Help!! worm killed all my fish

[gbollingberg]

So i've had a saltwater tank for about 7 months now. Everything was going great until one of my fish died, so i took the fish otu and did a partial water change. Then everything seemed to be fine until a botu a week later when half the fish deid and then the next mournin everything was dead. The next day i noticed their was a long skinny pink worm crawling in the substrate. Can anyone help me with what happened here and what i should do to fix and how to not let it happen again.

 

[divedeep1689]

that was prob a bristle worm and he prob did not kill your fish

 

[ffmd212]

After the first fish died, did you do water test to see what your parameters were? How about now??

 

[melosu58]

I can pretty well guarantee you the bristle worm did not do that. We need some water test results posted to rule out bad water quality. Did you cycle your tank?

 

[factorboa]

lol sorry never heard of that before, i love my bristle worms they r lovely

 

[Innovator]

Water tests are pointless after a large fish death since all the parameters should be unstable and sustain readings. More than likely the bristleworm, if still alive, was consuming the leftover remnants. You will have to look at past water chem. recordings and see if there is any noticeable declines along with retracing your steps prior to the original fish death...

 

[Kmatt08]

Hmmm I had a friend who had the same problem before but it turned out to be a 5" mantis shrimp that had a taste for fish. Did any of the fish look ill or faded leading up to the die-off?

 

[gbollingberg]

Thanks for all the responces and yes i cucled the tank prior to putting live fish in it. All the fish seemed healthy as ever the day before they died so i just dont understand. After the death of the first first i did water checks and there was an ammonia spike but no other changes so i did some water changes and got that undercopntrol. The ammonia level wasnt to high tho just a little change so i wouldnt think that would do it becaus it was only high for like a day. As off now i got all the parameters undercontrol and three new fish in their so weel see how they do this week, then ill try for some more.

 

[thincat]

Let's hope you don't have this worm in your tank:Cryptomundo » Giant Sea Worm Discovery