All Fish Dead, Everything Else Fine?

CA_128 · 10/13/2017, 05:46 PM

Hello, so I am quite puzzled. I have a 7ish year old tank, and it has stabilized over the past few years. I recently started to put a few frags into my tank, and that has gone fantastic, they are growing, so I got a small and a large sebae anemone for my clownfish so that they might host it. Along this I also got some hermit crabs, nassarius snail, as well as a diamond goby. The diamond goby disappeared for about 3 days, then resurfaced looking very skinny and later died. I took him out and buried him. Later that week the large anemone I got started spewing some brownish mucus. I took as much of it out as possible then I did a water change later that week. After this all was fine until my blue tang (About 6 months in the tank and was growing) suddenly fell ill with ich, this is where it goes down hill, the blue tang's ich worsened, and I badly wanted to move him, however I don't have a hospital tank, and I would feel terrible sticking him in a 5 gallon bucket. So as time went on, none of the other fish got visible ich and they all seemed fine, until suddenly my flame angel (I've had him for around 4 years at this point) dies, it baffled me and I wrote it off as nothing. After this it was fine for another week until later I find both my bicolor angel and a clownfish dead (I had the clownfish since the very beginning of my tank so around 7 years, and the bicolor was about 3 years old). This shocked me, I had never had fish drop dead like this. Next was my scooter blenny, he died, and then fast forward 3 weeks, blue tang was looking better and much happier, so I go to bed, wake up, and I'm told that all my fish are dead, I go down and my blue tang, my last clown, and my little yellow tang, all dead. This past month or so has truly broken my heart, I have been taking care of my aquarium more than ever so naturally I go straight to the parameters, PH: 8.1 Nitrite: 0.3 Ammonia: 0 Salinity (Specific gravity): 1.025. Through all of this my fire shrimp, my hermit crabs, my snails, my corals, my anemones have done nothing but prosper.
Now about my tank
46 Bowfront (7ish years old)
I have a fluval Canister Filter (Rated for 55 gallons, cleaned once a month)
No Skimmer
Fluval 55 gallon heater/thermometer
LED Full Spectrum Lighting
I dose a two part system for the corals every other day, every so often I put Kent Marine's Microvert, and I also put trace elements in their every other week
I do about 5 gallon water changes, every 3 weeks or so.
So I'm very curious as to what might have done it, everything gone in a matter of months, while my corals and anemones thrive?
Another Question I have, my rocks have started to almost fall apart, every now and then I will see white and I will say oh no, white algae, but then I go and touch it and it is just the rock, and will later see a little chunk of rock on the sand. So any clues? I'm very concerned and want to know what I should do before trying any new fish. Thank you.

JustinM · 10/13/2017, 06:17 PM

You didn’t say what your nitrates were? You had a lot of large fish for a small tank. Are you using a hydrometer or refractometer. Sometimes ich may not look bad on the outside but the gills are infested furiously. If you have any pictures of what the infestation looked like, it would help us to know if it was velvet or ich.

For future reference, anything wet can bring in disease and should be qt’d.

CA_128 · 10/13/2017, 06:21 PM

No I do not have a picture, sorry but I use a hydrometer, and I want to get a qt, it is something I'm looking into. Thanks for the response though.

JustinM · 10/13/2017, 06:26 PM

Hydrometers are known to be way off. I’m not sure it was your salinity but I would double check with a calibrated refractometer. With stressful conditions, things like ich that can usually be fought off, are harder to fight. What are your nitrates?

CA_128 · 10/13/2017, 06:29 PM

I'm not sure about my nitrates I'm probably going to go and pick a test kit up. When I set it up my lfs (they are absolutely terrible. I swear to God my petco is 10x better than them) didn't really give me everything I needed. This is really starting to hurt me now, but I will let you know about the nitrates later.

JustinM · 10/13/2017, 06:34 PM

When you can, post your parameters. Being that you had ich, you can start your fallow period now if you want to eradicate it from your tank. It will need to remain fishless for 76 days and all new livestock(fish, corals, snails, hermits, etc.) will need quarantined for 76 days as well. Fish, if treated prophylactically can theoretically be placed into a sterile DT after treatment and observation. A pain but it makes things much easier in the long run.

