Mystery Herbivore Deaths

[kingrowland1217]

My tank is still fairly new, like 7-8 months. I used some live rock from a tank I had setup for years before, but the last year I kind of let it go. So this rock had a ton of hair algae on it. I let it sit in darkness for about a month and scrubbed it before putting it in my new tank but it still had a little bit of algae. First fish were 4 chromis, wait a month, next a xmas wrasse, everythings good . All of them are happy and healthy. So about 2-3 months ago, I bought a coral beauty. It ate, looked healthy, seemed fine. So after another couple weeks I bought a powder blue tang....my dream fish. Ate like a horse, swam fine, seemed happy and healthy. No visual signs of disease or parasites.CB was in there a month or 2, PB tang was in there about 2-3 weeks. Come home one day, both my tang and my CB are floating, dead. Okkkkk, all the other fish are healthy. I wait about 3-4 weeks to see if the other fish are good. They are. So I buy a foxface and an anthia about 2 weeks ago. All is good, both are eating, look good, no problems. Come home yesterday, foxface is dead. Anthia, chromis, wrasse are all perfectly fine. It makes 0 sense. I attached my ICP test, it doesnt appear anything is crazy high or low, except maybe my silicone. But the only common denominator is they were all eating algae. I also fed them nori seaweed, but only the tang really ate alot of it. Sorry for the novel but Im just as confused as ever and dont want to add another fish. Anybody ever heard of algae being bad and killing fish? Makes no sense. 

testResult_alanrowland_20181207135444.pdf

Edited December 7, 2018 by kingrowland1217

[Origami]

Your salinity looks low (because all your ions look low, especially sodium and chlorine (NaCl). But that shouldn't be a problem with the fish. The ICP test can only tell you about elements, it would be good to test for ammonia and nitrates (especially). It's odd that it seems to be affecting herbivores as a class. However, some species are more susceptible to nitrate than others.

[DFR]

Your ICP results seem adequate for both fish and inverts.  Also, at 7-8 months (assuming this is post cycle) your tank should be pretty stable.  I’d definitely check the nutrient levels.  If they are all within a decent range, it may be where you got the fish from.  If I’m not mistaken, fish collected using cyanide could exhibit a healthy behavior for a period of time then seemingly die for no reason.  I’d check for redness around gills as that could also be a sign of issues.  Hope this helps!

Edited December 7, 2018 by DFR

[kingrowland1217]

Yea thats the strange part. And I didnt buy them all from the same place so I dont think its a store issue. I tested for nitrates and ammonia after the tang died. And both were minuscule, dont remember exact but I ruled them out at the time. Ill test again tonight. 

Edited December 7, 2018 by kingrowland1217

[DFR]

Well that is weird.  I’m starting to lean toward your theory also. 

[jhOU]

what kind of nori are you feeding? If it’s not specifically for fish, make sure it doesn’t have flavoring/additives. Are snails dying also? Do you have a picture of the algae, could you have dinoflagellates? Also, if you’re not quarantining it may just be coincidence that those fish were the ones to succumb to some parasite/disease.


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[BtmDweller]

You probably ruled it out, but was there a sharp temp drop or increase?

[kingrowland1217]

Here's a couple pics. Haven't ruled out a temp spike, but it would've had to have happened twice and the other fish lived through it. Idk. I'm not ruling much out, kind of baffled.

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[kingrowland1217]

And I fed Julian Sprung Seaveggies. Also I have a ground probe so its def not stray current. Did not QT, i know shame on me lol. I will def in the future after all this.

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[zygote2k]

Diseased fish

[BtmDweller]

Initial thought was ich, but no mention of spots. Tangs/angles are more sensitive to it.