HELP! Mysterious Dissapearances!

[Jimbo7]

I went out of town last weekend and left my tank to my parents, they fed them normally like i told them and everything seemed ok but the day i got back my small blue tang and cleaner shrimp were gone. We scoured the tank for hours but couldnt find anything. The tang had been sick for awhile but was better so when he dissapeared we just thought he finally kicked it. Now today when i got home my copperband Butterfly his gone MIA as well. The tang i accepted not finding becuase he was only an inch or so long but now i cant find my 3 inch copperband. I found these when i was moving my rock. Are they Hydroids? What can i do to kill them? I still have a psudochromis, 2 clowns and a watchman gobie which seem fine to me right now. PLEASE HELP!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The picture is just a q-tip sponge. Harmless little filter feeder.

Do you have a top on the tank? Looked around behind the tank on the floor? Have you tested for ammonia... like from a decaying fish? How about posting all your water parameters... specific gravity, pH, temp, etc... and maybe that'll help to start figuring things out!

 

[pat8you]

Ok so this gets kinda complicated. This is Jimbo's brother and i am trying to help him out with the because he had to go to a church retreat this weekend and won't have acess to the tank or a computer. Unfortunately I'm in college which is in florida and his tank is back home. So i have my mom testing the water parameters in the tank and I will post them and do the best i can to instruct her.

There is a lid on the tank and we have already checked for jumpers. We also checked the sump in case they managed to find a way down there. The tang could have possible slipped down there but the copper band is probably close to 3" and there is no way he could have ended up down there anyway.

I know he is having a problem with a cyano outbreak which he has been doing regular large water changes for with out much result. He just dosed the tank with a cyano killer med before he left trying to do a temporary fix until we figure out whats going on with these fish. He has also ordered macro algae for the sump to help take out the nitrates from the water as a long term fix for the cyano. That hasn't come in yet but the nitrates are at 0 anyway because the cyano is consuming it all anyway.

As soon as my mom calls me with the parameters i will post them. Please keep an eye on this post so we can try and figure out whats going on with the tank . My brother is devastated by the loose of the fish already. if the tank crashes and he looses everything he will really be upset.

Thanks for the help
Pat

 

[pat8you]

temp 78
nitrates 0-5 ppm
nitrites 0
ammonia 0-.25 ( fish must have died)
Phosphates 0.25
SG 1.024

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Those phospahtes are aren't helping you get rid of the cyano. Yowsa. Do you know what jimbo is using for water? Tap or RO/DI? Or is it just from overfeeding? How big of a tank are we talking about here?

And did he just dose the cyano killer in a bottle today? Or did he dose it just before all the fish died?

 

[pat8you]

he is using ro/di water. and mixing the salt himself. Its a 90 gallon tank with probably about a 15gal or so sump. He is aware that overfeeding can fuel the algae and for the last couple weeks has only been feeding every other day and no more than can be eaten in 2-3 min tops.

He dosed the cyano killer today and that was after all the fish went missing. If i remember right he feeds pellets one day and frozen mysis alternating. I've been trying to help him out with this and we have looked all over the forums for ideas but we are stumped. I have no idea what happened to the fish

 

[fijiwigi]

I have no idea what happened to the fish

Do you have any crabs that could possibly digest a dead fish?

 

[pat8you]

We have a bunch of blue/red leg hermits in there. I haven't seen the tank in a while but i would say probably around 12 total. My mom thought she saw the copper band butterfly either the same day or the day before he died and i wasn't sure the hermits could completely consume all evidence of him in a day or less? Don't have much experience with how fast they take care of things. My brother took out a bunch of rock and everything trying to find the copper band and didn't find so much as a scrap.

 

[pat8you]

If i had to take a guess at this point I'm thinking that some sort of illness hit the tank while my brother was away and my parents were watching the tank. The both have terrible eye site on top of not really knowing what to look for in a sick fish anyway so they may not have noticed. I told my mom to give the remaining fish a real good look over tomorrow as well as taking some pictures to send to me so i can have a look as well. If there are anything in the pictures i will post them tomorrow. I'm having her soak their food in garlic guard as a precaution. I know the blue tang and copper band aren't as hardy as the other fish in there so thats what makes me think that there might be something in the tank. I'll post again in the morning. Any other ideas are more then welcome.

 

[melosu58]

This is my suggestion. The hippo tang is very suseptible to ick. That`s why they have the nickname as ick magnets. If he brought in the parasite to your tank then the other fish could have gotten it also. Copperbands being not that hardy of a fish could have gotten it also and died. Did any fish have any white sugar grain looking things on their body or fins? Was the tang or copperband in a QT before added to the tank? My immediate suggestion would be to do frequent PWC`s and get some GAC in the sump in case of a poison or substance in the tank. Keep an eye out for ick on your other fish.

 

[pat8you]

Both the tang and the copper band had been in the tank for a while. The only recent additions to the tank to my knowledge have been a few coral frags which all seem to be doing fine. My mom looked over the fish this morning and didn't see anything. I told her what ick looked like cuz i was kinda afraid of that as well. I will try putting some GAC in there. And we got some Phosoban to take care of the phosphates for now.

Will macro algae consume phosphates as well as nitrates once he puts that in?

 

[melosu58]

Beyond the Refugium: A Macroalgae Primer by Sarah Lardizabal - Reefkeeping.com

 

[pat8you]

Thanks. A very helpful article.

 

[Jimbo7]

Thanks for all your help, the tank seems to be stable now but still nothing as to why the original fish died. The cyno is gone and i will be doing a 20% WC soon to make sure.