Lost all fish/doing fallow but poss uronema

[AUSXMD]

Hi,
So I've posted frequently on here, and on a FB group I'm leaving because of contradicting advice by the facilitator, about a recent tank crash that left a lot of people baffled as to the cause, including myself. I have a Waterbox Infinia 230.6 FOWLR. I had a powder blue tang, queen angel and 2 clowns. That was it. It had been running about 6 months and everything was fine until the tang died very suddenly, angel died not long after that and the clowns hung on a few days. All inverts are fine. After posting pictures, some thought it might be uronema, others brook and others velvet. In 25 years of keeping FOWLR tanks I've never had this happen. Almost everyone suggested a 90 day fallow, some suggested "nuking" the whole system with bleach (I really don't want to do that.) Others suggested 90 day follow with metroplex incase there is uronema in there. I believe that will kill off the inverts, but I'd rather that happen than bleaching everything. Anything you experts think might be a good solution? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals on the advice of the FB group facilitator who now calls it "crap." Recent params are: Salt 1.024, Temp 78, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10, Phos 8.3, alk 10. I have a fuge with chaeto and sea lettuce, a Octopus elite 200-int skimmer, 3 AI 32s and use ro/di water. I use purigen and carbon, but it's out during the fallow that was just started last weekend. I'm leaning towards fallow with metroplex. I hate to bleach everything because there might be uronema. Thank you all!

 

[ryanjohn1]

Hi,
So I've posted frequently on here, and on a FB group I'm leaving because of contradicting advice by the facilitator, about a recent tank crash that left a lot of people baffled as to the cause, including myself. I have a Waterbox Infinia 230.6 FOWLR. I had a powder blue tang, queen angel and 2 clowns. That was it. It had been running about 6 months and everything was fine until the tang died very suddenly, angel died not long after that and the clowns hung on a few days. All inverts are fine. After posting pictures, some thought it might be uronema, others brook and others velvet. In 25 years of keeping FOWLR tanks I've never had this happen. Almost everyone suggested a 90 day fallow, some suggested "nuking" the whole system with bleach (I really don't want to do that.) Others suggested 90 day follow with metroplex incase there is uronema in there. I believe that will kill off the inverts, but I'd rather that happen than bleaching everything. Anything you experts think might be a good solution? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals on the advice of the FB group facilitator who now calls it "crap." Recent params are: Salt 1.024, Temp 78, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10, Phos 8.3, alk 10. I have a fuge with chaeto and sea lettuce, a Octopus elite 200-int skimmer, 3 AI 32s and use ro/di water. I use purigen and carbon, but it's out during the fallow that was just started last weekend. I'm leaning towards fallow with metroplex. I hate to bleach everything because there might be uronema. Thank you all!

Aquabiomics dna test. It takes a month for results but it tests for fish and coral pathogens. This may be an option for you. Plus you would be fallow for that time anyway. It’s like 100$ a test. They have an account on here you may be able to ask him personally if the test is worth doing. I don’t know all that much about fish disease.

 

[AUSXMD]

Aquabiomics dna test. It takes a month for results but it tests for fish and coral pathogens. This may be an option for you. Plus you would be fallow for that time anyway. It’s like 100$ a test. They have an account on here you may be able to ask him personally if the test is worth doing. I don’t know all that much about fish disease.

Thank you! I'll look him up.

 

[MnFish1]

Hi,
So I've posted frequently on here, and on a FB group I'm leaving because of contradicting advice by the facilitator, about a recent tank crash that left a lot of people baffled as to the cause, including myself. I have a Waterbox Infinia 230.6 FOWLR. I had a powder blue tang, queen angel and 2 clowns. That was it. It had been running about 6 months and everything was fine until the tang died very suddenly, angel died not long after that and the clowns hung on a few days. All inverts are fine. After posting pictures, some thought it might be uronema, others brook and others velvet. In 25 years of keeping FOWLR tanks I've never had this happen. Almost everyone suggested a 90 day fallow, some suggested "nuking" the whole system with bleach (I really don't want to do that.) Others suggested 90 day follow with metroplex incase there is uronema in there. I believe that will kill off the inverts, but I'd rather that happen than bleaching everything. Anything you experts think might be a good solution? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals on the advice of the FB group facilitator who now calls it "crap." Recent params are: Salt 1.024, Temp 78, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10, Phos 8.3, alk 10. I have a fuge with chaeto and sea lettuce, a Octopus elite 200-int skimmer, 3 AI 32s and use ro/di water. I use purigen and carbon, but it's out during the fallow that was just started last weekend. I'm leaning towards fallow with metroplex. I hate to bleach everything because there might be uronema. Thank you all!

