Help Identify Parasite <-- lost my tank in the last 48 hours.

[jakery]

Ive lost 80% of my fish in 48 hours, assume its a parasite, that was dormant. No fish added for 4 weeks.

This is a 7 month old 55 Gal tank with a HOB Skimmer, 5 gal HOB Refugium, power heads & 75lbs of live rock.

The trouble started on Monday nite with one clown being sluggish & laying on the bottom.

First suspected the tank might have a low O2 saturation (even though i run a HOB skimmer, x2 power heads pointed up and a HOB refugium) but regardless i moved the power heads up so they would grab air & make bubbles.

I also ran test on the water (which i do every week)
The tank is stable, all RO water, there is a HUGE population of pods & worms & plenty of healthy Coraline growth.
NO2 - 0
NH3/NH4 - 0
NO3 - 20 (never above 40 all summer)
PH - 8.4 (has been consistent all summer)
Alk dkH - 8.1 (has varied from 7.0-9.5 through the summer)
Salinity - 1.025
Calcium - 400 (low, just figuring how much i need to add weekly)
Mag - 1200z

Also i should note, I have 8 different soft corals & all seem happy & healthy to date.
In the morning all hell broke loose. I immediately disassembled the tank and freshwater dipped the fish in pH balanced RO water.
I brought one of the dead yellow tangs to the local specialty fish store & they could not find anything wrong.
The gills had some slight discoloration, but when my Ebli angel died, its lungs were red and healthy. (see photo)

The fish all lost color but didn't have any bumps or external signs of trouble.
Died within 12 hours of first symptom.
They had immediate loss of appetite.
They all seemed to die of exhaustion breathing heavy on their sides on the bottom.
Fish did not rub on rocks.
Fish were not clenching their fins to their sides.
The clown fish's feces was clear and stringy before it died.

in 36 hours I lost:
- 2 yellow tangs
- clown fish
- watchman goby
- arrow crab
- Ebli angel
- pajama cardinal
- 2 Chromie


Its mostly a shock, because this is my first and probably not my last Tank Crash.
I understand it happens, even to the best care takers.

What do I do now ?

 

[JohnK]

No new fish for 4 weeks, than a crash that rapid - I'm thinking some sort of toxin might have been introduced. I'd probably run a poly filter and see what color it changes (they will change to different colors based on what they are pulling out, not a sure way to id any possible toxin, but it might tell you something)

 

[stingythingy45]

Check for ammonia just in case.

 

[jason401]

another heater issue? sorry for your losses man...

 

[Turbosnail]

Sounds like an ammonia issue. Did you stir up the sand in the last couple of days? But as stated above I would check your heater also.

 

[dannyp02908]

x3 on the heater. Saw no mention of your temp and i am sure people have started using heaters again recently as the summer nights are becoming fall nights rapidly. I know i recently added my heater back in.

 

[stingythingy45]

Yes check that temperature also.
When water is heated up and when getting warm the oxygen is expelled away from water.
Warm water will hold less O2.

 

[jakery]

I monitor temp very closely. My heater has been in for two weeks and i dialed it in already.

Temp has been consistently 78* for weeks & i know this because the tank temp got up to 82-84* in August & killed all of my turbo snails. (which i removed before they decayed)

Isn't NH3/NH4 ammonia? Its Zero. (and has never been above 0.2ppm since the tank cycled)

I have also not stired up my substrate in 4 weeks, since i changed the last 1/3 of my tank from CC to agralite.

 

[jason401]

check the heater itself...stray voltage or if its broken

 

[JohnK]

The concern about the heater would be that it cracked or was other wise leaking voltage and or toxins into the water. It's probably possible that a heater could have such problems but still be "working".

 

[beelezebubba]

stray voltage

this was my first guess

running a polyfilter would be a good idea too. are you running carbon? sorry if you answered that already, i kinda skimmed.

white stringy feces in indicative of a parasite. really strange for one to stay dormant for over a month and then kill everything in 12 hours tho.

 

[stingythingy45]

white stringy feces in indicative of a parasite. really strange for one to stay dormant for over a month and then kill everything in 12 hours tho.

Yeah,the death of the arrow crab kind of throws a curve for parasite.

 

[beelezebubba]

Yeah,the death of the arrow crab kind of throws a curve for parasite.

definitely. there's so many variables to consider when something like this happens, it's sometimes hard to figure out what's important and what's incidental. just trying to reassure him that, although white fish poo is usually indicative of a parasite, in this case it's prolly incidental.

 

[jakery]

Thank you all. I really appreciate your concern.

I will check the heater.

I do not run carbon.

I will try the poly filter.

Something isn't adding up. I wonder if i introduced a toxin somehow, but don't remember it.

 

[beelezebubba]

if you have some on hand, running carbon isn't gonna hurt and might help quite a bit if it is some kind of toxin that was introduced.

 

[jselzler1]

Oh, this sounds horrible. Sorry I can't contribute but can only think if I choose the right hobby.

 

[wish]

any chance have you been using bug spray or hand lotion before putting your hands in the water?
Its that time of year when we don't wash our hand before we put them in the fish tank.

 

[dad300]

had the same thing happen a few years ago.. purchased a fish and 4 weeks later lost everything... less than 36 hours.. in my case it was a bacterial infection... skin flaked off all fish.. lungs etc were healthy..

 

[charged45]

Could it be possible your food was contaminated? Have you changed what you feed them recently? Sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[P-Nut]

any chance have you been using bug spray or hand lotion before putting your hands in the water?
Its that time of year when we don't wash our hand before we put them in the fish tank.

???

there is a time of the year when people dont wash their hands? why is that?