AH Help, fish dead, others dying

[mandy21]

Okay, so I wake up and turn lights on to my tank after noticing an odd lump of "sand" and see that it's my diamond goby upside down dead. In a frenzy I turn the other set of lights on to find my Coral Beauty Angel a hideous color of brown, no hint of the color she had yesterday. My clowns - though retarded - are acting abnormally strange while they look okay in terms of color and whatnot; the wrasse is buried in the sand so I won't know until he comes out. All of my parameters are fine minus SG being barely higher than I would like it to be due to forgetting to turn the heater on to the top off supply before I went to bed Tuesday night. :help:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
SG - 1.026
pH - 8.4
temperature - 80

All inverts (snails, crabs, shrimp) are accounted for and doing well. All corals are also doing well, were extended prior to light being on, clam is doing well. The only thing I added in the last week + in terms of livestock is a long tentacled plate coral which is also doing well. What on earth is going on?

I had a 20g long set up at hyposalinity going to cycle today since i had plans on getting a yellow tang to replace the Kole tang that decided to do some carpet surfing but as of right now, the coral beauty is in the process of going in there, and I pretty much am thinking I'm going to QT all my fish since I'm left wondering if there is disease in there. Nothing could have contaminated the water to the best of my knowledge. Buckets/containers are only used for tank water, lids kept on, chemicals kept away, etc. Any ideas?

[Grins]

Oh no! What a way for you to wake up. If it had just been the goby I'd have thought he might have had a nutritional problem but with the coral beauty too I'm stumped as your numbers look good as you said.

[mandy21]

yea, the goby was eating great, pretty much eating everything and doing a nice job of keeping the sand all pretty. The wrasse is out and looks perfect. Upon further inspection after turning on the brighter MH, I'm thinking Brooklynella... which really ticks me off since these stinkin clowns have been throughoughly resistant to disease despite all they've been through.... So, I hope to god I am not needed for my shift at work so I can go to the last pet store I know of to look for Formalin. I ordered some meds to have on stock in case I had disease and they won't be delivered until tomorrow. Talk about an odd timing to decide to order meds for "just in case".

BLAH.

[Grins]

I hope it isn't Brook but if it is hopefully you've caught it soon enough to save the angel and others.

[mandy21]

I am now looking into marine velvet as the angel is now diplaying red gills which combined with the coloring is sounding like that. :( that and it's deteriorating extremely quickly.

[Grins]

Can you snap a photo?

[mandy21]

If I could find my charger for my camera, I would. I'll see what my phone can do.

[mandy21]

Hopefully I'll be updating this in 8 hours with good news that all are still alive by the time i get back from work....

[Grins]

Hope so too Mandy.

[BMorgan]

Good luck with that. Very odd indeed. Hope it works out for you.

[FeatherDuster]

I wish the best of luck to you. I hate those silent, but fast and deadly fish diseases.

[mandy21]

The angel is dead, as I had feared would happen while I was gone. clowns are looking and acting the same way. wrasse is still doing perfect as is everything else that is not fish.

the clowns are going in a differnt QT tank tonight if ph, sg and temp get the same as the main tank and I'm going to start treatment tomorrow with copper. Obviously I should take the wrasse out so let the tank be fishless for whatever it is to go through the cycle, but I should let the wrasse just be in another QT with no meds since it is showing no signs of illness, correct? I'm pretty sure the clowns have the same thing, but are a lot hardier than the angel.

[Grins]

It really depends on what they have Mandy. Clowns often don't do well with copper as well.

[Grins]

Oh and meant to add how sorry I am about the angel now too.

[mandy21]

thanks grins. you're right. I'm just at a loss right now; I have this odd feeling that I won't have to be thinking about how to attempt to treat the clowns at all.

[Grins]

Aww Mandy try not to think that way. Were you able to get a photo of any of the fish?

[BMorgan]

Really sorry for your loss, I know that must be hard. I hope all goes well with the QT and you can fix the problem without any more losses.

[clown-lover]

Mandy I'm so sorry for your loss.. I'm hoping you find a solution to your problem and wish you had pictures to post as well.. If it is brook its going to happen really really fast from my readings.. I am wishing you the best of luck..

Charles1958 has some good articles on his website about Brook maybe you should give them a look.

Mark

[animalman]

Sorry to hear all thats happened. :( Did you try a freshwater dip? It might help if its brook. Here are some links to brook. hope it helps.
http://fishvet.com/Brooklynella.htm
http://fishvet.com/Brooklynella.htm

[animalman]

sorry heres second one
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/brookynella.html

[strangerdejavu]

Ah Mandy, that's crappy. I'm sorry about your little Kole tang, too! Best of luck to you!

[jagr200]

Im very sorry for your losses Mandy


In that first link it says fish tend to "Toy" with their food by eating their food and spitting it back out. My clowns eat their Oraglo pellets by sucking them in and spitting them out until they are small enough and soft enough for them to eat. The pellets are too big for their little mouths.

[mandy21]

Thanks everyone. Camera is charging so hopefully I can get a shot of one or the other.

Just did the freshwater dip on the clowns. They didn't quite like it. So, question is when considering "distress", what would constitute distress. Each of them wound up laying over like they were dead then all of a sudden trying to jump out of it. i was a little afraid I killed them so they weren't in long, but more than just like a few seconds more like a few minutes.

The clowns do resemble the appearance of mucus like the first picture of the clown on Chuck's website. I was in search of that earlier today but I could not track it down. Thank you.

I do have formalin coming tomorrow from my bigal's order so I am going to cross my fingers and go that route.

