lost half my fish in one day. the rest seem fine

[beachsidereefer]

Hi,

Hoping you all can help me figure out my next steps to trouble shoot this issue.

Yesterday morning I found half my fish dead which consisted of 2 watchmen gobies, 2 blue/ green cromis and 2 fire fish. My tale spotted blennie, 2 clowns and 3 Anthias and leopard wrasse are swimming around and eating like nothing is wrong and appear to be acting totally normal. Looking at the fish I can't see any outward signs of disease. The day before everything appeared normal, I didn't observe any signs of stress and they were all eating fine. Also I have not added any new fish to the aquarium in over 3 months.

I also have a mixture of inverts, shrimp and soft/ hard corals. nothing fancy but all and they all seem fine except for the duncan coral has been all sucked in for the past 24 hours and my hammer doesn't look to happy, kind of deflated.

first thing I did was I checked all my water parameters, no issues. I was concerned I had a ammonia spike but when I tested it was zero. I'm really good about maintenance I do 20% water changes monthly. Also I have full automation with heater and chiller so I don't see large temp. swings. My PH drifts between 8.1-8.3 depending on the lighting cycle.

I'm a bit lost on what to do next but I'm starting to wonder if I have some type of bacterial infection? I'm leaning this way because of the way the duncan coral and hammer coral are acting in spite of all the water parms being normal.

I hope you all can point me in the right direction! Thank you for taking the time to read/ respond to this post.

 

[Duke4Life]

#reefsquad while this may be fish disease I'm not 100% sure it is.

 

[4FordFamily]

Do you qt and treat your fish?

Any swimming erratically, heavy breathing, hiding from light, behaving more cryptic than normal, swimming in to powerheads, scratching, flashing, discoloration of fish, any physical abnormalities?

(I know you answered a few of those questions already but for the casual reader I wanted to put together all of the information we will want to have to best advise in one place -- many don't realize these are symptoms until mentioned as well)

 

[beachsidereefer]

Do you qt and treat your fish?

Any swimming erratically, heavy breathing, hiding from light, behaving more cryptic than normal, swimming in to powerheads, scratching, flashing, discoloration of fish, any physical abnormalities?

I don't QT. The ones that are still alive seem to be fine, eating, swimming around like normal. What's puzzling me is the death of the other fish was very swift. The night before I fed the fish, I watched all of them eat and everything seemed fine. The next morning, when I went to feed them is when I found 6 dead fish. So roughly 10 hours elapsed between appearing normal and death.

 

[jsker]

What was going outside of the tank in the last two days?

 

[ebushrow]

Did any cleaning agents get used on or around the tank recently? Sometimes the toxic chemicals can get into the tank during cleaning....just a thought....also, how old is the tank? Which fish were the last ones you added?

 

[beachsidereefer]

What was going outside of the tank in the last two days?

good question, well the weather finally cooled off in Florida so the AC has been off and windows open. The bug guy hasn't visited the house in about 4 weeks and he's well aware of where not to spray pesticides so as to not nuke the tank.

other then the windows being open I can't say anything is different around the tank or in the tank.

 

[beachsidereefer]

Did any cleaning agents get used on or around the tank recently? Sometimes the toxic chemicals can get into the tank during cleaning....just a thought....also, how old is the tank? Which fish were the last ones you added?

I don't think it was any cleaning agents. The tank is 2 years old and the last fish added, about 3 months ago was a female Anthia.

 

[drawman]

Do you run a controller and test your temp? Any changes there?

When was the last time you added a new fish? As 4FordFamily said look for any of those signs, even swimming into the flow of the powerhead. Also look for any white/red spots/discoloration no matter how small.

If other fish start to show any signs quarantining will be in order.

Have you noticed an ammonia spike with the dead fish? What are your other params at?

