Help with Tank and fish dying

[rlowe20]

Hi All.
I've had my tank got about 3 months now and had no issues up until the last week. I have a 150L tank. Live rock, some soft corals and had 2 clowns, 1 small blue tang, 1 leopard wrassee, 1 royal gramma, 1 pink scooter blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of snails and small crabs. Water all fine but then all of a sudden 3 weeks after getting my tang she started to show signs of illness, put her into a QT tank but 3 days later she passed away. 5 days later both my clowns died but everything else seems fine. All the coral was OK but my GSP was closed whilst the Tang was ill and has only just opened back up fully today. The gramma and Wrassee are eating fine at the moment with no signs of illness. Any ideas? Is it a coincidence that the GSP wasn't open the same time I had 3 dying fish? Both clowns had red gills amonce they passed away (can show pictures i took once I took them out after passing). Any help or ideas welcomed.
Thanks in advance

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All.
I've had my tank got about 3 months now and had no issues up until the last week. I have a 150L tank. Live rock, some soft corals and had 2 clowns, 1 small blue tang, 1 leopard wrassee, 1 royal gramma, 1 pink scooter blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of snails and small crabs. Water all fine but then all of a sudden 3 weeks after getting my tang she started to show signs of illness, put her into a QT tank but 3 days later she passed away. 5 days later both my clowns died but everything else seems fine. All the coral was OK but my GSP was closed whilst the Tang was ill and has only just opened back up fully today. The gramma and Wrassee are eating fine at the moment with no signs of illness. Any ideas? Is it a coincidence that the GSP wasn't open the same time I had 3 dying fish? Both clowns had red gills amonce they passed away (can show pictures i took once I took them out after passing). Any help or ideas welcomed.
Thanks in advance

Im not sure if this is a water issue but how are you testing your levels?
Additionally with a young tank subject to spikes, how are you filtering tank and I assume you did not Quarantine these fish?
Please post a video of at least 30 seconds under bright white intensity - no blue and assure tank glass is clear

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi All.
I've had my tank got about 3 months now and had no issues up until the last week. I have a 150L tank. Live rock, some soft corals and had 2 clowns, 1 small blue tang, 1 leopard wrassee, 1 royal gramma, 1 pink scooter blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of snails and small crabs. Water all fine but then all of a sudden 3 weeks after getting my tang she started to show signs of illness, put her into a QT tank but 3 days later she passed away. 5 days later both my clowns died but everything else seems fine. All the coral was OK but my GSP was closed whilst the Tang was ill and has only just opened back up fully today. The gramma and Wrassee are eating fine at the moment with no signs of illness. Any ideas? Is it a coincidence that the GSP wasn't open the same time I had 3 dying fish? Both clowns had red gills amonce they passed away (can show pictures i took once I took them out after passing). Any help or ideas welcomed.
Thanks in advance

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you notice any symptoms other than the red gills? Did the fish stop eating, begin breathing fast, swimming oddly?

The GSP being closed could be a sign of water quality issues, or it could just be a coincidence (especially if it has since opened back up).

 

[rlowe20]

Im not sure if this is a water issue but how are you testing your levels?
Additionally with a young tank subject to spikes, how are you filtering tank and I assume you did not Quarantine these fish?
Please post a video of at least 30 seconds under bright white intensity - no blue and assure tank glass is clear

I will get you a video. Right now we have only the wrasse, royal grammar and blenny (along with clean up crew) all still signs with no issues if sign of illness (fingers crossed) no quarantine when I got them just drip acclimatise. The clowns i got when we got the tank so had them 3 months no issue and they died within 24 hours. The tang i only only had about 2 weeks so I fear she may have brought something in. I managed to get her out into a QT tank but think she was too far gone but again. Only took 24 hours to pass away. Water testing levels is done using the JBL marine water test kit.

 

[rlowe20]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you notice any symptoms other than the red gills? Did the fish stop eating, begin breathing fast, swimming oddly?

The GSP being closed could be a sign of water quality issues, or it could just be a coincidence (especially if it has since opened back up).

Thank you for the welcome.

The redness only really showed just before they passed away attached 2 pictures. There was a slight white patches on them before they passed. No real heavy breathing or odd swimming. Just low to the floor for about 6 hours before they passed away. Everything seemed to happen very quickly. Both were eating the day before fine. The tang took longer to pass away.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you for the welcome.

