My fish dying 1 by 1

[michaellee]

My reef of 120G hooked to another 3 stage 150 gallon reef is doing horrible. Ph 8.0, dkh 10, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates low. Don't know what to do. The emperor I had is dead. Shortly after the puffer. Eyes got cloudy and bam. Now in the main reef that supplies all the water, my 2 year old healthy sailfin is cloudy eyed and twitching, It's going to die. Tried to remove him but my reef is way too stocked. Then I came to the conclusion that perhaps its my water??????? I use RO-DI and we have well water. A few months ago our 20G nano got hit with what we thought was lymph , the same as whats happening in my main reef. Fishless going on 2 months now waiting to add after the 2 months. What if the well water is contaminated with the apparent fungus? Is that possible? Or is this a coincidence? Assuming that the sailfin is going to die, the other question is this: Is it just a matter of time before all my fish die? My hypo, flameback, 8 line wrasse, and clown are in with the sick uncatchable rapidly deteriorating sailfin. The sailfin has fin rot and cloudy eyes, and is exactly how the others died. Any help getting a frame of thought here please. thank you. UV is running 36W

 

[sen5241b]

You have a tough situation. I would say you have some live pathogen in your water. Its very easy to transfer a pathogen from one tank to another. You could use a net in a tank, put it down for hours then put it in the other tank and boom --its infected. One little microbe (bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitical) can hang on that net or other instrument for some time. If not a pathogen then another possibility is some heavy metal like lead in the water. Did you test your source water with a TDS meter?

At this point, you really need to open every book or article on fish disese and really try to figure it out. This kind of investigaitng can take days or longer. Can you try a fresh water dip? UV might help reduce the number of pathogens in the water.

 

[michaellee]

Thanks for responding, No I dont have a meter. I can't catch the tang either. My local store said what you did. Said to remove ths sick fish and get a pond sterilizer and dont add more fish. Run a pond sterilizer and irradicate the virus assuming that the others aren't carrying it. Then after a month or 2 add a fish and see if it is within the system. What do you think, the problem is , I am running a 36W turbo twist coralife uv now. He said run a supreme pondmaster uv clarifier that clarifies 6000G. OMG is that a lot. See I dont understand it. the coralife is for a 500G max tank.; it don't do the job. This pondmaster is for 6000G, and I think that if it is torqued down it will do the job. I have major major algae buildup in the new tanks and I think with my system being divided and run off the main sump , I should run a sterilizer in that main sump to really get to the bottom of things. the uv is huge. Advanced Aquariums said it doesn't matter if its for a pond or marine. What do you think about his approach and as well the UV? The sterilizer is 40W , and I can't understand how it does 6000G , and it requires HUGE flow, but the turbo twist does 500 and is 4 watts under the 40W that I ordered and it isn't doing the job. John the owner said that the system would be doing more GPH thus increasing the contact time that way. Do you think it will kill it (the virus?). as well he said my bio bed should be good because I have refugiums and 200lbs estimate liverock. That with my bio balls should not be affected. Whatcha think?

 

[michaellee]

Went to feed. Another down. 8 line wrasse, bottom lips are swollen up. that's how it starts.

 

[little_fish]

The problem with a UV sterilizer is it can only kill the stuff that flows through it, so it cant totally eliminate everything. They also have to be set up pretty exact, otherwise the water wont get the correct exposure, and the UV will basically do nothing.

Im very sorry this is happening to your, but i think your best bet is to the let the system totally fallow for several months, more than just two, to kill off whatever this is.

I would also disconnect your plumbing between the tanks and keep them totally separated that way you dont spread something like this again between the tank.

 

[michaellee]

Yea. It's over. they all have it. I am going to run U/V slow enough to kill the bug over s strict no fish for atleast 4 months. I ordered a sterilizer should be here tomorrow. I will still use my 36W Turbotwist as well, but will run the 40W I have on the way. My fish are all coated bad. I have to start ripping the reef apart tomorrow to catch the poor little guys. Do you think if I qt the best ones and treat with a good Kanamycin - that they would reintroduce fine. After 4 months of waiting I don't think I want to chance it. Looks like I may have to just treat for humane reasons, but any I have tried to treat die

 

[Bifferwine]

Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. :( It's frustrating to not know what is going on, and I'm afraid I don't have any good answers for you either. Without knowing what exactly is wrong with them, it's difficult to determine which medication to use. An antibiotic would probably be your best bet, but you haven't had much luck with antibiotics yet, unfortunately.

 

[little_fish]

Ya, im sorry to hear about your troubles. You might try calling up your local aquarium and see if you get who they use for diagnostics to try and figure out exactly what is killing your fish so you know exactly how long you have to wait or what you need to treat with to completely irradiate whatever is attacking your fish.

