As of Today all fish have died within 7day period!

[jason1985]

Tank info:
75G
HOB skimmer
250watt heater
2x 250watt MH 14k - not on timmer
2x 48" Pure actinic t5's - on timmer
25lbs of Live Rock

Live Stock:
Matted Pair of True Perc Clown's
Yellow Tang
5 Snails


Time of Events:
Feb 22nd: Water test, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 5, SG 1.025 Temp: 77

Feb 24th: First time that I leave my MH light on for a 12h period. I have no corals in my tank so at the moment I have no use for MH lights! I just plugged the light in to see how the tank looked with the light on, forgot to un-plugg the light when I went to work. The 1 MH light was on all day. When I get home that night I un-pugg the light. Fish are looking okay. I do not notice the temp of the water at this time. This is something I should of thought about.

Feb 25th: Wake up to the smaller clown not doing so well, heaving breathing, pale in color, and extra slime hagining off its fins and later dies. After the clown dies I perform a 20% water change.


Feb 26th: Yellow tang looks weak sitting at the bottom of th tank under a rock, dies late that night. Again small 10% water change


Feb 27th - Feb 28th: Last fish swimming "larger clown" still looking good and healthy, eating like normal

March 1st: Large clown not looking so good, heavy breathing, white spots starting to show on body and fadded orange and black bars are turning clear, his tail isnt moving at all, only swimming up and down

March 2nd: Clown ghasping for air at the top of the tank, today I notice hair algae starting on sand. glass and rocks.

March 3rd: clown dies. I find him stuck in my skimmer

Back to square one

The end!

[kole18]

I think that's the clownfish fungus dieses that happened to my entire system killed all my fish. I'd just lower my salinity change a lot of water run my carbon at same time with phosphate reactor too.

[SeahorseGuyetGal]

Jason,

It is too bad that the tang and your clown have died.  If your other fish are still living and not too weak I would move them to a hospital tank.  Slowly drop the salinity to 1.018 and temp to 68-71.

What have you observed of the dead specimens (lesions, fungus, white or black spots, flukes etc...)?  What symptoms and how long have you noticed these symptoms before they went?  Are the remaining fish eating or have their habits changed in any way?

Treatments can include, but will depend on the ailment (in your hospital tank only as most meds will kill your inverts):

Copper bath
Methelyne blue
Malachite
Melafix
A broad gram +/- spectrum antibiotic on a 2 week treament course
(Bifuran)

etc...

Once you remove the fish from the main tank, let it "run" for 30 days without putting any livestock back into it.

Good luck

[SeahorseGuyetGal]

Jason,

What size is your tank?
Can you post a pic of the clown?
Captive bred doesn't imply disease free or that it is any more resistant.
Unless your tank temp went past ~82 deg F for an extended period of time then this should not stress the fish.  Clowns are pretty resistant to temp changes.  The tang is comme si comme sa but should not have gone in 2 days of high temp.
What is your normal running temp?

Gasping for air can be a sign of gill flukes which, at first glance, can be hard to spot. Amonia can also result in gasping at the top or bottom of the tank.

Excess slime on the fins can be the result of a fungal infection (prob secondary to what took them out in the first place). Do you have a hospital tank?  Usually a 10 gal, bare bottom with a small filter (e.g. aquaclear), heater with no charcoal in the filter is good enough.  You don't need any lights. 

I would suggest you move your remaining clown to a hospital tank and treat with one of the many meds for external parasites (Formalin, melafix etc...).  I would start with a high-strength "dip" and then proceed with a regular treatment course as per the indications.  You will need to perform regular water changes to prevent an amonia spike since you have no biological filtration during treatment.  Also, though the salt acts as a buffer, you may choose to add a PH buffer to prevent vascillating in PH.  Check your parameter every day and change 50% water if you have an amonia spike and re-dose the med.

If your clown survives the treatment, then keep him in the hospital tank for the remainder of time (30 days minus treatment period) - do a 50% water change, add carbon to the filter and a sponge for bio filtration.  Keep water changes frequent (10% per day) until day 30.  Also, keep an eye out for signs of illness, parasite cysts can hatch anew in 2-3 week cycles and you may need to retreat - though use another type of med. to reduce resistance.

Regardless of your clown surviving, I would definitely run your main tank w/o any livestock for 30 days.

[FocusFin]

Just curious, were these fish all purchased together and how long have you had them.

[FocusFin]

/\/\Sorry deleted my post, was supposed to be a personal message.

If the fish are not being acclimatized and sold "out of the box" or being collected with cyanide they may appear fine at first and start having problems within a few weeks. That is exactly what happened to me on two occasions when purchasing from the same store.

In fact, I have only ever purchased fish from two stores. With the one store I have never lost a fish and the other I have never been able to keep a fish.

[FocusFin]

We live in Ottawa, it's not like we have that many options as to where we buy our Marine life!

Don't buy a fish because it's cheaper or fish that have just come in from shipment.

Ask others where they buy their fish and if they've had any losses.

Buy from other hobbyists, at least you have some sort of history about the fish.

