New fish were introduced now all fish are dying

[Treefer32]

I'm very sorry for your losses! I've got a tough time keeping clown fish alive. Supposed to be an easy fish, but they do as soon as they hit my water. I have 15 other fish, one of them 8 years old, and another going on 5 years. Yet, Clownfish last 2 weeks in my display then dye. I hope you fair better. I recommend QTing any fish you get! Or buying pre-quarantined fish. You pay more, but prevents these catastrophic situations!

 

[Wrothgar]

That is terrifying! Are any still alive?

I've got one sand sifting gobie left 2 skunk cleaners a feather duster worm and a nice chunk of green star polyps.. I was thinking about doing chloroquine phosphate for the whole tank and doing 50% water changes does anyone know of a source for those and potentially other treatments like cu?

 

[brandon429]

don't do that, they don't treat the whole tank in the disease forum. they do fallow + quarantine

its ok to treat the fish in quarantine with meds tho
the tank only gets fallowed treatment and observation

 

[Treefer32]

Before you go through the trouble treating for disease, I would verify there's no leaking electricity. Electricity will not harm inverts (corals especially) Some corals will actually grow faster in electricity. However, fish, do not take electrocution very well and tend to die rather quickly. I lost 2-3 fish in a single day then two days later I'd lose another 3. I lost 16 fish before I realized I had a bad heater leaking electricity into my sump in a fashion that it created a closed loop for the electricity to fry the brains of my fish. The strange thing is that my fish showed different symptoms. Acted normal, ate well, then suddenly fell over dead. Others showed signs of flukes or large white worms coming out of their bodies. It was weird and terrifying.

Once I discovered electricity I let my tank go fallow with 1 fish that survived. A tang that I still have to this day and he's actually doing really well. I don't know if electricity harms snails or worms. I tend to lean to the side that it does not, but, not positive.

 

[Wrothgar]

don't do that, they don't treat the whole tank in the disease forum. they do fallow + quarantine

its ok to treat the fish in quarantine with meds tho
the tank only gets fallowed treatment and observation

Thank you for that clarification I do have a spare 3.5 I can use I'm just afraid it'll be too late before I can get my hands on a treatment.

 

[Wrothgar]

Before you go through the trouble treating for disease, I would verify there's no leaking electricity. Electricity will not harm inverts (corals especially) Some corals will actually grow faster in electricity. However, fish, do not take electrocution very well and tend to die rather quickly. I lost 2-3 fish in a single day then two days later I'd lose another 3. I lost 16 fish before I realized I had a bad heater leaking electricity into my sump in a fashion that it created a closed loop for the electricity to fry the brains of my fish. The strange thing is that my fish showed different symptoms. Acted normal, ate well, then suddenly fell over dead. Others showed signs of flukes or large white worms coming out of their bodies. It was weird and terrifying.

Once I discovered electricity I let my tank go fallow with 1 fish that survived. A tang that I still have to this day and he's actually doing really well. I don't know if electricity harms snails or worms. I tend to lean to the side that it does not, but, not positive.

Holy cow yo.. how did you find out you were leaking electricity? I've been wondering about this uv sterilizer I got recently

 

[MnFish1]

I thought I read once that velvet can't be cleared from a system by fallow...would that indicate him restarting the entire system/is that the only way to clear out velvet after introduction via unprepped fish or surfaces

You have mis-read

 

[Wrothgar]

Before you go through the trouble treating for disease, I would verify there's no leaking electricity. Electricity will not harm inverts (corals especially) Some corals will actually grow faster in electricity. However, fish, do not take electrocution very well and tend to die rather quickly. I lost 2-3 fish in a single day then two days later I'd lose another 3. I lost 16 fish before I realized I had a bad heater leaking electricity into my sump in a fashion that it created a closed loop for the electricity to fry the brains of my fish. The strange thing is that my fish showed different symptoms. Acted normal, ate well, then suddenly fell over dead. Others showed signs of flukes or large white worms coming out of their bodies. It was weird and terrifying.

Once I discovered electricity I let my tank go fallow with 1 fish that survived. A tang that I still have to this day and he's actually doing really well. I don't know if electricity harms snails or worms. I tend to lean to the side that it does not, but, not positive.

Here's a shot of my filter area

 

[MnFish1]

Lets re-adjust - since the input form others -what is the problem cutrrently

 

[Wrothgar]

params. Pics in white (corpses don't help), list of symptoms (itching, white dots, heavy breathing, etc)

#fishmedic

So that obvious pale feature near the gill line wasn't there in previous days and Im not catching it until they die from what seems like asphyxiation.

