My aquarium is dying :-(

[leeboy-83]

I need help!!
a few weeks i bought a valentini puffer against my better judgement.The puffer was marked but assistant in the lfs was adament that the fish was just stressed and would be fine,needless to say three days later it died!!.
since then i have lost a powder blue tang,a large clown,a humbug damsel.
I have removed all the fish that arent ill they are well and happy in a new environment,but i have a long nosed butterfly,an emperor angel another humbug damsel a cleaner wrasse and another large clown still really ill ive tried treatments and nothing is working! im afraid they will almost certainly die now.

Here is my main question!! all my water parameters are perfect! there is nothing wrong with the water!,is my whole system down the pan? or will i have to completely start from scratch?? please tell me my marine adventure is not over!!

 

[melosu58]

Has your tank cycled? It might be best to start over. Is there any parasites in the tank?

 

[leeboy-83]

Has your tank cycled? It might be best to start over. Is there any parasites in the tank?

The aquarium is about 5 month old,i set it up patiently before i added fish,everything was fine up to takeing that valentini puffer.how do i know if there are parasites in there? Ive tested the water and the quality is fine even now! But the fish are dying,their fins are tatted they are loseing colour their eyes are milky whatevers in there is fatal! But is my whole system ruined? If i leave it cycling once the fish have gone wil any infection die with time and no host? Or is everything just poisoned for good!? This is all really depressing ive put so much time and money in to this i dont think i can do it again!

 

[leeboy-83]

Is there a way to find out if and what parasites are in my system?

 

[Airgoose2222]

Unfortunately, unless you have access to a lab, there is no way to check what's in your tank that I'm aware of. If I have a sick fish, I just check the symptoms displayed and research those symptoms as to what to sickness is and apply treatment appropriately. I learned the hard way too not quarantining a new fish in a saltwater tank. Luckily, I had spare tanks and treated the sick fish (ich) in a QT tank (which I should've ha up in the first place) and removed my live rock/SPS coral into a third tank by themselves with no fish. So one tank separated into three. I treated the main tank with copper to make sure the other fish don't get it and kill off the ich left in the tank. The qt tank also with copper, and the live rock/SPS tank with nothing. Since there are no fish to host, the live rock/SPS tank will sit by itself for a couple months to ensure if any ich parasites were on them will die because of no host. It's a pain when not listening to other's experiences and thinking it will not affect me, but I pulled my head out of the sand and will definitely do things this way from here on out. Good luck to you and hope your fish pull through!!

 

[Bectan01]

Is this your first saltwater tank? How big is it? Those are some serious fish for a beginner and big ones too! If your tank is smaller than 100g then I would say that is your problem.

 

[TheTodd]

Already asked, but what size tank? A lot of those fish need a large tank or they will stress. Torn fins could be from aggression, which could come from the tank being too small (territory issues) or could just be the damsel being a damsel and terrorizing the other fish.

Eye problems are usually poor water parameters/conditions. Are you using RODI or tap water? What filtration do you have? How do you test your water? How often do you do water changes and how much?

If it is a parasite, fish should be treated in QT and display tank should be left fallow for 6-8 weeks to let it all die off. Is it just torn fins and cloudy eyes or are there other symptoms? What exactly was wrong with the puffer? Not sure what "marked" means.

 

[leeboy-83]

Hey everyone,thank you all for your help and concerns.

Yes this is my first marine tank,but its not my only marine tank,my affected tank is 4' x 2' x2' which is 450 litre,i also have a 120 litre sump below which is crawling and healthy,I did mix my own saltwater from scratch (tap) but i used every precaution in doing so! I cycled my tank for 6wks before starting to stock. There is 1kg of live rock to every 20 litres of water.i tested the water only yesterday and all parameters are positive including ammonia,nitrate,nitrite,ph,phosphate,hardnes,calcium,alkalinity and iron (chelated&non) the water is perfectly fine!

The puffers symptoms were spotty and generally shy,not much movement,the lfs assistant was adamant that there was nothing wrong but a little stress! Im kinda feeling stupid and violated by the whole thing cos everything was perfect before then!!

My current fishes symptoms are loss of colour tatted edged fins,milky eye/s lethargic,swimming on side,possible white spots more on some than others!

Ive kind of accepted now that the ill fish cannot be saved and its a matter of time they are too far gone.its all happened really fast and its been a horrible experiance for me and my partner to watch!

Once my tank is empty,if left cycling with the live rock inside for a couple of month,will this infection whatever it is,die off?

 

[leeboy-83]

I use a nutrafin master test kit it cost me about £75.i have found it to be very effective.

