2 days, 2 dead tangs :(

[BOTLFED]

Ill try my best to explain my situation.

I have a 160 FO with 2 big cannisters and a protein skimmer. 1 lionfish, a squirel (sp?) 1 damsel (left over from cycling 6months ago), 1 med sized yellow tang and another med sized sailfin tang. The squirel is the lastest entry and that was about 1 month ago. I dont have a QT tank either

Everything was great till friday morning when I noticed almost instantly they were all lazy. I fed them the normal food, lionfish and squirel eat krill, the tangs eat the algae flakes and some formula 2. They eat, but slowly and sluggish. I did notice on the lionfish had a white spot on his eye and that his tailfin was ragged? Well, saturday I wake up and the sailfin tang is dead and he has white spots on him also. Not ich spots though, almost like his skin color changed. I did a water change and started a treatment of "Pimafix" anitfungel treatment (recommended by the LFS). The yellow tang was alive but he had white eyes, blotchy spots also and his skin was "ripply" around his stomach area. Needless to say he was dead this morning. The squirel, the damsel and the lionfish seem to be ok, but they still have white eyes and are just lying around being sluggish

Whatever happened in this tank was quick and deadly so If anyone can help out Id really appreciate it.

PS, my skimmer is billowing out this cloud of bubbles that make the water hard to see through. This started after the first treatment of meds yesterday. Should I turn it off or let it do its thing??

 

[Fluff]

Meds will cause the skimmer to go nuts. You could turn it off.
Your fish issues sound water related. The white/cloudy eyes are a sign of elevated ammonia and or nitrite. What are your water parameters?

 

[BOTLFED]

Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 20 PH 8.0

These are the only tests I have. I really dont want to lose the lionfish, should I take him out and put him another 55 tank I have setup with some shrimp and crabs or will he infest that tank also?? None of the fish ate today

 

[Fluff]

No, I wouldn't move him. I would keep the water quality high by doing extra water changes over the next few days and see if that helps.

 

[BOTLFED]

Thanks, Ill change it again tomorrow. Hopefully I have no dead soldiers in the morning.

 

[Salttanker]

The red blotches and ragged fins in my experience were generally isolated to one thing:

Water quality (Pristine)
Ammonia 0
pH 8.2
trates .10
trites 0
tight fitting lid (removed/contributed to pH fluctuating too much with heat)
Stray voltage (faulty powerhead)

This was very frustrating for me. I worked with Steve S. over a period of days trying to resolve this issue last year. Resolution? Faulty power head.
However, the white cloudy eyes almost sounds like some kind of disease..maybe velvet. You should consider getting a qt in the future so you won't have to treat the main. Does Pimafix contain copper? I haven't used this product before.

Mike

 

[steve-s]

Primafix is somewhat like Melafix but uses Bay oil instead of tea tree oil. It will have no affect on a parasite. Not all that good with what it claims to do either. The symptoms your describing sound much like nitrite poisoning or acidocis. I would have your water tests double checked.

In either regard I would suggest adding some carbon to remove the Primafix and do several large water changes with well aged/aerated SW. It will help restore the chemistry and improve water quality.

How much Primafix did you add?

Cheers
Steve

 

[BOTLFED]

Everything has died. Everything was OK till friday, now its tuesday morning and all 5 fish have died. They all got bleached white eyes and had white filmy stuff on them, then died within 12 hours of this. Then after they died their eyes went back to normal. Im heartbroken and I really didnt even have enough time to figure out what was really wrong. Im gonna tear down the tank and go back to freshwater.

 

[srgetz]

Sorry to hear this, really awful

It sounds like it possibly could have been marine velvet, based on the white coating and the speed which it took over. You need to let the tank go fallow (no fish) for 5-6 weeks so any parasite can die off. Do water changes and all else as normal during this period. The tank should then be safe. I wish you a good recovery and keep your head up.

 

[BOTLFED]

Thanks but this tank has been nothing but trouble and money from the start. I broke it down and it is now freshwater. Im going to put in a baby red devil and watch it grow into a massive beautiful red devil.

I still have my 55 gal saltwater that seems to be just fine with 2 shrimp, a turbo snail, a crab, and a dwarf lion. Thanks for the support and help. Its goes a long way when your going through a tank plague.