What can I expect for the rest of my fish?

[Manny’s Reef]

Coming back to this thread a few days later to try and figure out what is necessary to progress. Most fish died within 24 hours. Total head count was 1 tang, 1 foxface, 3 clownfish, engineer goby, cardinalfish, and royal gramma. Those that survived and seemed unaffected are 1 firefish goby, 2 purple gobies, and 1 yellow watchmen goby. The pattern I see with these fish is that these specifically live inside/underneath my rock. They were not openly swimming while chaos hit. Does this bit of information help others assess what may have been the cause?

I am wanting to figure out whether the tank needs a reset or not. I have an order from Dr. Reef currently under QT and if need be, I will call to cancel it.

To recap, it started with a non-quarantined coral beauty my wife purchased from the LFS. The fish was bloated. Got continually worse every day before dying 4-5 days later. It never ate. Its eyes even became swollen on the last day. Swam around fine until it final day where it laid around the sandbed throughout the day. Next, purple tang looked like it had ich or velvet. There were tons of white granules on it. More than I am used to seeing on a fish infected with ich. It died overnight and its skin seemed to literally fall off of its body. Parts of its coat were left suspended in the water. Next, the clownfish and foxface experienced the same thing. The clowns didn't appear to have the flesh falling off like the tang and foxface did. Then, the cardinalfish and engineer goby simply looked like they had flour covering their body. It was not granular looking like what the tang had. This looked more like flour mixed with a drop of water. Once both showed signs of this, they were gone in a few hours. Royal gramma went MIA and I only assume it fell victim to whatever happened. The remaining fish seem unaffected. Coral are unaffected. Parameters are all within acceptable range. Cleanup crew is seemingly unaffected.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Coming back to this thread a few days later to try and figure out what is necessary to progress. Most fish died within 24 hours. Total head count was 1 tang, 1 foxface, 3 clownfish, engineer goby, cardinalfish, and royal gramma. Those that survived and seemed unaffected are 1 firefish goby, 2 purple gobies, and 1 yellow watchmen goby. The pattern I see with these fish is that these specifically live inside/underneath my rock. They were not openly swimming while chaos hit. Does this bit of information help others assess what may have been the cause?

I am wanting to figure out whether the tank needs a reset or not. I have an order from Dr. Reef currently under QT and if need be, I will call to cancel it.

To recap, it started with a non-quarantined coral beauty my wife purchased from the LFS. The fish was bloated. Got continually worse every day before dying 4-5 days later. It never ate. Its eyes even became swollen on the last day. Swam around fine until it final day where it laid around the sandbed throughout the day. Next, purple tang looked like it had ich or velvet. There were tons of white granules on it. More than I am used to seeing on a fish infected with ich. It died overnight and its skin seemed to literally fall off of its body. Parts of its coat were left suspended in the water. Next, the clownfish and foxface experienced the same thing. The clowns didn't appear to have the flesh falling off like the tang and foxface did. Then, the cardinalfish and engineer goby simply looked like they had flour covering their body. It was not granular looking like what the tang had. This looked more like flour mixed with a drop of water. Once both showed signs of this, they were gone in a few hours. Royal gramma went MIA and I only assume it fell victim to whatever happened. The remaining fish seem unaffected. Coral are unaffected. Parameters are all within acceptable range. Cleanup crew is seemingly unaffected.

Sorry to here all that.

I still think that it could have been ich, gobies are sometimes a bit more resistant to that, but I don't recall having them survive an outbreak unscathed like that.

What to do about the incoming order - my general rule is not to add new fish to any tank that has had undiagnosed, multiple fish loss unless a MINIMUM of 45 days of no symptoms has passed. That said, if this was ich, having any gobies in the tank could possibly keep the infection going long enough to clobber the new fish.

Whatever this was, it was really virulent and has gone untreated. Please be wary of adding new fish to the tank unless you have the means to pull them and treat if things go south.

Jay

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Sorry to here all that.

I still think that it could have been ich, gobies are sometimes a bit more resistant to that, but I don't recall having them survive an outbreak unscathed like that.

What to do about the incoming order - my general rule is not to add new fish to any tank that has had undiagnosed, multiple fish loss unless a MINIMUM of 45 days of no symptoms has passed. That said, if this was ich, having any gobies in the tank could possibly keep the infection going long enough to clobber the new fish.

Whatever this was, it was really virulent and has gone untreated. Please be wary of adding new fish to the tank unless you have the means to pull them and treat if things go south.

Jay

I appreciate the reply. The 45 day minimum you mentioned can easily be done. I can can contact Dr. Reef and ask him to hold my order for an additional 2 weeks. He just started QT yesterday and he leaves in treatment, roughly speaking, for about 30 days and then monitors as needed for up to 2 weeks.

The issue is whether if it was ich then it will still be in the water column when the new fish arrive. Ich in and of itself doesn't cause me any real grief. I've had it several times in the past and my fish were ok. Its just rather interesting how this specific episode hit so hard and fast. Wife feels terrible about the incident. She asked what measures we could take to deal with this in the future if it were to happen again. I mentioned setting up QT tanks and running a UV sterilizer in the garage, as it shares a wall with the back of the tank. She is on board with both.

My biggest concern is knowing whether or not this was a disease that will persist on the rock until it is cleaned. My guess is that it is not seeing that the gobies remain unaffected. However, I do not have the requisite knowledge to make such determination.

I have a magnetic floating fish trap. I can try catching the 4 gobies. If I could, I have the ability to set up an observation tank and a separate QT tank. However, I don't think I can actually catch these guys. They are very skittish as it is.

Still continuing to observe and see if I can find any signs leading to a more definitive conclusion.

 

[fishguy242]

yes that was a devastating wave to say the least.
if you can ,yes remove the gobies ,to be safe.
i would say 100% on uv ,cannot recommend desired flow ,until you know which model you get.

either way before adding new batch of fish,thinking a molly as a tester fish first.
any thoughts on this Dr. @Jay Hemdal ?