 

[Wrothgar]

Lets re-adjust - since the input form others -what is the problem cutrrently

Fish are dead I'm worried about potential vectors of infection still remaining in the tank if this was a disease as I still have 2 skunks 1 sand sifting gobie green star polyps and a feather duster remaining. Potential identification and treatment options would help

 

[MnFish1]

Fish are dead I'm worried about potential vectors of infection still remaining in the tank if this was a disease as I still have 2 skunks 1 sand sifting gobie green star polyps and a feather duster remaining. Potential identification and treatment options would help

It IMHO - an impossility here - unless you just let things go for a month or so (76 days). IMHO -its impossible to dissect what should /could have happened

 

[MnFish1]

Again I think the answer is - treat whatever fish you have - with the proper treatments. and leave the tank fallow for 4-6 weeks. Different opinions - if I were you and doing it - I would leave it 6 weeks minimum. Of course others will weigh in.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I thought I read once that velvet can't be cleared from a system by fallow...would that indicate him restarting the entire system/is that the only way to clear out velvet after introduction via unprepped fish or surfaces

Actually, Noga has the opinion that the fallow period for velvet (Amyloodinium) is shorter than for Cryptocaryon. Personally, I just use the same time frame as for ich - 45 to 60 days, but he thinks it can clear in as short as 21 days.
Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

I too use the same time frame with ich as velvet. While velvet is a flagellate and potentially has a shorter life, you still want to assure all cells are dead without a host fish.
Fallow recommended for both and im surprised to see a debate on a fish thats already dead. Once a fish is dead, unless a scrape is done and placed under microscope, its often an educated guess.
Symptom such as lethargic behavior, loss of appetite, heavy breathing, swim placement, hiding can produce clues.
Its best while not always easy to inquire if wild caught or tank raised and get the tank raised clowns which are susceptible to less issues.

 

[brandon429]

Very helpful thank you

 

[Wrothgar]

Again I think the answer is - treat whatever fish you have - with the proper treatments. and leave the tank fallow for 4-6 weeks. Different opinions - if I were you and doing it - I would leave it 6 weeks minimum. Of course others will weigh in.

Going to follow this advice and update at the end of that period

 

[Treefer32]

Holy cow yo.. how did you find out you were leaking electricity? I've been wondering about this uv sterilizer I got recently

The LFS suggested looking for electricity. I tried a volt meter, and I couldn't figure out how to read the dang thing or I was doing something wrong. The owner had mentioned that if I'm always wearing socks I would never feel the electricity. I have to be completely grounded in order to feel it. Now, I HIGLY do NOT recommend this. As electricity Kills!

So, that said, I touched my aluminum ductwork of my AC (closest thing to my sump that I thought might be grounded) and stuck my hand in the sump. I felt a buzzing across my arm. It was so light that I wasn't sure if it was the chemical feeling of the water but I did it a couple more times and each time my arm had this strange buzzing feeling. I went through and unplugged one thing at a time that was submerged. My powerheads (at the time had a cord in water), my lights just in case something was too close to water, my return pump (external, but who knows?) And my 2 300 watt heaters. I unplugged them one at a time, tested for the buzzing feeling then plugged them back in if it hadn't gone away. It instantly stopped when I unplugged one of the two heaters. At the time I had one fish left. I went and checked the display with the heater unplugged and it looked normal like nothing was still wrong. I plugged the heater back in, and quickly went and check and that fish - an adult black long nose tang was swimming in about a 8 inch circle (horizontally, but constantly in circles) I unplugged the heater, and it stopped and swam normally.

There weren't words for what I had just figured out. I had been electrocuting fish for weeks. I pulled the bad heater out and threw it a way. I went down to the LFS and bought 2 brand new 300 watt Finnex heaters with controllers. When I got them I pulled the other heater out as well and threw it in the garbage (they were both the same age and same brand, wasn't going to take chances). I let the tank sorta go fallow with the tang all by himself for about 4-5 months. The tang did fine by himself albeit probably a bit lonely. I went through algae stages of string translucient algae, I think it dinos, if I remember right. Huge balls of it on the sand bed during this time. I'm guessing nutrients bottomed out with one fish in a 340 gallon system.

I couldn't even look at the tank, it just ticked me off. I stopped keeping the glass clean and just let it be. Finally, with the dust settled, I came back to it. Now, 3-4 years later, I'm up to around 17-18 fish, where I was before, my corals are doing great, and the fish are thriving.


In some ways I hope it is electricity so you know what to do and can remove it and call it good. If it's not, then there's a lot more to treat, troubleshoot and just deal with. None of it is good, I feel for you. I hope you find a solution!

 

[Hawkaholic]

If you still have fish and can’t remove them from the display tank Kick Ick has worked for me on ick (don’t know about brook - that’s a particularly nasty disease) and hasn’t caused problems with inverts/corals. You can add Rally to get more diseases, but that’s when I start seeing corals react poorly.

 

[Wrothgar]

All the fish died I think it was brook I had no viable way to treat them. Kick ick didn't work or copper treatment. I've been preemptive at this point and purchased formalin so if it happens again in ready for a curative treatment for external parasites. Waited 75 days for the lifecycle to end.