Mysterious Deaths!

[matt314]

Hey all! I've been a lurker on this site since November, when I first started my build! The info on this site has been priceless!

So, my dilemma. My tank has been set up and running since mid-November, in my office at work. It has been an awesome learning experience, and I love that you HAVE to go slow because there is so much to learn! This past Tuesday morning I walked in to all of my fish being dead. ALL of my tests have never shown any amounts to speak of.

Quick tank specs, 75GAL RRw/ R-100 fuge. 1" sand bed, 70LB of live rock, RO/DI water for changes, Reef Crystals salt. Temp is always a steady 78-79 degrees, 1.025 SG.

It was stocked with:
(2) Occelaris Clown Fish
(1) Royal Gramma (who I believe was a bully)
(1) Flame Angel
(1) Blue Hippo Tang (I know my tank is too small, but he's a small guy, and is planned to be moved along)
(1) Yellow Clown Goby

All dead Tuesday- they were alive at 8PM on Monday night. I had the LFS come in and do testing on Tuesday (I regularly bring samples to them) and there was an elevated level of ammonia (.10ppm or less, likely due to die off) and same with nitrates. No abnormal fish behavior, no new additions to the tank for about a month, and at that it's been coral.

All of my coral survived (Green star polyp, pipe organ, duncan, zoo's) and also my two cleaner shrimp, emerald crabs and nassrius snails. LFS thinks perhaps parasite that hosted on the fish- so we're going fish less for 7-10 days to give the parasite time to die off. Did a 20 GAL water change Tuesday, will test and do another if necessary.

Any thoughts?

 

[Macscale]

Well, next time, please don't buy a fish based on upgrades. We never know what life might throw at us.

Now to the main issue. I'm not completely sure, though a parasite is a possibility. Hmm... Well... If someone else chimes in it may help me think straighter.

 

[Bectan01]

Some ammonia could have killed them but if it was a parasite you would need to wait 6-8 weeks for it to die off not ten days. Marine velvet can kill that quickly and I think if it was ich you would have seen symptoms earlier...

 

[Macscale]

Right, the tank must sit 6-8 weeks vacant to let the parasite die off. If/when you find out the parasite, and decide to dose copper, make sure no inhabitants are in the tank, and it is cleaned thoroughly after.

 

[somethingsfishy]

Did any if the fish show any abnormal spots before or after dying? If it were ich or velvet you would see something on the fish. How do you QT your new livestock?

 

[matt314]

Thanks for the suggestions! Nothing abnormal beforehand- other than some bullying of the flame angel by the Royal Gramma (I won't be getting another Royal Gramma- they're bullies!)

I will wait and see how things go in the next few weeks.

 

[Macscale]

Royal Gramma and Bully aren't synonyms...! Haha, they are normally very shy fish.

 

[bribo12]

My royal gramma gets beat up in my tank lol. He wouldn't hurt a fly

 

[chrys rocha]

The tank in your office, may be in a comercial building...Check if someone has applied some kind o insecticide. it happened to me long ago.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

You should start pointing the finger at the office cleaning staff. Guaranteed they sprayed something.

 

[GoldfishJoey]

You may want to leave the tank barren for two months to kill the life cycle of any type of parasite. If some type of cleaning chemical entered the tank it would most likely kill off all your tank inhabitants and or crash your tank. I'm leaning on it is more likely you had some parasites lurking. (Just my opinion...) Hope that when you do decide to place fish inside your tank you would quarantine your fish before placing them in the direct tank. You may avoid some nasty parasites from it! Highly recommend it. It might also help to choose fish that are less prone to getting ich... Hope this helps!

 

[Macdaddydaze]

My guess would be cleaning supplies from janitor like Windex for the glass and they don't know any better

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[Macdaddydaze]

Chemicals will kill the fish way more rapidly than corals and inverts

Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH 5020N using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Ingy]

My first thought was also some type of poison. Or along a similar vein of thought, but less sinister was a significant power outage.

 

[chrys rocha]

Another possibility could be a dead poison fish, like a tetrodon...
At a yacht club I'm associate, someone was fishing at the pier and has hookek a tedrodon and put it in the aquarium ( a 100G tank).The wounded fish died and its venon has killed all others fishes.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My bet is somebody accidentally hit the tank with some windex or something like that. Even a tiny amount will kill the fish, but I would have thought it would have killed the inverts as well.

Could the power have gone off for a while? Sounds like it could have been a oxygen crash.

 

[chrys rocha]

Some insecticides have ddt and rotenona in its composition.Rotenona is taken from a vegetable formely used by the southamericans for fishing. It's possible to kill an entire school of fishes and they still keep edible.

 

[Macscale]

Yeah, mostly likely sounds like a chemical getting into the tank.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Could the power have gone off for a while? Sounds like it could have been a oxygen crash.

Reading through I think Greg might be right. I would think the windex would kill inverts just as fast as fish.

 

[Macscale]

Reading through I think Greg might be right. I would think the windex would kill inverts just as fast as fish.

That's true, everything would have died by the windex...