Multiple fish deaths

Teeran88 · 06/27/2017, 10:19 AM

My husband and I set up a new tank and he decided he wanted to run the tank in hypo for 30 days to treat for ich (we hadn't had an outbreak in quite a while but know some of our fish were carriers and want to start off with an ich free tank) we also purchased a few new fish and did not quarantine as we figured they'd be going through a prophylactic treatment anyway. A few days into dropping salinity, my flame wrasse started acting strangely; always at the bottom of the tank, breathing hard, but oddly enough darting out as soon as food is added to the tank. Then straight back to laying on the sand bed.
Next, my possum wrasse was seen laying on the sand bed not looking well, I believe he died but haven't been able to confirm. Then I came home from work to see my mckoskers dead and one of my bellus angels didn't look well. She was extremely pale and had obviously been picked on as top of her tail was kind of chewed up (normally my bellus are the top of the pecking order) and then she was gone the next morning. Now I woke up to my bluethroat and crescent tail wrasses dead, neither of which had shown any indication of stress or sickness. As I'm looking in the tank, I just noticed some white spotching on my red tail flasher. Is it possible we have introduced velvet to the tank with the new fish and are just suppressing the symptoms through the hypo? Or is there any reason hypo treatment would be doing this to my fish?! Readings are all good, no ammonia, low nitrate, salinity holding steady at 1.009 with ATO, and no major swings in ph averaging at 8.05
Please help!

dweber618 · 06/27/2017, 10:42 AM

Will need some more info to be helpful.

How big is the tank?
How long has it been set up?
How rapidly did you drop the salinity?
What do you have for water movement and oxygenation?

Teeran88 · 06/27/2017, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dweber618

Will need some more info to be helpful.

How big is the tank?
How long has it been set up?
How rapidly did you drop the salinity?
What do you have for water movement and oxygenation?

300gal
About a month post cycle: set up with dry rock and sand (nothing to die off and cause mini cycle when salinity was dropped)
Salinity lowered for roughly a week: pulled out little bits at a time allowing ato to slowly refill.
Plenty of water movement in sump, water tumbling, protein skimmer. (I believe I'd read lower salinity raises o2 levels?) And luckily none are gasping, breathing hard except for the flame( which really isn't new, he's always been a heavy breather but voracious eater, though the lethargy is new for him) and no other fish is displaying any symptoms except for the red tail flasher who has a few opaque whitish spots on him; almost looks like loose scales

dweber618 · 06/27/2017, 11:27 AM

It sounds like you added a decent number of fish to a fairly new tank. It's possible that there might be problems with the bio-load adjusting to all of the new additions. Also - if the fish are stressed they become more susceptible to disease. All it would take is one new fish to bring disease into a stressful environment and wreak havoc.

If they die off has been that quick it's most likely not ich, as ich usually takes much more time to kill. I would consider velvet or brook as they are quick killers. Both of which are not treatable by hyposalinity and would need to be treated outside of your display tank.

Going forward I would only add one or two fish at a time after a quarantine procedure, and wait at least a month or so before each new addition. I've made the mistake of adding too many fish at once to a new-ish tank like yours and lost every fish. Good luck!

JustinM · 06/27/2017, 11:38 AM

It sounds like velvet to me. All the symptoms, fast breathing, hiding, white spots.

Hypo won't treat velvet. Need to pull what fish are still alive and do a fw dip, then a formalin or rally bath and quickly bring the copper to a therapeutic level. Since you have wrasses, no cp.

Have any questions, let me know.

Swayze27 · 06/27/2017, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theshocker

It sounds like velvet to me. All the symptoms, fast breathing, hiding, white spots.

Hypo won't treat velvet. Need to pull what fish are still alive and do a fw dip, then a formalin or rally bath and quickly bring the copper to a therapeutic level. Since you have wrasses, no cp.

Have any questions, let me know.

If you go this route the salinity will need to be brought back to normal levels. I wouldn't add copper on top of low salinity.

06/27/2017, 10:19 AM	#1
Teeran88 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Florida Posts: 3	Multiple fish deaths My husband and I set up a new tank and he decided he wanted to run the tank in hypo for 30 days to treat for ich (we hadn't had an outbreak in quite a while but know some of our fish were carriers and want to start off with an ich free tank) we also purchased a few new fish and did not quarantine as we figured they'd be going through a prophylactic treatment anyway. A few days into dropping salinity, my flame wrasse started acting strangely; always at the bottom of the tank, breathing hard, but oddly enough darting out as soon as food is added to the tank. Then straight back to laying on the sand bed. Next, my possum wrasse was seen laying on the sand bed not looking well, I believe he died but haven't been able to confirm. Then I came home from work to see my mckoskers dead and one of my bellus angels didn't look well. She was extremely pale and had obviously been picked on as top of her tail was kind of chewed up (normally my bellus are the top of the pecking order) and then she was gone the next morning. Now I woke up to my bluethroat and crescent tail wrasses dead, neither of which had shown any indication of stress or sickness. As I'm looking in the tank, I just noticed some white spotching on my red tail flasher. Is it possible we have introduced velvet to the tank with the new fish and are just suppressing the symptoms through the hypo? Or is there any reason hypo treatment would be doing this to my fish?! Readings are all good, no ammonia, low nitrate, salinity holding steady at 1.009 with ATO, and no major swings in ph averaging at 8.05 Please help!

06/27/2017, 10:42 AM	#2
dweber618 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: MT Posts: 334	Will need some more info to be helpful. How big is the tank? How long has it been set up? How rapidly did you drop the salinity? What do you have for water movement and oxygenation?

06/27/2017, 11:27 AM	#4
dweber618 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: MT Posts: 334	It sounds like you added a decent number of fish to a fairly new tank. It's possible that there might be problems with the bio-load adjusting to all of the new additions. Also - if the fish are stressed they become more susceptible to disease. All it would take is one new fish to bring disease into a stressful environment and wreak havoc. If they die off has been that quick it's most likely not ich, as ich usually takes much more time to kill. I would consider velvet or brook as they are quick killers. Both of which are not treatable by hyposalinity and would need to be treated outside of your display tank. Going forward I would only add one or two fish at a time after a quarantine procedure, and wait at least a month or so before each new addition. I've made the mistake of adding too many fish at once to a new-ish tank like yours and lost every fish. Good luck!

06/27/2017, 11:38 AM	#5
JustinM Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,215	It sounds like velvet to me. All the symptoms, fast breathing, hiding, white spots. Hypo won't treat velvet. Need to pull what fish are still alive and do a fw dip, then a formalin or rally bath and quickly bring the copper to a therapeutic level. Since you have wrasses, no cp. Have any questions, let me know.