Yashaku
New Member
Hi there! I am somewhat newish to the hobby, and I have quite the story to tell. I would appreciate any and all help anyone has to give regarding this matter as I have picked the brains of every fish expert in my city and no one has any idea on what this could be. I am willing to do whatever is needed to fix this, but I cannot fight what I do not know. At the time I was only allowed by my landlord to have one aquarium tank, so a quarantine tank simply wasn't doable. Much to my extreme frustration, otherwise I recognize that this could be prevented. So please, before you state I should have quarantined, I know this now and I regret much. My focus is sadly now on saving my remaining fish and corals.
I have had my salty friends for about three months now, approximately. I started out with a self modified Fluval Flex 9g to help me get my feet wet, following all the advice and recommendations of the three local fish stores around me, filling my tank with the needed equipment, live sand, live rock, premixed water and nitrafying bacteria. I took samples daily and when I was given the green light I purchased two small clowns and then later a small royal gramma and a few corals. (Frogspawn, GSP, Xenia, Duncan and Kenya Tree) They thrived in that tank but I recognized that they would need much more space very soon. So two months ago I upgraded to a 20g Long. (With plans to upgrade again later this year to a 39g) Large reef tanks to me are very daunting, and I really wanted to just baby step my way into something bigger and not just dive right into the largest I could fit in my living room. The transfer went well, all my corals were happy and my fish ended the day being stress free. The filter used at the time was an Aquaclear Fluval 50, which I seeded with media from the flex. (It has since been upgraded)
Now comes the problem. With a little more room, I decided to add a Blue Green Chromis, a Yellow Banded Possom Wrasse and a Bicolor Blenny. Each fish "looked" healthy. A few days after I added the Chromis however my Royal Gramma started to flash. It was only once and a while and he had otherwise nothing on him or behavior changes that would point to something obvious. I did tell a LFS and they told me to continue to observe since and told me what to look out for. So when the first white spot appeared I was ready, but one spot quickly multiplied to quite a few. I was told that the likely culprit was Ick. With not being allowed a quarantine my options were very limited. After picking the brains of a few and doing my own research, I dosed Ruby Reef Rally and Polyp Lab Medic into the display. I dosed Ruby for 5 days, and Medic for the full recommended length. During this time, my blenny also became infested with spots and was flashing and one of my clowns as well as my wrasse had a few. The pic below was of my Gramma mid treatment. At the end of the treatment, sadly my Gramma passed away. It had recovered from the parasite but mysteriously had an open circular wound on its head that took up about a fourth of its face. Otherwise? It looked fine. No spots, lesions or skin sloughing of any kind. Just a mysterious hole. This was the first fish death. I don't have a picture of that, I was emotional and my husband removed him for me.
The second fish to succumb was my blenny. The day after the gramma died, my blenny had a whitish patch of mucus or skin at the top of its head that looked like it was coming off. The first pic below was my blenny before I went to sleep. He looked absolutely miserable but I had shown this to the LFS and since I was already dosing and I couldn't quarantine they told me that I was doing all that I could do minus a few new products we could try that were 'reef tested', but I was nervous to try something that some people claimed melted their corals so I kept on the course. The last two pictures are after he died. The skin/mucus also covered his belly and the skin around his head had completely pealed off of him like a skinless grape!
I went to the LFS again, and between the three I have local bounced around trying to find our exactly what it was that killed them. I was told by a several that they didnt know of something that matches these injuries, and that it could be injuries of some kind either from power heads or bullying. My Circulator Pump is a Fluval CP1 and is aimed at the surface. Since I had observed my gramma and my Chromis chasing every so often, I found a new home for the chromis and waited. During this time I removed the medicine from the tank, and upgraded my filter to a Seachem Tidal 55 and an Aquatop HOB with UV. Between the two filters and the pump the flow has areas of medium and gentle flow with nothing too powerful for any fish to swim through. When I was told it was safe, I bought a new Royal Gramma and Bicolor Blenny. Five days is all that it took and both perished. They both died yesterday, and there were no symptoms. No flashing, no mucus, nothing. They were there eating and well and then they were dead. The royal gramma had an abrassion on its side (Like a whitish scrape along one of its side) and that seemed to be all. The color of the fish was still bright and there were no spots. The only other thing to note however, was its top and lower fins seemed to be ragged. But that could have been my CUC so Im not entirely sure. The blenny on the other hand had a similar appearance to the previous blenny. The scales on its head were gone, again looking like a peeled grape. The death was very quick with showing a slightly elevated breathing 6 hours before its death. I was sitting at my computer playing a game so I could keep an eye on him. One second he was there and then he was dead. I removed him from the tank, and the skin and scales on its head came off on the paper towel. The picture below was minutes after its death.
