Ok, so within the past 10 days I have had a 2.5" blue hippo tang, female lyre tail anthias, green chromis, and male lyre tail anthias all die. I need some help to figure out what the problem is. Here is the background on my tank.
Started with a 75g last May. Got a bad case of ich prior to the holidays, so I removed all fish from the tank while the family and I went home for the holidays. Total the tank sat 8 weeks without fish. This Jan we upgraded to a drilled 90g and added a 30 gal sump/fuge, with a mag 9.5 as a return pump. I have an AquaC EV-120 skimmer driven by a Mag 5. I have a 1/3 HP chiller and one phosban reactor filled with Sea Chem brand seagel (phosban and carbon). All this was set up with rock from the 75g and some new live rock and a little new dead rock. At least 75% of the rock was from the 75. Beginning of Feb we started adding new fish. None of the fish previously in the 75 went into the 90. If it makes a difference, I have 324 watts of T5 over the tank and 28 of PC over the fuge. The fuge has three kinds of macro algae that is growing well. My chiller maintains the temp between 76-80. The lights are on a 12 hour schedule, fuge is on the same schedule. Chemistry as measured last night is as follows:
Salinity 32 ppt
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 2
I tested for copper, thinking something might have leached out of the new dead rock I added, and got nothing.
The hippo went first almost two weeks ago. I didn't closely inspect the body, but I did note that there were some spots of ich and the belly was bloated and discolored white. Based on this I added a coralife 18watt UV Sterilizer, I am using a RIO 2100+ to provide flow, but I have it throttled to 100 gph (the manufacturer recommends 110gph to kill protozoa). Following that I noted what can be described as a gash in the side of one of my female lyretail anthias and a green chromis. It was noted first in the morning after the lights came on. It appeared as though something had scraped away the scales of the fish in very straight line down the side of the fish. The gash was just aft of the midline of the fish, and was approximately a 45 degree angle, sloping away from the tail. The fish seemed fine other than that, no abnormal breathing, no signs of the ich noted on the hippo. About two days later they were dead in the morning. Upon examining the bodies (the anthias at least, the green chromis was never found) I noted the "gash" was considerably worse. Same story with male a few days later. The remaining inhabitants, a naso tang, three chromis, one female lyre tail anthias and lawn mower blenny are all doing fine, no noticeable marks on their scales.
In the tank I have several turbos, about 30 left handed hermits, a brittle star, several feather dusters, a pink urchin, a cleaner shrimp, a tube anemone and a sand anemone. In addition there is some xenia, anthelia, and various zoos and playthoas. I am inclined to believe the tube anemone is at fault because of the very straight line nature of the marks on the fish, as if from a tentacle. In addition while getting the tank aquascaped the way we like the tube anemone was moved 3-4 times, all roughly in the same location, but sometimes more in the way of swimming paths to hiding spots. In addition the tube anemone does expand greatly at night, at least 8" from tip of one tentacle to tip of another. Since then the tube anemone has been moved to the sump. Here is a link to the post my wife made http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9341996#post9341996
It was mentioned that it could be caused by a parasite, and that might explain it, as they all went pretty quick, and closely following the addition of the sterilizer, implying it didn't have enough time to be effective yet, however the nature of the marks still has me leaning toward the tube anemone. So what do you guys think? If it was the tube anemone, anyone want a tube anemone? It was a parasite, how can I be sure it doesn't kill any future additions? Please help me before I kill any more innocent fish!!!!
Any insight or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Started with a 75g last May. Got a bad case of ich prior to the holidays, so I removed all fish from the tank while the family and I went home for the holidays. Total the tank sat 8 weeks without fish. This Jan we upgraded to a drilled 90g and added a 30 gal sump/fuge, with a mag 9.5 as a return pump. I have an AquaC EV-120 skimmer driven by a Mag 5. I have a 1/3 HP chiller and one phosban reactor filled with Sea Chem brand seagel (phosban and carbon). All this was set up with rock from the 75g and some new live rock and a little new dead rock. At least 75% of the rock was from the 75. Beginning of Feb we started adding new fish. None of the fish previously in the 75 went into the 90. If it makes a difference, I have 324 watts of T5 over the tank and 28 of PC over the fuge. The fuge has three kinds of macro algae that is growing well. My chiller maintains the temp between 76-80. The lights are on a 12 hour schedule, fuge is on the same schedule. Chemistry as measured last night is as follows:
Salinity 32 ppt
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 2
I tested for copper, thinking something might have leached out of the new dead rock I added, and got nothing.
The hippo went first almost two weeks ago. I didn't closely inspect the body, but I did note that there were some spots of ich and the belly was bloated and discolored white. Based on this I added a coralife 18watt UV Sterilizer, I am using a RIO 2100+ to provide flow, but I have it throttled to 100 gph (the manufacturer recommends 110gph to kill protozoa). Following that I noted what can be described as a gash in the side of one of my female lyretail anthias and a green chromis. It was noted first in the morning after the lights came on. It appeared as though something had scraped away the scales of the fish in very straight line down the side of the fish. The gash was just aft of the midline of the fish, and was approximately a 45 degree angle, sloping away from the tail. The fish seemed fine other than that, no abnormal breathing, no signs of the ich noted on the hippo. About two days later they were dead in the morning. Upon examining the bodies (the anthias at least, the green chromis was never found) I noted the "gash" was considerably worse. Same story with male a few days later. The remaining inhabitants, a naso tang, three chromis, one female lyre tail anthias and lawn mower blenny are all doing fine, no noticeable marks on their scales.
In the tank I have several turbos, about 30 left handed hermits, a brittle star, several feather dusters, a pink urchin, a cleaner shrimp, a tube anemone and a sand anemone. In addition there is some xenia, anthelia, and various zoos and playthoas. I am inclined to believe the tube anemone is at fault because of the very straight line nature of the marks on the fish, as if from a tentacle. In addition while getting the tank aquascaped the way we like the tube anemone was moved 3-4 times, all roughly in the same location, but sometimes more in the way of swimming paths to hiding spots. In addition the tube anemone does expand greatly at night, at least 8" from tip of one tentacle to tip of another. Since then the tube anemone has been moved to the sump. Here is a link to the post my wife made http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9341996#post9341996
It was mentioned that it could be caused by a parasite, and that might explain it, as they all went pretty quick, and closely following the addition of the sterilizer, implying it didn't have enough time to be effective yet, however the nature of the marks still has me leaning toward the tube anemone. So what do you guys think? If it was the tube anemone, anyone want a tube anemone? It was a parasite, how can I be sure it doesn't kill any future additions? Please help me before I kill any more innocent fish!!!!
Any insight or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
