Lost almost all my fish

[Troylee]

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.

Love me some stump remover lol.. my hands are always a mess and in the tank without issue.. his skimmer would be the tell tale sign that’s why I asked..

 

[Jay Hemdal]

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.

Sorry to hear!

What was the ammonia level, I didn't see it in your chem report.
What two fish are unaffected? (that has a bearing on my diagnosis below)

Contaminants on your hands are highly unlikely, as invertebrates are more sensitive to chemicals in the water (as a general rule) than fish are.

This isn't from stray electrical current.

When there are catastrophic fish loss over a short period, with no issues with the invertebrates, it is inevitably some disease specific to fish. The anthias is breathing fast, lethargic, with glassy eyes. If the fish have been dying over 48 hours, that points to Amyloodinium (velvet). If the fish loss was more protracted - over a week or so, it is more likely gill flukes.

Jay

 

[brandon429]

Has anyone done coral/inverts only and no fish at first?

Fish seem to be the main cause of disruption in a display tank, given the current circumstances in the hobby with pests (ich, velvet, parasites, etc.). I have been in this hobby for 18 years, and the amount of pests that are showing up lately is much more (could also be the fact that we have...

www.reef2reef.com

Do round two this way

Anything added from a pet store, corals and cuc have to be fallowed to keep disease in check

upon first read I didnt see wd40 mentioned. upon second read/did see, for sure contaminants factor. I saw some star polyps or other corals it seemed in the up-close pic set #1, usually those aren't fallow prepped in potential disease tanks but could have been. I didnt see that part mentioned, the fallowing of new entrants beyond just fish qt.