Don't let this discourage you, it may have nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fish you bought.

[bandit]

Don't buy a fish because it's cheaper or fish that have just come in from shipment.

Ask others where they buy their fish and if they've had any losses.

Buy from other hobbyists, at least you have some sort of history about the fish.

Don't let this discourage you, it may have nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fish you bought.

Great advice, I bet the fish where sick when you got them.  I too have only purchased fish from 2 stores and everyone ive purchased from one has never made it, and I wish they would give up selling marine fish completely.  I only buy fish that have been at the store for at least a week.

[jason1985]

I could understand buying one fish and it not being healthy but to have all three of my fish die one after another. Somethnig went tottaly wrong in the tank

[SWFitzy]

Real sorry to read about how the last week has went. Do no let that discourage you. There are 2 marine stores in ottawa that I will buy my fish and corals from. And 2 that I wont. The 2 stores i wont buy from anymore is because they are the only fish and corals that have died or passed on. Everything that i currently have are from 2 stores, they are all healthy and very happy in my 70g.

[rush]

You actualyl have quite a good selection in ottawa of where to buy salt water fish. Some maybe better than others in some peoples opinions but there are actually 7 places to purchase them here.

Aquavalley
Ray's
Marinescape
Fish Tail's
Big Al's East
Big Al's West
La Niche (Gatineau)

[kole18]

I think it doesn't matter where you bought all your fish, you gotta go through the QT processing in right way to avoid all this problem for sw hobby. Most case this occurred at new tank hasn't been matured enough to carry a lot livestock , as get older your tank livestock able to live happy & ofcorse your patient to one of the most important role too.

[HappyGuppy]

I am new to marine tanks, and am close to buying a pair of clowns myself.  I see salted throughout this thread allusions to there being good stores and stores that should be avoided.  I can understand that publicly naming the allegedly "bad" stores might not be a good idea for a number of reasons.  Could someone please be so kind as to send me a PM to inform me, a marine newbie, as to which store is good, and which to avoid (and why)?  Thank you very much for the tips.  I'll be discrete with any info shared.  Thanks again.

[Darth]

honestly everyone is going to have their own opinions. a lot of it comes down to aclimating, we have all had stores where we bought stuff and it died a few weeks later, from fresh to salt. So you will get a lot of mixed reviews, my suggestion is visit the stores see look at their stock and see which on suits you best my go to store will be someone else's avoid at all costs, so you are just going to get even more inhibitions in my opinion. So for everyone you get that says avoid you will get 2 that say it's all good

Just my opinion

[Salt Disney]

Although I have relatively little livestock, I've never had anything die before 18 months.  I had stuff die from problems I caused - for which I truly regret.

Don't accept mediocrity from suppliers.

My 2 cents.

[SeahorseGuyetGal]

The QT procedure is of course really important but he did note that one of the clowns were CB which implies that at least one of his fish could have been purchased apart from the others.  However, dealing with SHs I have come to realize that some completely healthy specimens have gone to fishy heaven no matter where they came from.  Sometimes, despite our best attempts to stay 3 steps ahead in the marine hobby, something can come along and take out the tank or or its inhabitants.  I wouldn't get discouraged.

[bitterman]

Sorry for you loss, don't let it get you down. 25 lbs of LR in  75 might be on the low side. I have about 2.5x that in my kids 50 gallon. If it was not curred rock. It may have resulted in some small spikes and in turn your fish died.

The problem is when a system in young, if anything goes wrong it may not be able to handle the bubble. I had LR for my sons tanks for 2 months and cured it. When the tank was setup things were still not ideal for fish for another month or so.

Fish that do not appear sick (and are not really sick) when they go through the stress of a move into a new tank it puts stress on them and there imune system goes done. A fish that may not nornally get sick all a sudden gets sick. It wasn't sick but got sick. For this reason I like fish to be at a store for a week or two if possible to destress before I move them again. Another problem can be agression. In a new environment everyone needs to espablish teritory. Maybe this caused some issue.

I'd personally get some more LR and cure it in a rubbermaid with a heater and powerhead. Once all the levels for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate goto 0 for a week or 2 then you can add it to your tank. Don't forget to do water changes on this also at least once a week. I did 2x a week as I did not have a skimmer to put int he rubbermaid.

When you add the new LR add something like a damsal.. somethign really cheap to test it out. if it stays alive for a month or two, then add some more fish no more then 1 every 2-4 weeks.


The biggest problem people have is paitence. It take time for the bacteria colonies to adjust to any change int he tank and keep the levels perfect. Some will say this is too slow but I like to do think slow... cheaper then replacing a bunch of fish.

Bruce

[bongo]

+1

and what are you using for water circulation?

type of pump and number?

do you have water turbulence on top?

[SWFitzy]

I understand the  use of the damsels. I had 2 at one time. They are extremly aggressive and hard to catch. Be advised about the damsel. I used a Salfin Mollie for my cycle. Just as cheap and nicer to look at then the damsel. IMO

I hope all goes well with your tank. LR is cheap when you buy it from other hobbiest's. Just find someone with lots or shutting down a tank.