Help!!! All fish have died :(

[nmhnmh]

hello group! i'm not here too often but tonite i have to get some help and/or advice. I have lost all my fish within the last week & a half. I've had my tank up and running for 4 years now. I was always glad to say that i've had minimum casualties in the past. 2 of the fish that died this week were my 2 beloved clown fish those were my 2 very first saltwater fish 4 years ago. also to die was my blue hippo tang & royal gramma both i've had about 2 years. Then the mandarin and the white&black damsel were the last to go those were my new fish that i added few months ago.

Anyhow... i believe my BIGGEST mistake was to by a small bag of live brine shrimp, to see if the mandarin would eat and also to treat all the other fish. Well, since i put those brine shrimp in the tank almost 2 weeks ago....every fish has died. I did notice some white dots on the blue hippo. Would ICK come into the tank with the water & brine shrimp from the store?? this seems to be more of a bacteria that was very toxic.

UGHHH has this disaster ever happend to anyone?? i've never had a problem with this tank other than minor algae that would come and go. All the water parameters are great except my nitrates tend to be on the mid to high but always have been since day 1.

I do have plenty of hermit crabs, snails, feather dusters, and a coral banded shrimp... they are all moving around and doing fine.

Any help or advice from others that this might have happend to.. i'd appreciate it very much. I'm certainly NOT going to put any fish in this tank for few weeks.

what is best way to make sure i get rid of this disease in my tank water?!?!?! HELP.....

 

[s_kelley]

Wow that sucks. Sorry to hear. Did you check all of your waters parameters to see if anything is out of wack? There have been a few others that have had tank crashes on here as well. I'm sure they will chime in on this one. Was the suspected ich only on one fish?

 

[Doherty]

Huh...... Like Shane said, curious to see what all your params are.... list all including the numbers. Temp, PH, Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, Alk, SG

Also tell us a little about your setup, Size of your tank etc.

 

[SteveDola]

are you supposed to add the brine shrimp water to the tank?

no matter what you need to do the tests and then start doing water changes and running carbon. then post the params

 

[s_kelley]

are you supposed to add the brine shrimp water to the tank?

no matter what you need to do the tests and then start doing water changes and running carbon. then post the params

never used live brine before, might have to strain and rince with tank water, not sure?

 

[UtahGetMe2]

Do you have any corals? If so are they doing fine/dead/looking bad?

I'd say post params, but if you have done a few WC since then they might not be the same as when this happened. Also tell us how long the fish were left in the tank before you removed them each time you discovered new fish were dead. I'm sure you aren't going to know a time frame, but it would help if you told us if you discovered it in the morning and the fish was really deteriorated already. What was the time frame of the start of the tang showing signs of ich til when he died? Also like s kelley said, was it the only fish to show these spots?


I've been reading on a few other forums a lot lately about tank crashes and it seems like these are the most frequent problems:

1. Params are very far off of what they should be
2. Some sort of parasite/bacteria was introduced due to new livestock that was not quarantined
3. Heater has fried everything or is leaking chemicals into the tank (plastic, glass, pyrex heaters, not titanium for the leak)
4. Contaminants have been introduced into the tank
a. From skin- soap, detergent, cologne
b. Cleaning around the tank or even across the room- febreeze, windex, pine
sol, etc.
c. I'm guessing you are using RO/DI water- unit might be malfunctioning, filters
might need to be changed

It is weird though that your CUC/dusters are still alive.

 

[Technorch]

I feed my tank brine shrimp maybe once or twice a month and I've never had any problems. I just rinse them in tank water for a bit, add some selcon to them and feed them. Like mentioned before, post all your parameters and see if something is off.

 

[stingythingy45]

JMO,but I think the live brine was just a coincidence.
I think you had something else happen.

 

[nmhnmh]

hello. Thank you all for your responses. I did check all my parameters and everything is within the normal range. The salinity & temp are fine.

My first fish to die 3 days after the brine shrimp went in was the royal gramma. The royal gramma didnt have any signs of ick. Then the following day i noticed that the blue hippo tang had a lot of white dots on him and also noticed some on both clown fish. Then i realized i maybe in trouble with this tank. I bought kick-ick and have been treating since. But all my fish did die within 1 week of me noticing the white dots. Which makes it about 1-1/2 weeks after putting in the brine all my fish were dead.

The CUC & the feather dusters are doing fantastic. The coral banded is wandering around like he ownes the tank!

I do not have any corals... I have only the cuc, feather dusters, coral banded shrimp, and 60lbs of live rock.

Im just looking for any ideas or input ....im definately going to wait to add any fish for awhile.

 

[mak3mydae]

I didnt know marine ich could kill in a matter of a week and a half? Don't people QT fish that have marine ich for months?

 

[Jays333]

Were any of the fish breathing heavily, and swimming erratically? White spots, and these symptoms could point to Marine Velvet.