Help ! Certain fishes dying

[mling]

Over the last 2 weeks I have lost about 1 fish every 2 or 3 days.

A roughly 10 year old Flame Angle, Klein Angle, Clown 

and recently purchased Coral beauty.

 

The Hippo Blue, Koran, Hawkish and Yellow watchman are all behaving normally, looking great,

 

My 10 year old Sailfin is beginning to show signs of illness, not as hyper as usual.

 

Any idea why something is causing what would normally be hardy fishes to die but not affect typically more prone to issue fishes like the itch magnet Hippo ?

 

I have done 30 gallon water changes daily for the past 4 days. My thank is 156G with 44 Gal Sump.

 

 

[Annap729]

Distressed breathing?


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[mling]

Yes, breathing fine. Fins still "sail"

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Edited June 21, 2021 by mling
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[mling]

Hippo, Koran & Hawkfish are fine.  So are all inverts.

[DaJMasta]

Have you checked your parameters?  Are they all eating normally?  Have you checked your dosing systems to verify the right amount and concentration is being dosed?

If nothing's visible on the outside, maybe some kind of internal parasite? Are there any signs of damaged on the dead fish?

[mling]

Water parameter are ok.

All fishes eating but Sailfin was eating but not zipping around as normal during feeding time. 

 

Clown stopped eating day before dying, larger died and I can't find the body of the mate, which I assume is dead, probably from heart break.

 

Flame angle died very suddenly, the first to go. we thought it was old age since it was more than 10 years old.

 

Klein died very suddenly. It was more than 10 years old.

 

Coral beauty had fin rot for about 3 days before dying.

 

Besides tons of water change, I am trying Imagitarium's Parasite Remedy.  But I guess my skimmer is working too well as it goes into over drive (overflowing) the moment I put that in.  I did turn the skimmer off for 3 hrs this afternoon, hoping that the medicine would have a change to take effect.

[DaJMasta]

A big water change is probably good, but given the age, it could be worth getting an ICP test done for elements you can't normally measure for.  There's some chance that something (damaged equipment, trace elements in top off, something that settled out of the air) has just built up over time to a level that is toxic.  Worth checking ammonia and nitrite as well as the normal ones to see if there's something dead in there that is just causing an issue.

 

Otherwise the only thing that I can think of is some kind of parasite, but I think the treatments are generally not full tank safe, so it would be a hospital tank and treatment kind of thing for fish showing signs of issues.

Maybe someone else can recommend specific things to check, but when it's all very unknown and mysterious, getting the best picture of the problem possible is probably the most reliable way forward.

[mling]

What is ICP? My tank has been on auto run for years with no issues so I am out of touch with current acronyms

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[phlynamjax]

Did you add any new livestock recently?

[DaJMasta]

ICP analysis is basically laboratory testing for your water samples, you take the sample and mail it away, then they run the tests and tell you what's in the sample.  Not a quick option, but it can find more hidden long term problems, there are a few companies that offer it, but will readout something like 20+ different elements and quantities of each down to much higher precision than home test kits can manage.

Edited June 21, 2021 by DaJMasta

[mling]

9 hours ago, phlynamjax said:

Did you add any new livestock recently?

Yes, a hawkfish that is doing fine.

[Apcoleman]

You are probably battling a few things. My first thought after you said the hawkfish was added was velvet. Velvet acts fast and when they drop off the infected fish they become very susceptible to bacterial infection. Thinks lots of little cuts all over. The other reason my mind went to velvet is all the pictures show the fish under rocks. Velvet makes them very sensitive to light. The sailfins color looks off to me as well. These are all just best guesses but I have battled velvet before and dealt with those symptoms. I added a fish that was fine and never had any symptoms. Humblefish is a great resource and I would look on there too for some guidance 

[mling]

Does valvet eventually affect all fishes in the tank? If so what should I do?
The sailfin is behaving much better, swimming around and eating. Just not as much as before. All other fishes are still behaving normally.

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[Apcoleman]

3 hours ago, mling said:

Does valvet eventually affect all fishes in the tank? If so what should I do?
The sailfin is behaving much better, swimming around and eating. Just not as much as before. All other fishes are still behaving normally.

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https://humble.fish/marine-velvet/

https://humble.fish/bacterial-infections/

[mling]

Reading Humble fish, it is definitely not Velvet.  None of the fishes that died had the symptoms of velvet.

 

Sailfin continues to get better and all other fishes are fine. Hopefully the grime reaper has left the tank. 

 

I do have a question about treating fishes with chemicals in the primary tank when it is not possible to catch the fish to put in a QT.

I had to turn the skimmer off when I dosed the medicine because the skimmer overflowed.  With the skimmer off, there is no oxygen bubbles. How long can you leave the tank with no aeration ?   In my case, I turned the skimmer off for 3 hrs to let the medicine "work",  Then I spent the next few hours dealing with the skimmer overflowing.  I had to top off about 10 gallons of water, making sure not to change the salinity,

I am now running the tank a 1.020 SG, subscribing to the theory that lower salinity will help kill parasites.

 

What SG do most of you keep a primary FO tank?

[DaJMasta]

I certainly would not want to run a tank at a very low salinity with inverts, and changing it suddenly down is a recipe for problems, but I doubt a knee-jerk increase would be helpful either, so I suppose you'll see.

 

What does the treatment on the container say in terms of timing?  Most medications available for parasites are only really effective on one main developmental stage of the parasite, so even if three hours of exposure at normal concentration is enough to deal with it, it likely will only be a temporary treatment as parasites in other life cycle stages will mature and then be able to grow again on the fish.  Most treatments are either prolonged and continuous or several treatments at fixed intervals to deal with the maturing stages of new parasites to kill each stage as the medication becomes effective against it.

A common way to aerate QT or hospital tanks is an air stone and bubbler or a hang on back filter with some biological media (as the tank itself usually does not have any other filtration.  I'd strongly encourage you to catch seemingly effected fish and treat them outside of the tank, both to minimize negative interactions with other creatures and your tank's biological filter, as well as to dose proper amounts for controlled durations.  A small QT tank, a HOB filter, and some basic filtration media is all you need aside from some water and the treatment to treat them externally, and if you are having trouble catching fish you can try a trap or even just draining the water level to just a few inches above the substrate... I don't know of almost any effective and safe whole tank treatments for a mixed reef.

[dryanimtt]

Stray voltage?

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[mling]

Stray voltage?

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I do have a stray voltage probe

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