All my fish dead within 5 hours!!! Params test fine.

A

amutti

New member
So my 4 year old 55g reef tank had its first major problem last night . . All the fish mysteriously died!! I've had them all for the last 4 years. Very sad.

Now I need to figure out why.

Here is what I know. I did water changes on all my tanks last night (4). The 55 gallon reef was the last one I did. I replaced 7 gallons. All the other tanks are doing fine this morning(no deaths). I went to bed at midnight (3 hours after the water change) and saw the foxface swimming around. This morning he was dead along with the other 4 fish (1 clown, 3 damsels). Corals and inverts seem fine (no dead snails, hermits, etc.). I tested params (reagent and dip strips):

1.024 salinity
7.8 PH
79 F
Nitrites undetectable
Nitrates undetectable
Ammonia undetectable
Ca 380
dKH 13

All I can think of was the O2 crashed? All my powerjets and canister filter (no media) were running. Other ideas??

I did another 7 gallon water change this morning and started running carbon. I don't know what to do next.
 
Stray voltage doesn't kill fish like that.

There are only two things that I've seen that will kill fish rapidly and leave the corals alone - supersaturation and Amyloodinium. Poisoning from anything other than rotenone (fish specific) would also hit the delicate invertebrates. Low dissolved oxygen would probably hit your inverts, but a transient issue (low DO followed by a quick rebound) might spare the inverts, but kill this fish....I just can't tell you if that happened or why it might have.

So - supersaturation will kill the fish quickly the only symptoms are lethargy and flashing. Visually, in bad cases, you can see gas bubbles in their fins and maybe in their eyes. In moderate cases, you would have to look at their gills under a microscope to see it. Causes include changing water in the winter in which the water is supersaturated with air -or- an air leak at the suction side of an water pump (or even a sump that "catches air"). I doubt it is a tap water issue because the other tanks would have been affected. Amyloodinium is a gill parasite that can decimate fish quickly. The fish seem to die all at once because the big symptom, rapid breathing, can go unnoticed. The fish are breathing a bit fast one day and dead the next.

Jay
 
Thanks Jay. Amyloodinium seems like the most likely problem since I didn't see any of the tell tale signs of supersaturation. However, I don't know where it came from. Everything it takes a few days from exposure until death, I haven't added anything new for months.

I guess I'll make it a coral/invert only tank for a few weeks.
 
So the water is cloudy and a few crabs don't look good. Bacteria bloom. Ammonia, nitrite all undetectable still. Corals seem a lttle stressed. I guess I'll go pickup some cycle (or something similar), and a chemical sponge to absorb nitrate, nitrite and phosphate. I'll also continue twice daily 7gallon water changes. Any other ideas/thoughts to save the coral???
 
amutti,

Cloudy water and crabs not looking good are symptoms that don't coincide with Amyloodinium. We''l have to assume that they are part of the original problem. It isn't a bacterial bloom UNLESS there was some source of organic material available to support the bloom (maybe from the dead fish though?). Recty pointed out toxicity from an external source. I originally dismissed that because the corals were fine and you had done other water changes prior to that and those tanks are fine. If the corals are now in trouble - then you may not be able to rule external poisoning.

I would suggest larger water changes EXCEPT that there is that possibility that water changes was what started this issue in the first place! 7 gallons a day won't reduce toxic water very quickly - that is only a 15% rate.


Jay
 
I'm doing 7 gallon changes twice a day; so 14 gallons +/- a day. I did 14 gallons last night and 7gallons in the morning when I first found the dead fish. I still have 2 fish MIA; so I figured that was feeding the bloom. The other 3 tanks seems to be doing fine -- no signs of any distress.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to ride it out. . . .
 
You may want to double check your ammonia test kit reading with a LFS, or purchase a new test kit. Amm test kits are unreliable if they get a bit old...
 
Well, I double checked the water at the LFS -- no ammonia. It is cloudy still. Good news is that most of the snails and crabs I thought were dead (not moving, half out of their shells at the bottom of the tank) have been resurrected for now (holy Easter weekend!). I did a 16 gallon water change. I added Chem Pure Elite into the canister (which I also emptied and cleaned) and I dosed MicroBacter 7. I also got the last dead fish out of the tank. All the fish had bright red gills that seemed pried open if that makes any sense.

My fingers are crossed that the tank turns around!!
 
Too weird. I'm down to 2 of my fish, and I doubt they will make it through the night. I've lost my yellow tang and several other damsels the past 2 days, most were dead in one night. No water changes, just the fairly usual top offs, can't feel any stray voltage, water parameters all check out, corals seem to be doing fine though my frogspawn looks a little stressed. Snails are good. The two remainingf ish, my clown and a damsel seem to be breathing heavily and I did notice wide open bright red gills in the dead fish. No new additions, and the tank itself is very stable.

I did just notice on my last remaining damsel some white spots on his forehead, I'm wondering if he's showing signs of ick now that his health has deteriorated. Really has me bummed out.
 
Just was able to catch the clown. Have him off by himself with some NOXICH but I can't catch the last damsel. Believe the clown has velvet. :sad2:

The last addition, the tang, had been in there for a couple months now. Must have carried it in. :sad1:

Hopefully the clown pulls through, I've had him for 6 years now.
 
The red open gills makes me think ammonia burn, which could easily be caused by a couple dead fish being left in there rotting.
 
Recty said:
The red open gills makes me think ammonia burn, which could easily be caused by a couple dead fish being left in there rotting.
Click to expand...

Yea, I don't know. Ammonia tested at zero, every fish that died I had gotten out of there fairly quick. I managed to catch the damsel this morning. They are both sititing in treatment right now. Surprised either made it through the night with the rate the others died. Neither look good though.
 
So I think I figured it out. Hydrogen Sulfide poisoning. Since nothing else seems to working, I decided to start cleaning all the dead snails/crabs from the refugium . . . when I was poking around a LOT of gas came out of the deep sandbed. I also noticed that the top inch was mostly decomposing plant stuff with a light layer of sand covering it.

Here is the scenario I've worked out.
1. Slow leaching of Hydrogen Sulfide into the water for a while.
2. Protein Skimmer broke last weekend (a point I regrettably didn't write earlier). This is a great point for gas exchange.
3. Without protein skimmer, the H2S built up, replacing O2.
4. It hit a critical level and starting with the biggest fish they died (assumption, but I think one small damsel was alive the morning I found all the rest of the fish dead).
5. PH crashed.
6. Some inverts died and I didn't find all the dead fish until 24 hours after the initial die-off. Ammonia/Nitrate/H2S rise due to the dead. PH continues to crash (levels out at 7.2)
7. I didn't see the ammonia because of good bacteria(??), nitrate/nitrite was eaten by continued Vitamin C dosing and refugium (??)
8.Sucked the sand out of the refugium Friday.
9. Finally got the skimmer fixed yesterday.
10. Tank is slowly clearing up . . . PH is around 7.6 now.

Thoughts?? I've fragged a few things into my fish-less nano and the fragged items seem to be recovering very nicely. I'm going to continue doing my 15%morning and 30% night water changes until the water is clear.
 
Dear Amutti,

Last night all my fish looked healthy. This morning the water was cloudy and all the fish were dead. I saw an old thread where you had experienced something like this and thought perhaps it was hydrogen sulfide posining. Do you still think so?
My case is unusual - I was right in the middle of a hyposalinity treatment for my fish and everything was going really well. All my basic parameters looked good. Did you ever get any more insight into your problem?
 
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