I went to my LFS and showed them the pictures that are attached and they ruled out all the diagnoses that were given and they were clueless.

Honestly, I would not trust most LFS to be able to diagnose a fish disease from pictures (possibly not even from the actual fish... clueless is a good word for *some* LFS employees unfortunately)

 

[Troylee]

Do you have a skimmer? If so is it going nuts? Wd-40 would make a skimmer go crazy if that was the case here.. I’d lean more towards disease than anything.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Have you ever seen an anthias's night camoflauge colors? They get white stripes and spots all through the orange and pink.

I figured this may have been when the lights just came on.

I have 5 anthias and they blotch out overnight but not like this

 

[PNWRich]

Unless you used dry rock and dry sand plus quarantined all your corals and cuc in fallow system then its 100% possible you have disease.

Thanks.

 

[Saltyreef]

I have 5 anthias and they blotch out overnight but not like this

Riding the sand bed in distress when lights are on is what i noticed most.

 

[jda]

I have dipped dirty hands into my tanks for years... not on purpose so much, but just that sometimes I need to do tank maintenance on the same day that I put a transfer case back into one of our fleet... and something is still not on them even with a good scrub. There is next to no chance that anything from your hand is the culprit. Candles, neighbor spraying for bugs, grease, lotion, Febreze, etc. are not your issue. Heck, people pour stump remover and all other kinds of things with unknown ingredients. There are all kinds of toxins in the food that we feed, in small amounts.

I would also look disease. It is more likely that something got it on an invert or the fish were not actually QT'd perfectly. It could also be a test kit failure, inaccurate or miscalibrated hydrometer or refractometer. ...something like this.

The answer is usually the easiest.

 

[Rmckoy]

Honestly, I would not trust most LFS to be able to diagnose a fish disease from pictures (possibly not even from the actual fish... clueless is a good word for *some* LFS employees unfortunately)

Agree 100%
Similar to trusting the used car salesman
They need to get paid at the end of the day .