Jdub968 · 10/13/2017, 08:12 PM

Justinm has given some sound advise. Let me address Your confusion on the inverts doing well chances are the water parameters are ok because if not the fish usually will deal will high nitrates better than coral and cuc however if it was ick it's just the opposite the ick velvet don't infest inverts and fish suffer. There is one thing you can do after ruling out nitrate and ammonia as Justinm suggested you can buy a fresh water black Mollie acclimate it to your tank and put it in there it will have zero immunity to salt water disease and if it were ick or velvet you will see it on the Mollie

jml1149 · 10/13/2017, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdub968

you can buy a fresh water black Mollie acclimate it to your tank and put it in there it will have zero immunity to salt water disease and if it were ick or velvet you will see it on the Mollie

Don't do this.

Nick_Northern · 10/14/2017, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jml1149

Don't do this.

+1

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk

smoothmove · 10/14/2017, 05:35 AM

Adding Mollies is like adding a disease magnet to your tank. +2 Don't do it

JustinM · 10/14/2017, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothmove

Adding Mollies is like adding a disease magnet to your tank. +2 Don't do it

They do not bring disease but you are correct, they are magnets for it. They have no saltwater immunity so ich, velvet, flukes, etc. will show right up. I won’t say a lot of people do it but some people put mollies in an acclimation box after a fallow period to see if diseases were eradicated. With ich becoming more and more difficult to eradicate and no one knowin what strain they have, it can be useful to know if QT’d fish can be added bank to the tank. If a tank is disease free, then there is nothing to worry about.

Jdub968 · 10/14/2017, 09:19 AM

+1 with Justinm I realize guys it sounds mean but keep in mind imo you still have an ethical obligation to the Mollie by no means do I condone letting it die you would treat it with meds if needed. This can be a very valuable tool , let's say you run a fallow period and you have a qt full of fish waiting to return to your DT are you going to add all the fish back to your DT at once? Hell no you will select one fish and add it back and observe then if all is well you add the others back. So what's the difference in these two scenarios ? Only one thing you are using a black Mollie that will show signs fast and has no temporary immunity to the parasite, all the fish that just went through qt are likely temporary immune.

JustinM · 10/14/2017, 09:29 AM

It wouldn’t even need treated, place it back in FW and all SW parasites and diseases are gone!

10/13/2017, 05:46 PM	#1
CA_128 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2016 Posts: 9	All Fish Dead, Everything Else Fine? Hello, so I am quite puzzled. I have a 7ish year old tank, and it has stabilized over the past few years. I recently started to put a few frags into my tank, and that has gone fantastic, they are growing, so I got a small and a large sebae anemone for my clownfish so that they might host it. Along this I also got some hermit crabs, nassarius snail, as well as a diamond goby. The diamond goby disappeared for about 3 days, then resurfaced looking very skinny and later died. I took him out and buried him. Later that week the large anemone I got started spewing some brownish mucus. I took as much of it out as possible then I did a water change later that week. After this all was fine until my blue tang (About 6 months in the tank and was growing) suddenly fell ill with ich, this is where it goes down hill, the blue tang's ich worsened, and I badly wanted to move him, however I don't have a hospital tank, and I would feel terrible sticking him in a 5 gallon bucket. So as time went on, none of the other fish got visible ich and they all seemed fine, until suddenly my flame angel (I've had him for around 4 years at this point) dies, it baffled me and I wrote it off as nothing. After this it was fine for another week until later I find both my bicolor angel and a clownfish dead (I had the clownfish since the very beginning of my tank so around 7 years, and the bicolor was about 3 years old). This shocked me, I had never had fish drop dead like this. Next was my scooter blenny, he died, and then fast forward 3 weeks, blue tang was looking better and much happier, so I go to bed, wake up, and I'm told that all my fish are dead, I go down and my blue tang, my last clown, and my little yellow tang, all dead. This past month or so has truly broken my heart, I have been taking care of my aquarium more than ever so naturally I go straight to the parameters, PH: 8.1 Nitrite: 0.3 Ammonia: 0 Salinity (Specific gravity): 1.025. Through all of this my fire shrimp, my hermit crabs, my snails, my corals, my anemones have done nothing but prosper. Now about my tank 46 Bowfront (7ish years old) I have a fluval Canister Filter (Rated for 55 gallons, cleaned once a month) No Skimmer Fluval 55 gallon heater/thermometer LED Full Spectrum Lighting I dose a two part system for the corals every other day, every so often I put Kent Marine's Microvert, and I also put trace elements in their every other week I do about 5 gallon water changes, every 3 weeks or so. So I'm very curious as to what might have done it, everything gone in a matter of months, while my corals and anemones thrive? Another Question I have, my rocks have started to almost fall apart, every now and then I will see white and I will say oh no, white algae, but then I go and touch it and it is just the rock, and will later see a little chunk of rock on the sand. So any clues? I'm very concerned and want to know what I should do before trying any new fish. Thank you.

