Mysterious Illness in My tank

[equinecpa]

09/18/09

Ok I need help. I recently acquired 2 beautiful Heniochus bannerfish. To be precise 08/26- I received them from an online vendor and they were beautiful-albeit a bit larger than I had expected ( I ordered small and each fishes body was approximately 4" long).

They have been eating very well. I feed them krill, mysis, Ocean Nutrition flake, Spectrum Thera A pellets and Mega Marine Algae and some peas. I usually feed 2x a day, about a cube per day.

Last night I observed the smaller of the 2 heniochus acting reclusive, and looked a little thin (despite eating well). I also had noticed that their dorsal fins had blotchy marking on it (would appear that they had lost some of the white pigment in those areas and it was turning translucent) This am I couldn't see the smaller heniochu swimming but did see the larger one swimming in its normal space but rather tipsy looking. 30 minutes later when actinics came on the larger fish was down and I could see the other had died. I quickly hauled the larger fish out figuring some parameter must be way out and stuck it into a qt tank I have on hand. It has since died.

Other tank mates: 2 false percs, 1 small blue hippo and a red scooter blenny and assorted snails, cleaner shrimp, RBTA and assorted softie corals. All of the listed fauna have been in the aquarium for at least 6 months or more with the exception of the scooter who was added in June.

Tank Specs: 90 Gallon, Euroreef 6-2 skimmer, lots of live rock, mag 12, T5 lighting

Water test today:
Ammonia=0
PH=8.28
Temp: 81 (usually reads about a degree high) so prob 80
Alk-8.6
Nirates-this I'm having trouble with and MAY be the culprit. My first test (Salifert) read next to nothing. I doubted that so went to another test kit I have and it shows Dark Orange which is betweem 25-50 (test kit has orange at 25, red for 50, mine is dark orange between the two)

I know butterflies don't care for Nitrates but what are the chances of them dying at the same time from Nitrates, and would this really be enough to kill them? I'm going to see if I have any other Nitrate test kits around just to see if I can nail it down. I'm not close to an LFS so getting it tested today is not an option.

This really is distressing me. What else that I haven't tested for could kill these fish overnight? I'm going to email the online vendor to see if they have had any similar incidents. I should mention the rest of the tank looks happy as can be this morning -nothing else is showing any kind of distress. I am so puzzled. I should mention I have had a history of losing fish after about a month in this tank for a while now...I need to figure this out or I might just thow in the towel. My 90 looks so empty with just 3 swimming fish!

09/20/09
I just observed a clownfish that I've had for 2 years is looking awful. Cobwebby strings hanging from its body? It looks like a fungus. One eye is partially cloudy. Fish is acting odd. Didn't eat tonight...I'm researching wildly but don't know what this is.

09/21/09
The clown died. I can see spots on my 3 remaining fish -they look like ich but on the clown that died it was definitely not ich-so I'm thinking this is the beginning of whatever these other fish had.

I fw dipped the one fish I was able to catch this morning -my male clownfish. This was in the dip water afterwards - it looks like a flatworm? There was more than one - maybe flukes?

Here is a picture of the dead clown. Note that the white spots on this clown is sand sticking to the mucousy fungus and not the fungus itself.

Whatever this disease is - it is striking fast and with a vengeance. Any thoughts suggestions? I have the clown in a qt and would like to get the remaining 2 fish out. I'm thinking I may treat the tank with prazipro in case this is flukes but I'm thinking it is progressing too quickly for flukes...this is killing me.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

I don't know for sure what the problem is, but I'll throw out some ideas and hope that one helps.

All of the flukes that I have seen come off of fish in dips are symmetrical with regular/smoothish edges. The description and photo of the clown makes me think brooklynella. However, I'm not sure your description of the bannerfish deaths matches that. Flukes don't kill very quickly to my knowledge, but you had the bannerfish for almost a month and that could be long enough. The could have been infected with flukes when you got them and it simply took a while to overwhelm them. I wouldn't expect them to both go at the same time like that though. And all of your fish went from seeming fine to sick quickly and then died within 48 hours of symptoms. Both of those things brings me back to something that kills quickly, like brook or amyloodinium.

I don't know which of your test kits is accurate, but I would not expect 25-50 ppm nitrates to kill those fish, particularly not that quickly.

Based on the timeline, I think you would have had to add something more recently than 08/26 that was infected. Have you added anything else to the tank, fish or otherwise?

The mucous on the clown does not look like fungus to me, but just mucous. I would not suspect a fungal infection based on the symptoms and the fact that fungal infections are quite uncommonin marine tanks. I have not seen that much mucous from fish infected with flukes, but I'm not an expert by any means.

If I were you, I would try to find a photo of something that matches the photo you took after the dip. Maybe try posting it in the 'Other Invertebrates' forum here on RC. There are some people who post there that are good at ID's. Whatever the blob is, it could be your culprit.

Maybe look here for some info on other diseases:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/disease.html

And if you haven't checked in this thread yet, its a good one:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1260067

 

[equinecpa]

Thanks for the links..I"ll check them all out...I lost the clown's mate last night. Only fish remaining are my blue hippo and scooter blenny. I got the blue hippo out last night and have it in copper. It looks OK today. I'd like to find the blenny but in all that rock it's tough - I keep checking sooner or later I'll find him (and if I don't I'll guess he's passed) I'm guessing marine velvet but am wondering why it took so long to incubate? I haven't added a think to the tank since 08/26. The tank will now stand empty for at least 90 days to let whatever it is die off. I'm just hoping that's enough and that I can save this tang. This is an aquarist's worse nightmare.