All of my fish just died

[brandon101996]

So all of my fish died from an unknown disease (started with ich a few months ago but then i fixed that problem) then last week all of a sudden everyone starts to drop (no new fish have been added so that’s why i have no idea what it could be). but i still have lots of corals in the tank from sps lps and softies. how long should i wait before even trying fish again? i know for ich its 76 days which is fine but should i wait even longer since idk what the disease is? then in the mean time while there is no fish, how do i make sure are the corals stay healthy and happy? i’ve never had a coral only tank.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Hi,

Sorry to hear that all of your fish died. I can't help you on how long you should wait, but to keep your corals happy, you need to keep nutrients up. My suggestion for you is to either dose nutrients into the tank, or feed your tank like you have fish in the tank. Monitor the nutrient levels very close.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Any pictures of the bodies?

Anything stand out - fast breathing, red gills, flashing, red sores, laying on their side?

 

[CO2TLEY]

Not an expert by any means but i would just make sure your phosphates and nitrates don’t bottom out without a bio load in the tank. I’m sure a #fis#fishmedic answer the question on how long to go fallow?

 

[Jekyl]

Sorry this happened. Here is a write up on the fallow period. Can you also explain how the ich was previously dealt with?

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Dburr1014]

So all of my fish died from an unknown disease (started with ich a few months ago but then i fixed that problem) then last week all of a sudden everyone starts to drop (no new fish have been added so that’s why i have no idea what it could be). but i still have lots of corals in the tank from sps lps and softies. how long should i wait before even trying fish again? i know for ich its 76 days which is fine but should i wait even longer since idk what the disease is? then in the mean time while there is no fish, how do i make sure are the corals stay healthy and happy? i’ve never had a coral only tank.

How did you fix the ich?

Sorry this happened!

 

[brandon101996]

fallow period and treated in separate QT tank with hyposalinity.

 

[brandon101996]

Any pictures of the bodies?

Anything stand out - fast breathing, red gills, flashing, red sores, laying on their side?

 

[Jekyl]

fallow period and treated in separate QT tank with hyposalinity.

At what salinity and did you ensure accurate testing? Sorry, just trying to cover the bases.

 

[DCR]

I suspect it was velvet from that picture of the clown. Can certainly wipe out a tank. Was there heavy breathing prior to death?

 

[Dburr1014]

fallow period and treated in separate QT tank with hyposalinity.

How long was fallow?
What was hypo at? How did you measure? Was that device calibrated? How?

What fish died previously? The 2 tangs? What was in the tank now?

 

[MDAquatics]

I second everything people have said above. Keep your nutrient levels right to keep those corals happy. You have parameters? Sorry about your fish.

 

[hunterallen40]

Very sad. So sorry for your losses. I too suspect velvet, as velvet is not treated by hyposalinity, and kills fast enough to be the issue here. I definitely recommend you follow the fallow guide posted above.

As for keeping corals without fish, I do have some advice. I run a fishless system for fallowing the corals we sell, and I keep the nutrients up by dosing ammonium chloride and sodium phosphate. This seems to do a great job of keeping levels up, but definitely be ready to give your clean up crew a hand with a toothbrush and some hydrogen peroxide. Happy to expand on any of that if you need, or let you know the amounts / concentrations of the solutions we dose throughout the day. We also feed plenty of live phyto, and spot feed infrequently.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So all of my fish died from an unknown disease (started with ich a few months ago but then i fixed that problem) then last week all of a sudden everyone starts to drop (no new fish have been added so that’s why i have no idea what it could be). but i still have lots of corals in the tank from sps lps and softies. how long should i wait before even trying fish again? i know for ich its 76 days which is fine but should i wait even longer since idk what the disease is? then in the mean time while there is no fish, how do i make sure are the corals stay healthy and happy? i’ve never had a coral only tank.

If all of the fish died and none of the corals or invertebrates did, then it was definitely a fish disease and not any sort of water quality issue.

As far as WHAT disease, I'd need more clues to be able to tell you that. Amyloodinium/velvet is one external disease that can kill fish in a few days.

For all external fish parasites, holding the tank fishless for 60 days will eliminate any diseases. However, it is common for people to wait 60 days and then run out and buy new fish, add them to the tank and have them get sick again. That isn't because the fallow period failed, but because the new fish weren't quarantined and brought a new disease in with them.

Here is our quarantine protocol that handles the majority of external fish disease issues:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/


Jay

 

[brandon101996]

At what salinity and did you ensure accurate testing? Sorry, just trying to cover the bases.

1.009

 

[brandon101996]

blue tang, powder brown, 3 clowns, flame angel, diamond watchman, green chromis, chalk basslet, royal gramma, yellow coris.

 

[brandon101996]

parameters
0 ammonia
0nitrite
10 nitrate
.03 phos
430 cal
10.2 alk
1330 mag
8.2 PH
1.026 salinity

 

[Jekyl]

1.009

As mentioned before hypo won't treat velvet

 

[Reef Puncher]

can you afford a UV filter? i would run one of those, and do a 100% water change over a 1-2 week period before introducing fish again. UV will kill parasite and bacteria and ICH and drastically reduce chances of something like that happening again. dont let your nutrients bottom out if you have coral too. gonna have to buy neophos and neonitro, or dose lots of reefroids and benepets, either way will keep nutrients up.

 

[brandon101996]

can you afford a UV filter? i would run one of those, and do a 100% water change over a 1-2 week period before introducing fish again. UV will kill parasite and bacteria and ICH and drastically reduce chances of something like that happening again. dont let your nutrients bottom out if you have coral too. gonna have to buy neophos and neonitro, or dose lots of reefroids and benepets, either way will keep nutrients up.

i have a uv sterilizer already. but i would rather wait a lot longer than a week or 2