Help ID’ing what is killing my fish

[pocketsand]

Hi All,

I have finally had a fish die (of the several dead so far) that I could get good photos of. My White Tail Bristletooth was in my tank for about 6 weeks and I believe may have been patient zero. I have lost a small fox face, a pink spotted diamond goby, a royal gramma, a black clown goby and have a wrasse that is acting a little funny.

Symptoms thus far have been all over the place. The black clown goby had spotting on him and was dead the next day. The watchman goby never showed any symptoms other than being unseen/not eating for two days. The fox face had no visual signs and was eating like a pig one day and was dead the next morning. The royal gramma was showing signs of some rubbing and some flashing and had less appetite, he eventually disappeared into the rock work and was never seen again.

My tank is very fish friendly with lots of hiding spots so catching everything to fallow was not really on the table. The watchman goby was kind of a rescue (one eyed) and was the first to die so I left that as normal. The fox face died a few days later but was kind of small so I took note and caution but didn’t have any symptoms to treat.

I decided to treat the tank with prazi once I saw the gramma rubbing sand and flashing. From there the white tail started hiding all the time and hadn’t eaten in three days. He was never the active fish I expected out of a tang so he may have been sick early on. He eventually just hid in his spot and breathed rapidly until I scooped up his dead body this morning.

At this point I just want to know what it is. Outside of the black clown goby nothing has any white spots or had white spots. The gramma did some flashing and rubbing, the whitetail had rapid breathing and hid until the end.

I am going to setup a QT today or tomorrow and work on getting the remaining fish out. I think I can easily catch those so it’s a viable option for the fish time. I will fallow for 76 days and go from there unless the diagnosis is something totally different that the marine velvet I suspect. Attached are photos of the whitetail.

My hope is to setup a tank and QT the tanks worth of fish during the fallow period. Treat everything with copper and prazi and have a clean system from there on.

 

[Gman83]

Are there any fish showing symptoms? Can you get a picture or video of them?

 

[pocketsand]

There are not currently any fish showing symptoms. The tang was always in a spot that was impossible to video. Just rapid breathing, no appetite, didn’t want to be in the open (I’m assuming light sensitivity)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All,

I have finally had a fish die (of the several dead so far) that I could get good photos of. My White Tail Bristletooth was in my tank for about 6 weeks and I believe may have been patient zero. I have lost a small fox face, a pink spotted diamond goby, a royal gramma, a black clown goby and have a wrasse that is acting a little funny.

Symptoms thus far have been all over the place. The black clown goby had spotting on him and was dead the next day. The watchman goby never showed any symptoms other than being unseen/not eating for two days. The fox face had no visual signs and was eating like a pig one day and was dead the next morning. The royal gramma was showing signs of some rubbing and some flashing and had less appetite, he eventually disappeared into the rock work and was never seen again.

My tank is very fish friendly with lots of hiding spots so catching everything to fallow was not really on the table. The watchman goby was kind of a rescue (one eyed) and was the first to die so I left that as normal. The fox face died a few days later but was kind of small so I took note and caution but didn’t have any symptoms to treat.

I decided to treat the tank with prazi once I saw the gramma rubbing sand and flashing. From there the white tail started hiding all the time and hadn’t eaten in three days. He was never the active fish I expected out of a tang so he may have been sick early on. He eventually just hid in his spot and breathed rapidly until I scooped up his dead body this morning.

At this point I just want to know what it is. Outside of the black clown goby nothing has any white spots or had white spots. The gramma did some flashing and rubbing, the whitetail had rapid breathing and hid until the end.

I am going to setup a QT today or tomorrow and work on getting the remaining fish out. I think I can easily catch those so it’s a viable option for the fish time. I will fallow for 76 days and go from there unless the diagnosis is something totally different that the marine velvet I suspect. Attached are photos of the whitetail.

My hope is to setup a tank and QT the tanks worth of fish during the fallow period. Treat everything with copper and prazi and have a clean system from there on.

Hard to tell from a dead carcass and best when symptoms begin to take pics and videos. Preliminarily, looking at skin may have been velvet. If true, you would have seen fish with elevated breathing, swimming path of water flow, reduced appetite and gasping at surface as examples.

 

[pocketsand]

Hard to tell from a dead carcass and best when symptoms begin to take pics and videos. Preliminarily, looking at skin may have been velvet. If true, you would have seen fish with elevated breathing, swimming path of water flow, reduced appetite and gasping at surface as examples.

Nothing really it the powerheads directly but I bounce mine from rear to front glass. I would have video of the tang if he ever came out of his hole but it was not a feasible place to film. There’s definitely been a drop in appetite for all fish that died with the exception of the fox face.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

There are not currently any fish showing symptoms. The tang was always in a spot that was impossible to video. Just rapid breathing, no appetite, didn’t want to be in the open (I’m assuming light sensitivity)

It could be Amyloodinium (velvet) but that typically kills fish quickly. Flukes will cause the fish to scratch, with losses taking place over a week or two.

In some cases, you cannot visually diagnose between these issues. In those cases, you need to move all of the fish into a quarantine tank and treat with Coppersafe and Prazipro. However, once fish loss has begun in a group of fish, it is often too late to stop more fish from dying, even with a proper treatment.

 

[pocketsand]

It could be Amyloodinium (velvet) but that typically kills fish quickly. Flukes will cause the fish to scratch, with losses taking place over a week or two.

In some cases, you cannot visually diagnose between these issues. In those cases, you need to move all of the fish into a quarantine tank and treat with Coppersafe and Prazipro. However, once fish loss has begun in a group of fish, it is often too late to stop more fish from dying, even with a proper treatment.

This is where my mind is at now as well. Going to setup a QT soon and try and save what is left. From there I will fallow the reef and use that QT to get fish ready for post-fallow. That sound about right?