 

[leeboy-83]

Sorry forgot to mention i change between 10 and 20 percent of the water every ten days!
I do genuinely believe that this has just been a disaster caused by that one poorly fish!,
I just need to know if all is lost or if my system wil righten itself over a couple of months of cycling?

 

[leeboy-83]

Also yo add,all the fish seemed to get on with no problems which did surprise me! My damsel is tiny and tends to stick to its little spot,id arranged lots of rock the tank was full of hiding places.i never saw any tatted fins prior to first sign of infection................i hope this info has helped any of you in helping me cheers.

 

[TheTodd]

If there are spots, it is likely Ich. The fins are usually not related to that though. The cloudy eyes are almost always due to bad water conditions.

Is it possible to treat the fish that you still have alive? Is it possible to treat in a QT? I wouldn't just write them all off. You mentioned trying to treat...what have you done?

If there is something in the tank, then 8 weeks fallow should allow everything to die off due to not having a host. There would be no cycling involved though. Your tank should be cycled or your parameters would be off.

I haven't done the calculations, but that tank does not sound large enough for the tang, wrasse or angel. Small tanks for fish like that will cause stress. Stress opens fish up to all the nasty stuff out there.

 

[leeboy-83]

I tried an invertebrate friendly,dye treatment.my quarantine tank is now houseing my healthy fish the ones that saved.
Im not sure why you think my tank is not big enough for a wrasse or tang,the tanks massive and ive seen people keep bigger fish in much smaller tanks. Its 450 litres not including the 120 litre sump.
I dont know what else to say really,the parameters are all perfect, but their eys are cloudy and the emperor is looseing colour fast! The spots come and go! And the fins are really tatty now but how can i treat if i dont know whats wrong!? If the cloudy eyes are from poor water quality,then why are the tests all fine? I just dont know what to do as my quarantine tank is now full of healthy fish and i cant treat with copper as it will kill my live rock.im at a dead end.

 

[Airgoose2222]

You could take the live rock out and put it in a bucket with tank water using an aerator or cheap filter for water movement. Then you could treat the tank with the fish. The live rock are their own filtration system so even a cheap Powerhead would keep them just fine.

 

[TheTodd]

Its a tricky situation when you don't have a QT to go with copper or Hyposalinity and then leave the infected tank fallow to let whatever it is die off. That works. Anything else is questionable. Any possibility you could get another tank to use for QT?

Regarding the tank size...your tank sounds like a 120 gallon. Most Tangs do well in a 6' long tank. 4' does not give as much room to cruise around. Its a generally accepted rule that a lot of people argue about. I tend to feel it works after seeing countless posts from people confused why their Tang is not doing well and the tank is always too small. The Emperor gets big...220 gallons minimum. The Long Nose is right at the minimum tank size. Smaller than suggested tanks obviously don't kill fish, but the fish tend to have eventual issues.

How are you testing your water? The cloudy eyes is usually poor water conditions. If your parameters are good, then I'm not sure.

White spots will come and go. Ich has that as part of its life cycle. The parasite actually drops off, goes into rock and sand, multiplies and stays around until it is killed or does from not having a host.

 

[TheTodd]

You could take the live rock out and put it in a bucket with tank water using an aerator or cheap filter for water movement. Then you could treat the tank with the fish. The live rock are their own filtration system so even a cheap Powerhead would keep them just fine.

That's probably not a bad idea. Go with hypo, not copper as treatment. The end cost probably is less than losing more fish.

 

[leeboy-83]

Well I've been using a nutrafin master test kit which cost me a bit and contains all separate tests for nitrate,nitrite,ammonia,carbonate hardness,calcium,phosphate,ph and iron chelated and none.................every parameter is perfect!
Again there were no trouble in that tank before i bought that puffer.
No stress that i could see.the whole scene was very tranquil and i was really proud of the habitat i created.
Its definitely a fungal infection,maybe fin-rot the clowns,both of which are dead now had like white cotton wool allover them and 1 white over eye.
Thats a good idea with the rock! If i managed to save these fish.would their fins stay tatty? And should i use a copper teeatment or hypo salinity?

 

[Mr. Crabs]

This is going to inspire debate, but go get a UV sterlizer. Something over 20 watts preferrably and ran at about 200 gallons per hour. With the situation as it stands, this will help give the fish a fighting chance by killing parasites faster than they can reproduce and overwhelm the host fish.

After installing the UV, keep the fish eating and hold off on water changes. The system needs to remain stable. Constant water changes can leave the parameters in a state of flux and add to the stress imposed on the fish.