The redness only really showed just before they passed away attached 2 pictures. There was a slight white patches on them before they passed. No real heavy breathing or odd swimming. Just low to the floor for about 6 hours before they passed away. Everything seemed to happen very quickly. Both were eating the day before fine. The tang took longer to pass away.

Its hard to tell with dead carcasses but the clowns look to have tethered fins - a sign of aggression and the hepatus tang is susceptible to skin irritations and ich and one for sure should br quarantined first and not last with introduction
How did you acclimate these fish and for how long?

 

[rlowe20]

Its hard to tell with dead carcasses but the clowns look to have tethered fins - a sign of aggression and the hepatus tang is susceptible to skin irritations and ich and one for sure should br quarantined first and not last with introduction
How did you acclimate these fish and for how long?

The clowns were first in the tank and have been there for 3 months so they were good. Tang was about 2 hours in total. About 30mins plus for temp then drip in tank water over the course of an hour. Removed some of the water then did the same again for around 30 mins. I do fear the tang was the issue and a horrible and harsh learning curve. Just hope my wrasse, blenny and grammar are OK longer term so I can get 2 more clowns in but want to make sure everything settles first

 

[vetteguy53081]

The clowns were first in the tank and have been there for 3 months so they were good. Tang was about 2 hours in total. About 30mins plus for temp then drip in tank water over the course of an hour. Removed some of the water then did the same again for around 30 mins. I do fear the tang was the issue and a horrible and harsh learning curve. Just hope my wrasse, blenny and grammar are OK longer term so I can get 2 more clowns in but want to make sure everything settles first

Did you match salinity with that of the display tank?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank is less than 40 gallons, unfortunately I have never seen a good outcome from putting a tang in a small tank. Putting a tang in a such a small tank, almost always ends in disease and death. The leapord wrasse should also be in a much larger tank. This is not a good fish selection for your tank size, its stressful to a fish to be in a tank thats much smaller than what it needs. Before buying a fish, always best to google "the appropriate tank size for the fish."

 

[rlowe20]

Did you match salinity with that of the display tank?

Yes. I used some of the tank water to start the QT tank too

 

[rlowe20]

The tank is less than 40 gallons, unfortunately I have never seen a good outcome from putting a tang in a small tank. Putting a tang in a such a small tank, almost always ends in disease and death. The leapord wrasse should also be in a much larger tank. This is not a good fish selection for your tank size, its stressful to a fish to be in a tank thats much smaller than what it needs. Before buying a fish, always best to google "the appropriate tank size for the fish."

Totally agree. The tang was small as is the wrassee. I have a new tank being set up which will be much bigger but this was a temporary home for a month or two so wouldn't have thought it was an issue to home them for a few months.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Totally agree. The tang was small as is the wrassee. I have a new tank being set up which will be much bigger but this was a temporary home for a month or two so wouldn't have thought it was an issue to home them for a few months.

thanks for politely explaining, I don't know your experience level so was just pointing out. Sorry for your fish, good luck

 

[vetteguy53081]

Totally agree. The tang was small as is the wrassee. I have a new tank being set up which will be much bigger but this was a temporary home for a month or two so wouldn't have thought it was an issue to home them for a few months.

For small fish, I dont see the tank size as a factor but rather the hunch that issues began with introduction of the tang

 

[rlowe20]

thanks for politely explaining, I don't know your experience level so was just pointing out. Sorry for your fish, good luck

No worries. Thank you for reaching out. Had plenty of fish for years but this was my first real experience with Marine on this scale. So gutted but all water parameters are perfect so I'm going to make an assumption its an already infected tang that's taken my tank out.

 

[rlowe20]

For small fish, I dont see the tank size as a factor but rather the hunch that issues began with introduction of the tang

Agreed. I am going to speak to the shop we got her from. I am no making an assumption she was wild caught and the others were tank bred and she's come in with something

 

[rlowe20]

Hi all. Update. All apart from my Wrassee has now passed away. All water still testing fine. Wrassee still eating and swimming with no signs of any issues. Question now is. What should I do. Leave the tank for some time and see what happens? When should I look to add any new fish if the wrassee has no issues? If he was to pass away then I would leave the tank for a few months and leave just my coral which is doing really well. Thanks all and happy new year!