Dead Fish...Why?

[Marshall O]

I came home today, went down to my basement to give some food to the fish in my 75 gal QT, and found two fish dead, and two more knocking on the door (one has since passed, the other is right behind It's a 75 gallon tank, 20 gal sump, two power heads pushing 2200 GPH, good turnover from the return pump, temp rock steady at 77°F, ATO keeping salinity at 1.016 (I have been reducing it over the course a few days as I'm going to go hypo to treat for Ich), pH 7.8-8.0. Ammonia is No Detect.

The two dead were both Bimac Anthias (from a LFS), and the two near death are/were Lyretail Anthias (from online vendor). They were all added about 1.5 weeks ago. Additionally in the tank is a Foxface, Kole Tang, Potters Angel, fairy wrasse, Powder Brown Tang, and 3 Mollies, plus at least one Molly fry. All have been in the tank for 1.5 months except the Powder Brown, and the fry as the Molly busy have birth the other day. Everyone else is acting normal, ate great like normal. The Anthias all ate like pigs yesterday, like they have since I got them.

I noticed a couple of spots of Ich on a couple, which is why I was going Hypo. Otherwise, no signs of disease, stress, or anything else. The only change yesterday was I bought the Powder Brown yesterday and put it in the sump (to avoid fighting with the Kole). I put a small piece of blanched romaine lettuce for the Powder Brown, but I've put that in previously without any issues.

My initial thought went to DO, but with the turnover and power heads, I can't see that as being an issue. I angled one of the power heads towards the top of the tank just to make sure. As mentioned Ammonia is no detect using an ammonia alert badge. There is about 30 lbs of cycled/live rock in the tank. What else could cause 4 fish to ask die so suddenly?? There has been no bullying in the tank at all. No torn fins, etc. All fish seemed fat and happy last night.

Any thoughts or ideas?? One other note is that I have another tank in the basement, not connected, with 3 Wrasses. All are just fine as well. So I don't think it is anything from the basement itself.

Thanks in advance!

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[stingythingy45]

"As mentioned Ammonia is no detect using an ammonia alert badge."

You need to get a real ammonia test kit. And that is way too many fish for a QT.
Not sure why you have live rock in a qt. It should be void of anything like that. Only PVC for the fish to hide behind and frequent water changes.
Any chance you can get a API ammonia kit and some Amequel?

Also. if you decide to go with hypo, drop the salinity down to 1.008 over a day. It takes at least 3-5 days to raise it back up to 1.025 after 4 weeks treatment.
Fish have a harder time adjusting to the rise in SG than a fall.

 

[Marshall O]

I have an ammonia test kit as well, which reads zero. I have been using the ammonia alerts for years in my QT. They can detect as low as .02 ppm, vs. the test kit which reads no lower than .25 ppm, over 10 times higher. I set my QT's up like regular tanks. I only use bare bottom, no rocks, for hospital tanks. Otherwise I QT in tanks with live rocks and/or sand. I only prophylactically treat with Prazi.

I have been dropping salinity slowly to avoid any major drops in pH. I know you can do it faster, but is there any harm in doing it over the course a few days?

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[Marshall O]

Well the culprit turned out to be velvet This is the first time I have dealt with it in the 4+ years I have been in the hobby, and am embarrassed to say I misdiagnosed it for Ich. I dosed Cupramine since hypo is ineffective. Sadly only the Foxface and Mollies are still alive. Cupramine is just under 0.6 ppm (I overshot it a bit), and so far the remaining fish seem to be doing better already.

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[AlbertG]

sory to hear . I went tru it once and lost over 8 fish
I never want to see this happening again thou

 

[Marshall O]

At least now I better know what to look for, silver lining...

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[Gsxkid]

Man you must have mad loot to drop money like that on all of those fish in such a short period of time. Lol with that aside having love rock in that tank is useless. Once you go hypo nothing on it can survive. Which also brings into factor that everything on it will die off raiseing your ammonia. I've done a lot of reading on hypo and need to do a lot more but it looks like it's really only useful on ich.

 

[Marshall O]

The "live rock" is simply rock that's been in my QT tanks, which have nothing in them invert/pod wise. All they have on them is bacteria. So there is no worry of die-off or anything. Ammonia is still 0. Otherwise, you are 100% correct. If there were from my reef tanks, there would be die-off and ammonia would likely be an issue.

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[s_kelley]

Feel your pain, my blue throat trigger was floating when I got home from work today. So confused, was eating well, fat, and one of my favorite fish. I've had it for months now and it looked great yesterday

 

[Marshall O]

Feel your pain, my blue throat trigger was floating when I got home from work today. So confused, was eating well, fat, and one of my favorite fish. I've had it for months now and it looked great yesterday

Sorry to hear that That's the worst feeling, when they appear to be doing great one day, gone the next. That happened with my Choat's Leopard Wrasse not long ago. I had it for over two years, very fat, healthy, and growing. Came home one day and found him struggling to swim and died in a few hours.

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