[jagr200]

Keep us posted.

[Grins]

Yes please do. I think sometimes those around us that don't keep tanks don't understand how really stressful it is when something like happens to our fish or inverts.

[mandy21]

exactly. my bf thinks I'm concerned about the money of restocking . . . erm no.

Those little boogers managed to move just enough in every shot out of 50 that there was a blur. tomorrow, when I catch them I will try to get them in a tiny amount of water in the clear fish capture thing i use where they won't be moving around so much. on another note, I finally figured out my macro settings. . .

[jagr200]

lol fish can be a pain to take pictures of!!! Keep up the good fight and keep us posted. Remember, if it is worth it to the fish to keep fighting, it is worth it for you to keep fighting for the fish!

[Grins]

I feel you, I have never been able to get a good shot of my clowns.

[mandy21]

Well, both clowns were dead this morning. I'm quite sad about that. All that remains in that 75 gallon in terms of fish is my radiant wrasse. I'm going this morning to get a massive net in order to catch him to get him in QT to let the tank go fishless. Whatever this was wiped out $250 worth of fish. I'm putting a positive spin on it and looking forward to getting it restocked (with proper quarantine first) so the main tank will be fishless for more like 10 weeks or so.

[Grins]

Mandy I so hate this for you and your tank. I'm glad it hasn't gotten the better of you and you're going to restock with changes you think are for the better.

[vorlx]

Sorry to hear about your losses. I am generaly upset when anything dies. My beloved decorator crab died the other day and that alone was painful. He was a cheap little guy to. =(

I couldn't even imagine if I lost my entire fish stock in a few days. =(

[Subliminal]

Sorry to hear it, Mandy. :(

At least it wasn't something that effected the coral, too.

Good luck!

[jagr200]

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with everything.

[mandy21]

Thanks all, and yes you're right damon, corals and clam are doing fine. it would take a lot more than loss of livestock to turn me away from the hobby. I'd pretty much have to be homeless and even then I would probably try to tote around something. I stopped in my LFS to let them know what happened so they would be aware that there could be others that were sick and that the same thing could happen to someone else, and they were flabberghasted. It was the first time I left without anything but a big net to help catch the wrasse and some food.

[animalman]

Hi Mandy, sorry for your lose. Any idea what caused this to happen?

[BadRoma1]

sorry about it, i know how upsetting it is. been there. but on the second note, don't fresh water dip, because fish skin parasites don't die that fast and mostlikely the time that's needed to kill parasite probably would stress out the animal to death or kill it too.

[mandy21]

Hi Mandy, sorry for your lose. Any idea what caused this to happen?

I'm guessing when I stupidly didn't QT an anthias I got right before Christmas when I wouldn't be at my place for 2 days in order to monitor levels in QT; when I should have just let it stay at the LFS until I was able to get back there. it died and then I'm guessing that is what passed it on. I've learned my no QT lesson. All it took was 1 fish. I still am not sure whether it was brook or velvet as the fish displayed symptoms of both.

[jmeltzer]

Sorry Mandy, I know it stinks to lose your fish.
Good luck with the restocking.

[BeelzeBob]

ah man mandy that sux donkey balls.

good to hear your not like feeling totally defeated.

i mean, in retrospect, youll be able to say it was at least, a valuable learning experience.

[1wizz]

I'm so sorry for you and your fish,
Chin up and look forward to the new choices when restocking.

[bethkira2000]

I am very sorry you lost all your fish but one. I am glad it didn't turn you away for them hobby, can't say the same if it happened to me. Have fun getting new ones.

[john_auberry]

That sucks.......hope everything works out.

[snailrider]

Mandy, I just read this all, and I'm sending out best wishes to you.


I was doing ok till I read where the clowns died. That hurts to read.

((((Mandy)))) http://zywie.com/smf/Smileys/smiley/hug.gif

[kcress]

I have always wondered about freshwater dips. I tried it once and it didn't work at all,(2 tangs). Mandy has tried it, (twice), and it didn't help. I cannot say I've ever heard of it helping.

Anyone?

[pablo mero]

Hope things work out , what could have caused this :confused: Im feeling dreadful for your losses :swear:

[Grins]

I have always wondered about freshwater dips. I tried it once and it didn't work at all,(2 tangs). Mandy has tried it, (twice), and it didn't help. I cannot say I've ever heard of it helping.

Anyone?

I've heard it offered as a treatment on WetWebMedia but isn't something I have tried with fish. Just zoas.

[kcress]

Thanks Grins.

[mandy21]

it was a little lonely during feeding tonight. Only had to feed the 2 saddleback clowns in QT that I've had with plans on setting up a nano and my smaller tank, which is working at a QT for a princess parrot and humu trigger.

On the freshwater dip topic, I read a few websites where a 3 minute dip could help determine whether it's velvet due to the residue left behind. Also that it could provide temporary relief int he case of no medication. Seeing the results of the other fish, I felt that it was best to try something instead of do nothing.

[jagr200]

Ya I think you did the right thing by trying a FW dip. Again Im sorry for your losses. Keep fighting.

[Grins]

I sincerely believe you did everything you thought was best based off of reading as much as you could.

[mandy21]

Thanks again for the reassurance, not many people around me get the fish thing, or even know anything more than goldfish from the fair :)

[jagr200]

Thanks again for the reassurance, not many people around me get the fish thing, or even know anything more than goldfish from the fair :)

I know how you feel. Where are you located? I live in Montana all people care about are rodeos and guns lol.