Massive fish die out

Lineatus

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None, because you can't see anything on a dead fish out of the water except the glare from the fish being wet.

In this hobby you have to pick and choose who you listen to. You can look at and correct the obvious issue (sulfide from rotting crap in poorly cleaned biomedia) or you can make wild speculations about lurking diseases and claims of '80% death in 8 months every time'.
My thoughts exactly. Fish death from disease seems to be far more prevalent in the US than in Europe. A mass dying from disease Is an unlikely event in this part of the world, especially since a fish hasn’t been added in literal months lol. Seems to be a presumptuous and unlikely cause in this case.
 
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KingAh123

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Update so far done with the water change did all 50% 187 liters with all saltwater tested salinity, temp, alk and PH before putting it into the tank. Purple tang still alive and doing good, inverts/corals still alive and doing good. The tang is very shy since he is the only fish in the tank. Have back pain from lifting buckets. Tomorrow begins the big clean and purge on the sump. Then after if it all checks out I'm gonna head out to my LFS and buy some new fish, maybe a new tang buddy for the purple since he always swam with the mimic tang and I think enjoyed each other's company, so I'm gonna look for a new partner. I'm introducing them with an acclimation box, so they get used to each other.
 

Icryhard

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No that's not the cause

Skipping disease preps is the cause
Yeah sorry buddy but this is far from the truth. You cannot go around just spouting "skipping disease preps is the cause and case closed". It's obvious something else is up, but you're not too keen to help out.
 

BeanAnimal

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Post this in the disease forum

Compare validity of troubleshoots between there and
Trying to jam everything you see into the some theoretically perfect evidence based differential diagnoses engine is not the most efficient way to find answers. You can’t shave off all other contexts to force the fit or wrap things in scientific sounding nomenclature to make it more valid (biosecurity assessment??).

Was this disease? Given the context, for less likely than a low oxygen or ammonia spike caused by the rather drastic system topology and media change.
 

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Update this morning starting to clean sump. Purple tang still alive and eating. Tested the water quality in the display.
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0.5 nitrate
0.03 phosphate
9 alk
8.0 PH
Temp at 24C
Salinity 1.025
When you say you added a sump from an old tank, was it yours initially, disease free? or an eBay “tank breakdown” jobby. I’m assuming it’s from an old tank of yours, including the bioballs.

I wouldn’t be adding more fish yet, personally.
 

nezw0001

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Thought I'd chime in here. I had a similar issues


My fish would have increased respirations prior to death and I found the my plank automatic feeder was full of saturated rotting food. The only a few fish survived including my purple tang. I also did massive water changes but I also removed all the rock, scrubbed and rinsed it. Removed and replaced the sand and refilled the system (1500 gallons). My fish were indeed quarantined and held in observation prior to adding. I'm sorry for your losses.

Just remember to add fish back slowly to allow you system time to adjust.
 

Garf

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Thought I'd chime in here. I had a similar issues


My fish would have increased respirations prior to death and I found the my plank automatic feeder was full of saturated rotting food. The only a few fish survived including my purple tang. I also did massive water changes but I also removed all the rock, scrubbed and rinsed it. Removed and replaced the sand and refilled the system (1500 gallons). My fish were indeed quarantined and held in observation prior to adding. I'm sorry for your losses.

Just remember to add fish back slowly to allow you system time to adjust.
So, you think the fish ate this decaying stuff which gave them a terminal case of diarrhoea or something? Brandon429 will be more likely to agree with that diagnosis than an ammonia related one, that’s for sure :)
 
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KingAh123

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When you say you added a sump from an old tank, was it yours initially, disease free? or an eBay “tank breakdown” jobby. I’m assuming it’s from an old tank of yours, including the bioballs.

I wouldn’t be adding more fish yet, personally.
It was my old tank that I used before upgrading to my current tank. It was used several months.
 
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When you say you added a sump from an old tank, was it yours initially, disease free? or an eBay “tank breakdown” jobby. I’m assuming it’s from an old tank of yours, including the bioballs.

I wouldn’t be adding more fish yet, personally.
The media was from the canister filter that I used on this same tank. The hasn't been used thoe in weeks, so the bacteria in the media might have died, plus I threw the media in the sump 5 days before I filled it. They smelled kind of like harborish, but I didn't think it was a problem. The sump started to get that smell and soon enough the display had the same smell, that was when I discovered dead fish. Now that I have done a water change on the display, the smell is gone. It was so dumb I know, and now I have learned.
 

vetteguy53081

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My fish all died in the matter of 2 days. First the gobies and royal gramma then my blue sapphire damsel then my bicolor blenny then clownfish and now my 2 tangs are almost gone.
Fish won't eat or anything, no visible illness like white spots.
Water seem fine:
0 ammonia
0 Nitrite
0.5 Nitrate
Corals and inverts shrimp, snails and hermits also doing fine.
The only thing I can think of is maybe it could be my frozen food brine shrimp that I began feeding again 2 days ago.
The other thing is I installed a new sump from an old tank which I cleaned thoroughly but wouldn't I be able to detect something in the water.
The has had an ocean type smell to it, like the same smell as algae dying. Which it has since I installed the sump.
I suspect a spike in temperature which will affect both Ph and oxygen.
Also can be contamination from sump but I dont suspect the sump itself, but when you cleaned the sump - What did you use for cleaning ?
 
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KingAh123

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I suspect a spike in temperature which will affect both Ph and oxygen.
Also can be contamination from sump but I dont suspect the sump itself, but when you cleaned the sump - What did you use for cleaning ?
Tap Water and vinegar, I was scared to use any other cleaning stuff I had. Danish tap doesn't contain chlorine or any other sustenance that is dangerous to fish.
 
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KingAh123

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I suspect a spike in temperature which will affect both Ph and oxygen.
Also can be contamination from sump but I dont suspect the sump itself, but when you cleaned the sump - What did you use for cleaning ?
The temp has been a bit high these few days, around 26c-26.7. Now it stays around 24.2C
 

Jay Hemdal

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Sorry to hear of your losses. I read through the post and since you have invertebrates and corals that all survived, that obviously leads to something specific to fish.

The most common cause for massive fish die-offs in a short amount of time like this is Amyloodinium. The fish may not show any spots or lesions but they will be breathing VERY fast before they die.

The second most common cause we see is transient low dissolved oxygen levels. Sometimes, invertebrates can survive this better than fish can. The causes can be a few different things, often in combination: lack of aeration due to equipment failure, lack of aeration (not just circulation) and finally, bacterial activity that scavenges too much oxygen from the water. Fish suffering from this will often die with their mouths open.

The third cause is rancid food, but that is pretty rare, I've not seen it myself, but a few people have reported it here.


I would NOT buy any new fish for this tank until you know how it all will shake out, and that could be 45 days after the last fish died from an unknown cause.


Jay
 
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Cichlid Dad

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Hello, I have read through the post and am very glad you are back on track and moving forward. Don't beat yourself up. Stuff happens. I had a massive die off when I added a powder brown tang to my tank without quarantine. Lost all of my fish except a yellow wrasse. Some people in the post are a little harsh and frankly a little bit heartless in there response. We make mistakes and learn. It doesn't help to pound the people asking for help. Keep your head up and I look forward to seeing future updates and pictures!
 

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Have back pain from lifting buckets.
You may be already doing this, if not do half buckets. I have bad shoulders and did full buckets for a long time then untill I figured out doing halves is so much easier. I've also used small pumps like maxi jets to empty pails when I'm really hurting.
Not meant to be insulting at all just throwing it out there. ;)
PS Glad the purple is doing well
 

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