Any idea what disease this may be?

SirKevinD · Feb 18, 2014

All my fish have died in the last two weeks. My clown is going quick and my tangs eyes are starting to cloud up.

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1392762495.176102.jpg

judging by the pic, what do you think?

Eienna · Feb 18, 2014

I'm having issues seeing the photo, but your description screams marine velvet.

Leave your tank fishless for a long period - I think it's two months, but I'll let someone else confirm - to let it die off before adding new fish. Start a strict quarantine protocol for any new fish to avoid having this happen again.

I'm trying to remember what the treatment is...

Eienna · Feb 18, 2014

Okay - looked it up - give them a freshwater dip, put them in quarantine, and treat with copper (I'd recommend seachem cupramine - it's probably the safest) or chloroquine diphosphate (which may take too long to get.)

Again, you'll need a fishless period in your tank before trying to put them back in.

Eienna · Feb 18, 2014

Okay, got it to show the photo. Yes, it's velvet. TREAT IMMEDIATELY.

The purpose of the freshwater dip is to knock off some of the parasites to give some relief. Then the cupramine will kill the rest of the parasites. Hopefully it's not too late for your tang. Probably is for your clown, but give it your best shot.

mike007 · Feb 18, 2014

Eienna said:
Okay - looked it up - give them a freshwater dip, put them in quarantine, and treat with copper (I'd recommend seachem cupramine - it's probably the safest) or chloroquine diphosphate (which may take too long to get.)

Again, you'll need a fishless period in your tank before trying to put them back in.

Agreed but if this a reef you will need to remove fish into a quarantine tank to treat with these meds.

Eienna · Feb 18, 2014

mike007 said:
Agreed but if this a reef you will need to remove fish into a quarantine tank to treat with these meds.

I believe that's what I said XD might want to reread that.

Tahoe61 · Feb 18, 2014

A fresh water dip would most likely put that fish over the edge, unfortunately.

Eienna · Feb 19, 2014

Tahoe61 said:
A fresh water dip would most likely put that fish over the edge, unfortunately.

At this point, I fear anything would. Worth a try, though. :/

Eienna · Feb 22, 2014

Update?

monkiboy · Mar 3, 2014

sir kevin, is there an update? also, was the outbreak triggered by the addition of a new fish or was it "random" or stress-induced?

SirKevinD · Mar 3, 2014

All my fish died off. Made me super sad but I have learned my lesson. Starting a 10G QT. Leaving that tank fallow for 3 months. Going to seed with pods while the time goes by.

monkiboy · Mar 3, 2014

SirKevinD said:
All my fish died off. Made me super sad but I have learned my lesson. Starting a 10G QT. Leaving that tank fallow for 3 months. Going to seed with pods while the time goes by.

i'm really sorry to hear that - sounds like MV alright with the accelerated progression of the symptoms to death.

glad to hear you have decided to quarantine.

can you address how MV entered your system? had you added anything to your system or have any idea?

do not seed the tank or add anything to the tank for those three months outside of freshwater to maintain salinity if you so desire to keep inverts alive. adding anything wet can introduce parasites to your tank. imagine being in the final week of your fallow period and adding pods and bringing in fresh parasites only to add fish fresh out of qt into your display to be infected. be very diligent and make sure to avoid cross contamination during your fallow period and between your display and qt tanks if you are treating/qt'ing in tandem while going fallow in the display.

SirKevinD · Mar 3, 2014

Thank you for the tips. The disease or parasite entered my tank after I added two firefish from my LFS. I added two cleaner shrimp just before all the fish had died. I'm maintaining the tank as I would if I had it fully stocked. I still have coral in the tank.

monkiboy · Mar 3, 2014

sure thing. i know it's been a few weeks but you should certainly let your LFS owner know of what happened and that you suspect received MV from his store and system. it's a shame more stores do not quarantine (even if not while providing prophylactic treatment) to ensure more instances like this are avoided.

at least you have coral to keep you busy and admire. just be careful about adding new coral, frag plugs, rock, etc. anything wet needs to be quarantined from now on if you're going to do this right and certainly not added to your tank while going fallow.

good luck and hope you never have to deal with this again!