Boxfish Nuked The Tank

[badungski]

Hello,

New guy here, found your forum and will most likely be a regular visitor.

Anyway, could somebody give me advice on how to treat my aquarium after my boxfish died? It suddenly died and nuked everything in my tank. I was only able to save one. Had two before and didnt experience any problems with them. I did a full water change but I'm scared to place any new fishes in.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[DragonWarriorPo]

You might aswell change most of your water if only 1 fish survived. Run carbon if you have it. The carbon will absorb alot of the toxin. Don't buy another boxfish as they are more risk than reward.

[badungski]

Thanks DragonWarrior. Do you think I should change live rock and sand as well?

[cngreg]

I've cleared it with carbon then used a "test chromis". I didn this two days after the wipeout. This was in a qt system though. I think the rock should be ok if a test fish lives. I don't know what the half-life of the toxin protien is but most biological toxins aren't super stable; maybe few hours. Ostracitoxin from boxfish disables sodium gated channels which means they turn off the nervous system and fish are like us in that their gills and heart can only be paralyzed for a few minutes before they die.