His color was excellent, he was eating, his behavior was normal. After the gramma I was worried that maybe another fish was bulling them so I scoped out the tank during the night and nothing touched him. While the lights were off he stayed in his hole, my clowns (Very small, tip to tip I would say a little over an inch) were fast asleep an hour after lights out and my possom wrasse was tucked in. Nothing touched him during the day either. This can't be bullying. During the day there is zero aggression of any kind. Aside from the Chromis incident I have never seen anyone ever nip, chase or harass anyone. I am a night owl and often sit at my computer well into the night with every light off, and have used the night vision on my phone during the night to spy. The only invertebrates I have are six small blue legged hermits, some snails and a small conch. No crabs, no shrimp and I have thoroughly checked my rocks and sand for hitchhikers. I took a sample of my water and had it tested to make sure that my testing solutions/instruments are accurate and they are as good as they have been for the entire duration of this mess. I use two 50 Watt heaters attatched to an Inkbird controller to keep temps consistantly stable. Nothing sticks out to them as the culpret. So here I am, desperately hoping that someone somewhere has any sort of insight or has experienced something similar. All of the fish I have left are healthy and 'seem' to be resistant or immune to whats lurking in my water. What I need to know is whats killing my fish so I can stop it, I don't want anything else to die. While they seem fine now, that could change at any time.
On the other side of this mess, my corals are all doing exceptionally well.
Thankfully, due to the severity of this situation I have since been granted the ability to set up a quarantine. I have two 9g Fluval Flex's on hand, one fitted with a coral light and one with the stock. If needed I can transfer fish and coral into these with some filter modifications. (The space I can put a quarantine tank is limited to the bottom of my wooden stand for insurance purposes and I am able to fit one on either side of my stands divider) Regardless of what I do, one of these will remain set up as a quarantine for any future additions.
I have had my salty friends for about three months now, approximately. I started out with a self modified Fluval Flex 9g to help me get my feet wet, following all the advice and recommendations of the three local fish stores around me, filling my tank with the needed equipment, live sand, live rock, premixed water and nitrafying bacteria. I took samples daily and when I was given the green light I purchased two small clowns and then later a small royal gramma and a few corals. (Frogspawn, GSP, Xenia, Duncan and Kenya Tree) They thrived in that tank but I recognized that they would need much more space very soon. So two months ago I upgraded to a 20g Long. (With plans to upgrade again later this year to a 39g) Large reef tanks to me are very daunting, and I really wanted to just baby step my way into something bigger and not just dive right into the largest I could fit in my living room. The transfer went well, all my corals were happy and my fish ended the day being stress free. The filter used at the time was an Aquaclear Fluval 50, which I seeded with media from the flex. (It has since been upgraded)
Now comes the problem. With a little more room, I decided to add a Blue Green Chromis, a Yellow Banded Possom Wrasse and a Bicolor Blenny. Each fish "looked" healthy. A few days after I added the Chromis however my Royal Gramma started to flash. It was only once and a while and he had otherwise nothing on him or behavior changes that would point to something obvious. I did tell a LFS and they told me to continue to observe since and told me what to look out for. So when the first white spot appeared I was ready, but one spot quickly multiplied to quite a few. I was told that the likely culprit was Ick. With not being allowed a quarantine my options were very limited. After picking the brains of a few and doing my own research, I dosed Ruby Reef Rally and Polyp Lab Medic into the display. I dosed Ruby for 5 days, and Medic for the full recommended length. During this time, my blenny also became infested with spots and was flashing and one of my clowns as well as my wrasse had a few. The pic below was of my Gramma mid treatment. At the end of the treatment, sadly my Gramma passed away. It had recovered from the parasite but mysteriously had an open circular wound on its head that took up about a fourth of its face. Otherwise? It looked fine. No spots, lesions or skin sloughing of any kind. Just a mysterious hole. This was the first fish death. I don't have a picture of that, I was emotional and my husband removed him for me.