 

[michaellee]

Thanks to you all. This is crazy. I honestly know I cross contaminated because i always stuck to a main rule. Get your fish from one place. When we got the clown the rule was broke, but not for my tank. When it was so sick (a clown) putting it in the refugium had to release the disease. It took a good jolt in my system (adding my new tanks inline) to stress them out enough to catch the bug. Ya know, I almost took it all down, but I have a lot of coral, clams, and new equiptment on the way. So - at least I'm not a quitter. I try to get younger kids to attck this hobby. I have a straight A awarded 10 year old home here, and if she can grasp "life" and it's beauty during her formative years, it will deeply influence the rest of her life. How-e-ver....... this example was not forseen. :) I will do what I can to contain the problem, but with that being said - there is something to say about learning by mistake. I think many times in posts I see people who know all the answers. Then I see some begging to learn. Then I see people like you wanting to help. thank you. It evens out to learning by experience and using the forum to help others and recieve help. Thanks for the help peoples. Learning by mistakes = victory. (won't be saying that tomorrow trying to get my corals out. They are fused to so many multiple rocks. The only way to get the fish. they know what a net is :)

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Oodenium?

 

[michaellee]

I was thinking that. I started to feed erythromicin in their food and started a new U/V sterilizer, and after 3 days (6) feedings, the clown lost all of the oodenium looking stuff on him. I am being very careful because this is im my reef. Did not want to do it , but also couldn't watch them die one by one. The Hype Tang lost 95% of his spots, and they are all eating well. Hmmm? Bacterial. I think I eliminated or disabled the free swimming stage hitting it hard with U/V. I soak their food for a few hours in the refrigerator with the Erythromicin. They eat it no problem. I am just hoping to knock this. 10 days of treatment and that's it. I also noticed when I started the new 40W UV Sterilizer - my skimmer went bezerk. Must be all the dying algae and gunk coming out. It's like black tar coming out. Being careful and on top of all my parameters and hoping this turn of events will prevail. however if anyone thinks I am doing horribe dosing the food - because it's in the reef , please let me know. I do know a few of my Zoos ate a couple mysis that were soaked in themeds. They opened up fine. just didn't want to harm my corals. I guess I have to find a happy medium.

 

[little_fish]

I think if you can get them to eat it, that is the best way to deliver the medications. Im really sure glad you seem to have gotten a handle on whatever this is!

Keep us posted!

 

[wontonflip]

Glad to hear things are doing better!

 

[michaellee]

Well the battle is over. Theres been no signs the past few days at all. Among the dead are 1 sailfin large was extremely healthy - emperor angel, Niger Trigger, and porcupine puffer. I think this was completely my fault. I started the waterfall tanks inline with my 120G. When the ph dropped and then raised dramatically on a few occasions, I believe I stressed them badly. Once they got sick - the stressed ones and more delicate took the hit. I am very surprized the clown lost all his infection. He was littered. The tang had quite a bit as well. Now that the tank is cycled I hope the nightmare is over. I've moved this aquarium and haven't had anything of this sort happen. I think there is something to be said about a properly used UV sterilizer as well. I have a 6 inch gold striped maroon clown that is just a giant. He really needs an anemone bad I think. My clown (a small tomato) in the main tank occupies it. I am wondering which clown it is more important for. Was thinking of moving it for the big clown to his tank. Then I am kind of wondering on the age of the clown that big. Does he have long life ahead? I think that I will order a nice sized anemone for him. Maybe a carpet. I have to do some research on what kind is best for a very large maroon. Have you ever seen maroons that big. He's got a big jaw like an oscar. lol. I'll try to snap a picture today when lights come on.

 

[Bifferwine]

Why do you think he needs an anemone? No clown needs an anemone. The carpet might eat him. I watched a carpet nem at my LFS eat its own clown once! :lol:

Are you planning on keeping your tanks fallow for a while?

 

[michaellee]

The clown is huge, I guess if you saw him you'd know. lol. Plus I had his razor teeth capped with titanium (like the navy seal dogs). So he will be okay. I have seen clowns love an anemone to death when they are big. I never saw one get eaten by the anemone. Lol. That would be very sobering. :)

 

[sen5241b]

Erythromicin is an antibiotic and will do nothing to kill parasites. Yes, your UV killed the parasites only in the free swiming stage. I would not assume that all parasites will go thru the UV and completely die off. Suggest you continue to monitor fish carefully and ask yourself what LFS sent you oodinium. GOOD luck.

 

[michaellee]

Yes very true - because I remember the day my girlfriend went to petco. Wow - all her fish in her reef died in a week and one of them that looked fine was housed in my main display tanks refugium. Then my fish all got ill. Sticking with my family run LFS because I haven't run into that there - and if so they'd problem solve with me. Stupidest mistake I ever made putting a sick clown in there. Cross contamination. I had a wrasse that was in the refugium a day with that sick clown and moved him because he picked on the clown. There was my mistake.