Need help with sick fish.

[ritter6788]

This one has me stumped. This is in my 40 breeder. Tank has been setup since May and the fish have been in since earlier this summer, July I think. 1 solar wrasse, yellow wrasse, lyretail anthia pair (one recently died) clownfish pair (I've had these 2 for years). Salinity 1.025, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates undetectable. Corals, crabs snails and anemones look great, Calcium, alk mag are all good. Phosphates undetectable. All fish were fully quarantined before adding to the tank. The fish have been great for months. Eating well and most eat out of my hand. I've been feeding Rods good, Sally's mysis and occasionally spectrum pellets.

Last week my male lyretail (who was the boss of the tank) acted odd and was hanging out in the corner with his mouth open. He ate when feeding but the next day he was dead. Since them all the other fish have looked fine. Yesterday my male clown was laying in one corner of the tank. The solar wrasse and the female clown looked odd also but were eating. The male clown also are well when feeding. Today both the clowns are in the same bottom corner, the solar wrasse won't come out (I can see him hiding and breathing heavily), the female anthia is in the corner breathing heavily, the yellow wrasse looks fine. I tried to feed today and the only one that ate was the male clown. None show any signs of parasites or disease.



Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[ritter6788]

Only changes I've made recently is I added a few bubble tip anemones, some coral from my other tank and I just started feeding PE mysis and marine cuisine. I've fed the same foods to my other thank though with no problems.

 

[ritter6788]

This is how the fish stay except when food is added. They act like they want to eat but don't.

 

[mike007]

Bummer man i don't know what could be wrong. If everything was doing okay before need to narrow down what may have caused this with the new additions. Food sounds as though it was okay. Maybe the added corals have something going on that are causing this. I wish i knew so i could help out. Sorry

 

[Naiad]

Very odd. Are you able to do a necropsy on your fish?

 

[ritter6788]

The only corals added were from my 75. The fish in there show no signs of illness.

The fish in this tank have mouth gaping a bit and are twitchy and breathing heavily.

 

[ritter6788]

Very odd. Are you able to do a necropsy on your fish?

No. I wouldn't know what I was looking for if I did. The only fish that has died so far is a male lyretail anthia. It died 2 weeks ago and all the other fish looked fine until today.

 

[gobeach]

Any chance a chemical got into your tank? Cleaning lady, kids, used a brush with soap on it?

 

[ritter6788]

I forgot about my McCoskers wrasse. I haven't seen it today.

 

[Naiad]

Take a close look at gills are they redder than normal or darker? Also try adding carbon and/or airstone to see if it helps.

 

[ritter6788]

Any chance a chemical got into your tank? Cleaning lady, kids, used a brush with soap on it?

Not likely. We haven't done much cleaning around there lately. My kids are all high school and up and don't even get too close to the tank, they know better, Lol. Only tools I've used in there is a mag float. If it was something in the air my 75 gallon sps is 6 ft. away and likely would have got it too. All the corals and anemones look great. No closed polyps or anything. The tank is in a low traffic corner so spills and things aren't likely.

 

[NC2WA]

internal parasite? worm or flukes? have any of these fish been treated with PraziPro?

 

[Naiad]

You test for voltage? Just an idea

 

[ritter6788]

internal parasite? worm or flukes? have any of these fish been treated with PraziPro?

They have not been treated with PraziPro. Could internal parasites suddenly show up after being in the tank for months?

 

[ritter6788]

You test for voltage? Just an idea

I have not. Wouldn't that effect corals too?

 

[Naiad]

Internal parasites can go years without being noticed. What does the fishes poop look like?

 

[ritter6788]

Internal parasites can go years without being noticed. What does the fishes poop look like?

I haven't noticed any.

I just noticed my yellow wrasse with his head out of the sand bed breathing heavily.

 

[Naiad]

Not good... a prazi bath will show you if its a parasite but due to the rapid nature of onset and the fact only fish are doing bad I think you introduced a virus into the tank.

 

[Naiad]

There is not much research outside salmon but viruses like IPN and ISKN have these symptoms:
Disease signs at the farm, tank or pond level are: ·*mortality between 50% and 100% ·*fish remaining on bottom of tank and not feeding well ·*lethargy ·*respiratory distress (rapid movement of opercula).

 

[ritter6788]

Not good... a prazi bath will show you if its a parasite but due to the rapid nature of onset and the fact only fish are doing bad I think you introduced a virus into the tank.

That was my fear... Not even sure how to handle this. I took down my established QT planning on not adding anymore fish. Those fish are a pain to get out of pukani rock too. I may just ride this out and see what happens.

I had a ground probe laying around I've never used. I just plugged it in just in case.