The second fish to succumb was my blenny. The day after the gramma died, my blenny had a whitish patch of mucus or skin at the top of its head that looked like it was coming off. The first pic below was my blenny before I went to sleep. He looked absolutely miserable but I had shown this to the LFS and since I was already dosing and I couldn't quarantine they told me that I was doing all that I could do minus a few new products we could try that were 'reef tested', but I was nervous to try something that some people claimed melted their corals so I kept on the course. The last two pictures are after he died. The skin/mucus also covered his belly and the skin around his head had completely pealed off of him like a skinless grape!
I went to the LFS again, and between the three I have local bounced around trying to find our exactly what it was that killed them. I was told by a several that they didnt know of something that matches these injuries, and that it could be injuries of some kind either from power heads or bullying. My Circulator Pump is a Fluval CP1 and is aimed at the surface. Since I had observed my gramma and my Chromis chasing every so often, I found a new home for the chromis and waited. During this time I removed the medicine from the tank, and upgraded my filter to a Seachem Tidal 55 and an Aquatop HOB with UV. Between the two filters and the pump the flow has areas of medium and gentle flow with nothing too powerful for any fish to swim through. When I was told it was safe, I bought a new Royal Gramma and Bicolor Blenny. Five days is all that it took and both perished. They both died yesterday, and there were no symptoms. No flashing, no mucus, nothing. They were there eating and well and then they were dead. The royal gramma had an abrassion on its side (Like a whitish scrape along one of its side) and that seemed to be all. The color of the fish was still bright and there were no spots. The only other thing to note however, was its top and lower fins seemed to be ragged. But that could have been my CUC so Im not entirely sure. The blenny on the other hand had a similar appearance to the previous blenny. The scales on its head were gone, again looking like a peeled grape. The death was very quick with showing a slightly elevated breathing 6 hours before its death. I was sitting at my computer playing a game so I could keep an eye on him. One second he was there and then he was dead. I removed him from the tank, and the skin and scales on its head came off on the paper towel. The picture below was minutes after its death.
His color was excellent, he was eating, his behavior was normal. After the gramma I was worried that maybe another fish was bulling them so I scoped out the tank during the night and nothing touched him. While the lights were off he stayed in his hole, my clowns (Very small, tip to tip I would say a little over an inch) were fast asleep an hour after lights out and my possom wrasse was tucked in. Nothing touched him during the day either. This can't be bullying. During the day there is zero aggression of any kind. Aside from the Chromis incident I have never seen anyone ever nip, chase or harass anyone. I am a night owl and often sit at my computer well into the night with every light off, and have used the night vision on my phone during the night to spy. The only invertebrates I have are six small blue legged hermits, some snails and a small conch. No crabs, no shrimp and I have thoroughly checked my rocks and sand for hitchhikers. I took a sample of my water and had it tested to make sure that my testing solutions/instruments are accurate and they are as good as they have been for the entire duration of this mess. I use two 50 Watt heaters attatched to an Inkbird controller to keep temps consistantly stable. Nothing sticks out to them as the culpret. So here I am, desperately hoping that someone somewhere has any sort of insight or has experienced something similar. All of the fish I have left are healthy and 'seem' to be resistant or immune to whats lurking in my water. What I need to know is whats killing my fish so I can stop it, I don't want anything else to die. While they seem fine now, that could change at any time.
On the other side of this mess, my corals are all doing exceptionally well.
Thankfully, due to the severity of this situation I have since been granted the ability to set up a quarantine. I have two 9g Fluval Flex's on hand, one fitted with a coral light and one with the stock. If needed I can transfer fish and coral into these with some filter modifications. (The space I can put a quarantine tank is limited to the bottom of my wooden stand for insurance purposes and I am able to fit one on either side of my stands divider) Regardless of what I do, one of these will remain set up as a quarantine for any future additions.
As of this morning everyone remaining is still healthy seeming.