10/13/2017, 06:17 PM	#2
JustinM Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,215	You didn’t say what your nitrates were? You had a lot of large fish for a small tank. Are you using a hydrometer or refractometer. Sometimes ich may not look bad on the outside but the gills are infested furiously. If you have any pictures of what the infestation looked like, it would help us to know if it was velvet or ich. For future reference, anything wet can bring in disease and should be qt’d. Last edited by JustinM; 10/13/2017 at 06:27 PM.

10/14/2017, 05:35 AM	#10
smoothmove Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: RockWall, Texas Posts: 464	Adding Mollies is like adding a disease magnet to your tank. +2 Don't do it __________________ 80 gallon Deep Blue Rimless, 5 Kessil A160's Tuna Blues, Converted AquaC EV 400 w/ Sedra 15000, Jebao 36 watt UV, Jebao DCT12000, 75 gallon sump

10/13/2017, 06:21 PM	#3
CA_128 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2016 Posts: 9	No I do not have a picture, sorry but I use a hydrometer, and I want to get a qt, it is something I'm looking into. Thanks for the response though.

10/13/2017, 06:26 PM	#4
JustinM Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,215	Hydrometers are known to be way off. I’m not sure it was your salinity but I would double check with a calibrated refractometer. With stressful conditions, things like ich that can usually be fought off, are harder to fight. What are your nitrates?

10/13/2017, 06:29 PM	#5
CA_128 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2016 Posts: 9	I'm not sure about my nitrates I'm probably going to go and pick a test kit up. When I set it up my lfs (they are absolutely terrible. I swear to God my petco is 10x better than them) didn't really give me everything I needed. This is really starting to hurt me now, but I will let you know about the nitrates later.

10/13/2017, 06:34 PM	#6
JustinM Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,215	When you can, post your parameters. Being that you had ich, you can start your fallow period now if you want to eradicate it from your tank. It will need to remain fishless for 76 days and all new livestock(fish, corals, snails, hermits, etc.) will need quarantined for 76 days as well. Fish, if treated prophylactically can theoretically be placed into a sterile DT after treatment and observation. A pain but it makes things much easier in the long run.

10/13/2017, 08:12 PM	#7
Jdub968 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 401	Justinm has given some sound advise. Let me address Your confusion on the inverts doing well chances are the water parameters are ok because if not the fish usually will deal will high nitrates better than coral and cuc however if it was ick it's just the opposite the ick velvet don't infest inverts and fish suffer. There is one thing you can do after ruling out nitrate and ammonia as Justinm suggested you can buy a fresh water black Mollie acclimate it to your tank and put it in there it will have zero immunity to salt water disease and if it were ick or velvet you will see it on the Mollie

10/14/2017, 09:19 AM	#12
Jdub968 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 401	+1 with Justinm I realize guys it sounds mean but keep in mind imo you still have an ethical obligation to the Mollie by no means do I condone letting it die you would treat it with meds if needed. This can be a very valuable tool , let's say you run a fallow period and you have a qt full of fish waiting to return to your DT are you going to add all the fish back to your DT at once? Hell no you will select one fish and add it back and observe then if all is well you add the others back. So what's the difference in these two scenarios ? Only one thing you are using a black Mollie that will show signs fast and has no temporary immunity to the parasite, all the fish that just went through qt are likely temporary immune.

10/14/2017, 09:29 AM	#13
JustinM Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,215	It wouldn’t even need treated, place it back in FW and all SW parasites and diseases are gone!