fish illness

[alcorn128]

was recently stocking my new tank i set up from 2 smaller tanks and had a fish wipe out after i bought a blue tang. i moved a clownfish and his anemone and a yellow watchman gobie from the other tanks and bought a bicolor blenny and then a week later the blue tang . the bicolor went into hiding and a few days later the tang was on the bottom breathing hard and died the next day. then after another few days the clownfish died after not eating for a few days and i found the blenny dead. my LFS said it was a parasite but i saw no sighs of it and thought it was from a phosphate reducer he had sold me because it all started on the day i added it for the first time. i tried a damsel and it died in my tank in 24 hours after being in the lfs tank for weeks. i tested my water and had the LFS double check it and couldn't find a reason why they died from that. ammonia was .0 to .2. salinity 1.026 PH was a little low and nitrite and nitrate was fine. the ammonia was prob from the rotting clownfish trapped under the rocks i got out later that day. the gobie is fine through all of this but i read they are resistant to most marine parasites. any idea's?

[b0bab0ey]

I've got a similar situation going on in my 58g reef. Every fish I put in there dies. Coral/inverts are all fine. I chalked it all up to Flukes (or some other disease) so I'm going fishless for 6 weeks.

But something you said really interests me. All of my fish deaths occurred shortly after I installed a Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor to reduce phosphates. I'm running GFO and this ROX 0.8 Carbon in it, both bought from BRS. I let it run clean into a bucket before I used it in my tank. Coincidence?

[alcorn128]

i used aquarium sparkling aqua. supposed to be some kind of bacteria that retartds algea growth. 6 weeks is the safe time to wait for the parasite to end its cycle? all my corals and inverts are doing fine also.

[b0bab0ey]

6 weeks is the safe time to wait for the parasite to end its cycle?

Opinions vary greatly on this. Some people say to wait 12 weeks to be sure. I say 8 weeks to kill Ich, 6 weeks for Flukes. Anyone else care to chime in?

[alcorn128]

flukes is what it sounds like it was. i have had a tank for a year and a half and never dealt with fish problems. i had red planaria and aptasia that i got from one of the LFS but always got healthy fish. the reason i prob didn't catch it was because i never saw any spots, or you year of hole in the head all with physical traits but i had no idea what was going on when they just started dropping. but they just started breathing hadr and died. i have good flow with a 750 powerhead, a korilla nano, a 20 gal sump with refug and a 180 gal rated skimmer. 2 300gal return pumps with 1" plumbing so i don't think it was oxygen starvation but flukes in the gills could account for what i saw.

[Sk8r]

I've done a little research on Prazipro, and recommend you do your own. Here, however, is what I've gathered up.
A 7 day course of Prazipro administered in a reef "will not harm biofiltration", "will not harm MOST corals", but "will kill off flatworms, copepods, worms, etc" along with parasites like flukes. IE, this is a crap shoot, and it will seriously impact your cleanup crew, and your fuge, if any. If your back is against the wall with an infested tank, you might consider it. As I said---research it. Unlike most miracle cures, this one works---but! it is lethal to a broad range of desirables as well. If I were forced to use it, for a parasite I couldn't get by other means, I'd toss the cheato in my fuge, since it will need to be replaced, and I'd be sure to watch my skimmer for extraordinary dieoff. I'd also research some places to order such things as worms, etc, or---set up a CUC rescue tank apart from this, washing off everything you put in there in a strong jet of clean saltwater and look it over with a magnifying glass. And I'd just arrange it to be for a 7 day period when I could shepherd the thing pretty closely.

If a 6 week fallow will wipe out flukes that would be far more desirable. I have absolutely no experience with this pest (thank goodness) but again urge a full 4-week quarantine as a much better way to find this early.

[b0bab0ey]

I decided against treating my reef with PraziPro, mainly because I didn't want to risk losing my feather dusters and I have nowhere else to put them. The reef is currently fishless. Do you think 6 weeks is a long enough time to starve the Flukes out?