lost all 3 fish in 3 days, wondering what disease..

[city hunter]

Have a biocube thats been running for a few years. I recently started restocking it with fish since I have someone who can take care of it when im out of town working.

 

 

Anyhow, blue star leopard, and a midas were added about 1.5 months ago, been awesome, added a flame angle for my last fish about 1.5 weeks ago. Everything was fine, water perfect corals doing great, was feeding every other day a small portion of mysis. When I got back from a hunting trip I noticed my midas was a bit skinny, but very active. Also noticed the flame angle was a big hidy, Decided to up the food to every day thinking maybe they were underfed, but after 2 days the angle died, the blenny was eating but getting skinny, and the leopard was just fine. 2 day after the angle died, the blenny was dead, then the next morning my leopard was dead. Checked the water a few times during this, and it was fine.  I'm guessing I got some kind of disease with the flame angle.

 

I'm very annoyed to say the least, but I've been in and out of the hobby for a long time, but only twice had something like this happen since 2001. Last time it  was in my old 75 about 6 years ago.

 

I think im gonna treat the tank with prazi pro just because I have no idea what killed them.

 

There was no visual signs other than they deteriorated very fast. blenny got skinny fast. colors were fine until they died obviously.

 

I wanna get a handle on this before I dump anymore money into fish. I'd love a quantine tank, but frankly there is just no room at my place for one.

[danlu_gt]

My guess is that you starved those fish to death. Most of the time fish are already super skinny by the time we bring them home. Frozen mysis have very little nutritious value. Once you get them to eat, feed some flakes and pellets too. They are packed with nutrients. Also, you need to feed daily. If you like to feed in very small portions, feed at least 3 times daily.

 

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[Paratore]

They could have also had internal worms or something. It happened to my Tang but with medication and good feeding, he got better

 

 

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[TheClark]

Ah, bummer!

 

Prazi is a nice option when something is wrong with fish in a reef tank since it never seems to hurt my coral. Especially if the fish are heavy breathing it can be flukes.

 

You could let it go fallow for a few weeks (not sure how long is required) so that any parasites have no hosts and eventually die off.

 

Best of luck, hopefully a fallow period followed by a slow restart will help.

[city hunter]

I cant see the fish starving to death frankly. THe blenny was the only one who started looking skinny, and he was eating fine. The blue star was never skinny. The flame angle looked fine as well. putting it all together it seems like I introduced something with the angle.

 

Yeah I dont plan on adding any fish to the tank anytime soon. I'm about to setup a 75g again anyways, Maybe I will use the biocube as a future quarantine tank.

[danlu_gt]

There are so much food in the reef that reef fish eats constantly.  Only getting small portion of frozen mysis (mostly water and very little nutritional value) every other day will weaken them over time to where they die from something normally may not kill them.  There just not enough substance in frozen mysis to sustain fish long term with only mysis along.  Even the cheap brand flakes/pellets will have so much more protein, fat, and vitamins.  Also flakes/pellets are so much easier to put in auto feeders.  

 

Sorry if I'm wrong, which I very well may be without seeing pics of your fish.  

[city hunter]

My experience with flake is its usually full of phosphates. Ive had better color from mysis with kent garlic than i ever did with say ocean marine flake.

[Ramey]

Its always a good thing to feed your fish a variety of foods. I often soak my foods in Selcon and a garlic product. It can't hurt to use Prazipro.

[Colby Johnson]

Those fish did not starve to death. If you look at the recent history of the tank it is very clear that the most likely vector for pathogen introduction is a recent fish addition, likely the flame angel. I'd be very willing to bet that Amyloodiniun ocellatum was the culprit here. Those mortalities happening ten days or so after introduction of a new fish are very much in line with Amyloodinium lifecycle. In all likelihood the thinness of the fish you noticed was due to significant disruption/damage to the gill lamellae from the Amyloodinium, which can lead to rapid dehydration within hours.

 

With this disease you typically do not see a lot of the visual indicators you see in a lot of other common pathogens, no visible spots, no heavy mucous, no lifted scales or defined lesions. Typically eractic/nervous behavior, increased respiration/labored breathing, loss of color and off feed are the best indicators of Anyloodinium. Unfortunately all of those signs are also early indicators of a lot of other pathogens as well.

 

While buying from a reputable dealer will help you hedge bets against an incident like this, it is still very risky not to QT fish. Even a fish from a store that is as careful as possible can still bring something in. I QT all fish at my facility, however I still suggest all my customers QT the fish. QTing is Cheap and easy.

 

At this point your best option is leave the tank fallow for 3 months before reintroducing fish.

 

Very sorry to hear about this. Best of luck. Please QT

[Bevo5]

^^^Bingo bango - that has all the markings of a velvet outbreak. New fish, heavy breathing, dead in a few days. You don't have to see spots with velvet, as it works a number on the gills before it even needs to move on. 

 

Fallow is your only choice. Don't try to half step this one - just leave it be...feed the corals or drop food in a few times a week to keep your bacteria alive and well, and sit it out for the full 70-80 days. In the meantime, set up a QT. Let it cycle (without anything from main tank) and then in couple months you can put your first couple fish in there. They'll be through QT right when your tank is ready and you're back in business.