Uronema rarely is transmissible from fish to fish except when tank/water conditions are bad and even then it's not common. I.e. I would not worry that there might be uronema in your tank. It may be in every tank - and really there is nothing you can/need to do except for trying to remove as much detritus, keep a reasonable stocking density and keep the fish you have healthy with good food, etc . It may also affect some fish more than others perhaps avoiding those fish for a bit would be prudent.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - no objection to a DNA test - but if its negative it could be that the sample wasn't taken from the 'right' place and if its positive there is nothing to do. I agree with not adding metronidazole to the tank. So in your case I don't think it's helpful.

 

[AUSXMD]

Uronema rarely is transmissible from fish to fish except when tank/water conditions are bad and even then it's not common. I.e. I would not worry that there might be uronema in your tank. It may be in every tank - and really there is nothing you can/need to do except for trying to remove as much detritus, keep a reasonable stocking density and keep the fish you have healthy with good food, etc . It may also affect some fish more than others perhaps avoiding those fish for a bit would be prudent.

Thank you very much! I hate adding chemicals to the tank if I don't have to. I'll finish the fallow period and go from there. Thanks again!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi,
So I've posted frequently on here, and on a FB group I'm leaving because of contradicting advice by the facilitator, about a recent tank crash that left a lot of people baffled as to the cause, including myself. I have a Waterbox Infinia 230.6 FOWLR. I had a powder blue tang, queen angel and 2 clowns. That was it. It had been running about 6 months and everything was fine until the tang died very suddenly, angel died not long after that and the clowns hung on a few days. All inverts are fine. After posting pictures, some thought it might be uronema, others brook and others velvet. In 25 years of keeping FOWLR tanks I've never had this happen. Almost everyone suggested a 90 day fallow, some suggested "nuking" the whole system with bleach (I really don't want to do that.) Others suggested 90 day follow with metroplex incase there is uronema in there. I believe that will kill off the inverts, but I'd rather that happen than bleaching everything. Anything you experts think might be a good solution? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals on the advice of the FB group facilitator who now calls it "crap." Recent params are: Salt 1.024, Temp 78, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10, Phos 8.3, alk 10. I have a fuge with chaeto and sea lettuce, a Octopus elite 200-int skimmer, 3 AI 32s and use ro/di water. I use purigen and carbon, but it's out during the fallow that was just started last weekend. I'm leaning towards fallow with metroplex. I hate to bleach everything because there might be uronema. Thank you all!

I doubt it was intercellular Uronema - you almost never see that in long term captives or in fish outside of a certain group: newly acquired chromis, anthias and yellow wrasse make up most of the cases, with a few outliers like butterflyfish and other wrasses making up the balance. I’ve never had a report of true Uronema on tangs or clownfish. If it was intercellular Uronema, you would have seen the classic vertical linear lesions.

That all said, the taxonomy of what we call Uronema is open. People say it is Uronema marinum, but all I’ll really say is that it is some type of scuticociliate. Most of that group just feed on bacteria. Even the species that causes disease is thought to normally just feed on bacteria. Eliminating them from aquariums is really a goal, they often just return with the next rock or coral that you add.

I’m not sure why they said reef crystals are junk - that is a decent value salt.

Personally, I’d leave the tank completely fishless for 60 days, or 75 days if your water is cooler, or if you are extra conservative. Most “fallow fails” can be traced back to not properly quarantining the new fish after the fallow period.