 

[Humblefish]

Can you post a photo of the duncan and hammer? So we can see if this might be Brown Jelly Disease. Also, I would check for stray voltage in the tank. As mentioned above, a toxin getting in the water (household cleaner, bug spray, scented candle) is a strong possibility as well. I would also check all your pumps for rusty screws/parts; although that should only negatively impact your corals/inverts.

 

[WetWhistle]

What is your salinity at? What do you use to measure it? any stray voltage?

 

[ebushrow]

I don't think it was any cleaning agents. The tank is 2 years old and the last fish added, about 3 months ago was a female Anthia.

Ok...I was thinking if the tank was older and the sand bed was deeper, the watchman goby might have stirred up something that caused a hydrogen sulfide release that caused fish close to die before it was offgassed....

I know you tested the ammonia, ph, etc....did you happen to test the nitrates? I know some fish tend to be more sensitive to nitrates...

IMO firefish are weak ( from a fish perspective) but I am more surprised by the watchmans and chromis.

 

[Duke4Life]

Ok...I was thinking if the tank was older and the sand bed was deeper, the watchman goby might have stirred up something that caused a hydrogen sulfide release that caused fish close to die before it was offgassed....

I know you tested the ammonia, ph, etc....did you happen to test the nitrates? I know some fish tend to be more sensitive to nitrates...

IMO firefish are weak ( from a fish perspective) but I am more surprised by the watchmans and chromis.

Nitrates shouldn't have this much of an affect. The number in 1 night is what caught my attention.

 

[beachsidereefer]

Do you run a controller and test your temp? Any changes there?

When was the last time you added a new fish? As 4FordFamily said look for any of those signs, even swimming into the flow of the powerhead. Also look for any white/red spots/discoloration no matter how small.

If other fish start to show any signs quarantining will be in order.

Have you noticed an ammonia spike with the dead fish? What are your other params at?

yes, I run a controller with a chiller and heater. I did a thorough check of all pumps, chiller, heater, PH, tmpe probes etc. all seems to be working fine. I have a grounding probe I can drop in and see if a breaker trips.

I was leaning towards the ammonia spike as well but it tested zero. nitrates/ nitrites / phosphates - all barely detectable using Salfert test kits . ALK - 7.5 CA 430

 

[beachsidereefer]

Ok...I was thinking if the tank was older and the sand bed was deeper, the watchman goby might have stirred up something that caused a hydrogen sulfide release that caused fish close to die before it was offgassed....

I know you tested the ammonia, ph, etc....did you happen to test the nitrates? I know some fish tend to be more sensitive to nitrates...

IMO firefish are weak ( from a fish perspective) but I am more surprised by the watchmans and chromis.

I don't know if this makes a difference but I bring in fresh air from outside the house using my skimmer air intake via a tube. Also I have 200 gallon DT with a 20 gallon sump.

if it was a hydrogen sulfide release coudl this explain why my Duncan and Hammer corals don't look very happy today? it's been almost 24 hours since I found the dead fish.

 

[beachsidereefer]

What is your salinity at? What do you use to measure it? any stray voltage?

35 PPT I'll check for stray voltage.

 

[Duke4Life]

I don't know if this makes a difference but I bring in fresh air from outside the house using my skimmer air intake via a tube. Also I have 200 gallon DT with a 20 gallon sump.

if it was a hydrogen sulfide release coudl this explain why my Duncan and Hammer corals don't look very happy today? it's been almost 24 hours since I found the dead fish.

Have neighbors close?

 

[beachsidereefer]

Have neighbors close?

not really, I have a backyard and the property line is probably 100 ft. from where the air intake is for the skimmer.

Is there any other latent indicators I can look for to see if it was a Hydrogen sulfide release? I track my PH readings using my controller. Would I see a drop or spike in readings during the gas release?

 

[Duke4Life]

Anyway to post pics of the 2 coral not doing good?

 

[beachsidereefer]

Anyway to post pics of the 2 coral not doing good?

yes, just waiting for the lights to turn on.