Fish Kill Off

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

I'm new to R2R. I don't usually ask questions unless I have no idea. I have had a reef tank for the better part of 15 years and took a break for a few. Just got back into in last March.

I'm looking for ideas as to why I got back from a 9 day vacation (Got to hit up WWC in Orlando though) and every fish is dying or dead. I'm at a loss. Naso Tang, 4 Yellow Tangs, Kole Tang, Cleaner Wrasse, 4 Clownfish (TR), neon dottyback (TR).... Still living is a 1 Sailfin Tang 1 yellow tang and 2 Flame Wrasse.

All of my corals (Acan's, RBTA's, Birdsnest, War Coral's, and Goniopora) all look perfect.
All snails, conchs, starfish and 2 Urchins perfect.

Tank Size is 450 Gallons
Temp has been Consistent 79
PH 7.86
Salt 34 ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0 yesterday .25 today but I haven't found the dead XL Naso and 2 Yellow Tangs.

I can't think of anything that could cause this yet not affect corals and inverts....

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

helen ann · Nov 29, 2016

#reefsquad ... let me get you some help!

Sorry about your fish!

Brew12 · Nov 29, 2016

I feel terrible that you are going through this.

Any symptoms on your fish that survived? Are they showing any signs of stress?

Duke4Life · Nov 29, 2016

Sorry to hear this. Was the power out at all?

melypr1985 · Nov 29, 2016

What was the last wet thing you added to the tank (fish, coral, inverts, macro algae) and when did you add them? What is your QT regimen? These questions in addition to the others already asked.

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

They same to be hiding, if that is a symptom.

I think that an eye on the sailfin and eye on the yellow tang are cloudy. They first Yellow tang is before it died.

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

Last thing I would have added would have been a water change on the 16th. I had 2 employees put a magnet in with a pad while I was gone for Thanksgiving. I thought about something on their hands however I would assume it would have negatively affected the coral and inverts.

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

Duke4Life said:
Sorry to hear this. Was the power out at all?

No power outage.

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

One theory some of the local experts came up with is that one of the clownfish who took a ride down the overflow and into the filter sock could have had a parasite and when it died it could have spread in the tank.... Not sure how I feel about that theory...

Duke4Life · Nov 29, 2016

Any idea of how long the fish were dead before you found them?

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

They have been dying since Saturday. (After thanksgiving) They couldn't have died before Thanksgiving.

Brew12 · Nov 29, 2016

Crazieveggie said:
One theory some of the local experts came up with is that one of the clownfish who took a ride down the overflow and into the filter sock could have had a parasite and when it died it could have spread in the tank.... Not sure how I feel about that theory...

I agree, this isn't the direct cause. Parasites just don't work that way. If the clownfish did go through and die in the sock filter that could have caused a water quality issue that stressed your fish. If your fish had an immunity to ich or velvet then a stress event can cause their immunity to go down making them susceptible to ich or velvet.

The rapid pace this is moving makes me think you have velvet. Do all your fish have white spots on them like the yellow Tang in the picture?

melypr1985 · Nov 29, 2016

No new fish in the last couple weeks? New corals? You said employee... is this at a store with other tanks? Those pictures look like velvet which would explain the fast deaths, small white spots and bacterial infections that were secondary to the velvet. The remaining fish should be taken out for treatment in a QT and the display left fallow for 6 weeks minimum.

Squirrel_reefer · Nov 29, 2016

First of all I am sorry to hear you have lost so much. I went through the same thing and never got any answer to my predicament.

This may seem obvious and silly, but sometimes the simplest answers are the best....

You said you were on a 9 day vacation? who/what was feeding your fish?

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

Yes a clown fish died but with 450 gallons I don't think it would cause a spike. I put in some Acan's and Blasto's in 3 weeks ago. Everything looked healthy when I left for vacation on the 19th.

Only 1 tank. It is at my office and my employee was trying to be nice and scrape the glass. The new pad they put on was from Mighty Magnets.

Crazieveggie · Nov 29, 2016

Squirrel_reefer said:
First of all I am sorry to hear you have lost so much. I went through the same thing and never got any answer to my predicament.

This may seem obvious and silly, but sometimes the simplest answers are the best....

You said you were on a 9 day vacation? who/what was feeding your fish?

My admin was feeding them. However even if they weren't fed, I wouldn't expect that die off.

melypr1985 · Nov 29, 2016

Crazieveggie said:
Yes a clown fish died but with 450 gallons I don't think it would cause a spike. I put in some Acan's and Blasto's in 3 weeks ago. Everything looked healthy when I left for vacation on the 19th.

Only 1 tank. It is at my office and my employee was trying to be nice and scrape the glass. The new pad they put on was from Mighty Magnets.

It's possible for velvet to take a while to start killing things. Typically it's introduced and start wrecking havoc right away, but sometimes the fish are very healthy or have built up a temporary immunity to it so it takes longer for them to succumb. From what you've described and the pictures, I'm pretty confident in it being velvet. I can get you a link to read on how to treat... hang on.

melypr1985 · Nov 29, 2016

melypr1985 said:
It's possible for velvet to take a while to start killing things. Typically it's introduced and start wrecking havoc right away, but sometimes the fish are very healthy or have built up a temporary immunity to it so it takes longer for them to succumb. From what you've described and the pictures, I'm pretty confident in it being velvet. I can get you a link to read on how to treat... hang on.

Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum) <<--- here it is.