Is fish disease inevitable?

[SteveM10]

I have a 410 gal reef tank that has been up and running for just over two years. I have quarinteened every fish I have ever added to my DT. The last fish I added to the system was about 4 months ago. That fish was quarinteened and treated just like I have always done and it appeared very healthy with no signs of disease. All of my fish eat well and have always been healthy.

For the past few days I have had to work more than usual and have not had time to pay attention to the tank. My wife has had the fish feeding duties and everything has been normal. Today I woke up to find 2 fish had died, a kole tang and a clown fish. I then noticed that several fish appear to have ick.

I have around 25 fish in the tank and am now faced with the dilemma of what to do. I have a 40 gal QT tank but that will obviously not hold all my fish and I'm not even sure if I can get them all out.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? And what, if anything, can be done at this point?

 

[Dmorty217]

I have a 410 gal reef tank that has been up and running for just over two years. I have quarinteened every fish I have ever added to my DT. The last fish I added to the system was about 4 months ago. That fish was quarinteened and treated just like I have always done and it appeared very healthy with no signs of disease. All of my fish eat well and have always been healthy.

For the past few days I have had to work more than usual and have not had time to pay attention to the tank. My wife has had the fish feeding duties and everything has been normal. Today I woke up to find 2 fish had died, a kole tang and a clown fish. I then noticed that several fish appear to have ick.

I have around 25 fish in the tank and am now faced with the dilemma of what to do. I have a 40 gal QT tank but that will obviously not hold all my fish and I'm not even sure if I can get them all out.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? And what, if anything, can be done at this point?

I know your frustration, this recently happened to me from one mistake with a fish and ended up wiping out my livestock. Are you sure it's ich? Your options are extremely limited at this point. Taking all fish out and treating them while leaving the tank fallow for 73 days is the only option available to you really. Did you add any corals or anything else "wet" without QTing? Someone might suggest hypo as a solution but I would advise against it since it's the most difficult method in curing ich to accomplish.

 

[SteveM10]

I am not positive it is ich but it appears to be. I have added some corals lately but I dip and treat all of them prior to adding to my tank. Is it possible for a fish disease to be brought on on a coral? Most of what I have added lately has been LPS.

 

[emcmilla]

Based on that time frame it sounds more like brook or velvet....Ich doesn't kill fish that fast (usually)

 

[Newsmyrna80]

I am not positive it is ich but it appears to be. I have added some corals lately but I dip and treat all of them prior to adding to my tank. Is it possible for a fish disease to be brought on on a coral? Most of what I have added lately has been LPS.

Yes it is possible to bring in fish disease on a coral or anything that is wet.

 

[ThRoewer]

Based on that time frame it sounds more like brook or velvet....Ich doesn't kill fish that fast (usually)

I agree that Ich takes some time to ramp up to a level where it kills fish. You would see signs of it for quite some time before the first deaths occur.

Though I doubt it is velvet as it doesn't lay dormant for that long - just the opposite: it usually causes tank wipe-outs when being introduced into a system. Also it is hardly to be confused with Ich.

Brook is more likely as the slime the fish produce can look like ich nodules.
But it also would have to be introduced recently since it needs a host to survive.

Uronema marinum on the other hand is an opportunistic parasite that can be present in your system without showing for a long time. It usually feeds on detritus and bacteria. But if your fish get weakened by poor water quality or stress and have even the smallest wound it can infect them.

 

[SteveM10]

I am starting to doubt that it is ich. I have lost a few more fish today and a few more that I have not been able to find. I guess that at this point I have no option but to leave everything alone and see what happens. If I keep losing fish I might be able to get a few into my QT tank and try and treat them.

 

[ThRoewer]

How do the dead fish you find look like?
Any sores or white patches?

And how do the fish that are still alive look and behave?

 

[Paul B]

Is fish disease inevitable?

To answer that question, no, fish disease is not inevitable. Your fish should never get sick.

 

[Dmorty217]

Yes it is possible to bring in fish disease on a coral or anything that is wet.

This

 

[ThRoewer]

To answer that question, no, fish disease is not inevitable. ...

I can agree with this when it comes to Cryptocaryon, Amyloodinium, Brooklynella, flukes, intestinal worms ... all the things you can treat prophylactic and eradicate from your system.

... Your fish should never get sick.

But not with this.
There are too many things that can make your fish sick you can't treat prophylactic against.
And unless you only have tank raised fish that were always kept separate from wild caught and keep them in a sterile tank with nothing from the wild you never know what pathogens are either bottled up inside the fish or hide on the rocks.
There are always opportunistic ciliates, bacteria or the like present in a tank. It is impossible to get rid of them all.