Mystery illness - chromis and tang

tippmannsniper

New member
I am in a bit of a tough spot and would like a fresh set of eyes to solve an irritating problem.

Situation: Over the past two months or so, I have lost three blue/green reef chromis and one small blue hippo tang. Each went through the same progression prior to death. They have died a couple weeks apart with only a 48-72 hour lead time at each death where any changes were observed. The only consistent behavioral change I have noticed is that they become increasingly antisocial and disinterested in food as the window passes. However, there are no visible signs of illness over that span leading up to death. No gill inflammation, no ich, no algae spike, no electrical surges, no bulging eyes, no open sores, etc. I feed a variety of flake, pellet, mysis, and sheet veggie products. Can provide the specifics if helpful. All tank inhabitants generally eat all products, if they get to them in time.

Hardware: 150 gallon system, 65 gallon display tank, one frag tank, one isolation tank, one refugium in sump. Lighting is LED, minus the fuge. For filtration I'm running a Bermuda PS, carbon in a phosban reactor, caulerpa in the fuge, couple filter socks in returns. For flow I have a mag return pump, korallias, and MJ1200s in the smaller tanks. APEX w/ fusion keeping it all on point. All lighting and flow calculations are reasonable. Tank turns over 5-6 times/hr minimum.

Livestock: 2 chromis, 2 clowns, 1 small yellow tang, 1 potters angel, assortment of crabs and snails, including a cleaner shrimp and an emerald crab.

Testing results: I just ran a full suite of tests and nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, and ammonia are all zero. Temp, ph, and orp are shown below, though no anomalies have been witnessed over the previous two months. Note: orp is a bit lower than normal as a chromosome died with 6 hours ago. Cleanup crew made quick work of it. All that I found was a spine.


ANY THOUGHTS? Again, please feel free to request any additional info that will help in troubleshooting this one.

Thank you in advance.
 

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Mortality and behavior are consistent with velvet. However, since a chromis was involved, uronema marinum is a consideration.
 
+1
Sounds like a textbook case of velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum).

Do you quarantine your fish for at least 6 to 8 weeks before adding them to the display?

Assume the rest of the fish are infected. You will have to catch them all ASAP and treat them in an appropriately sized hospital tank.
The medication of choice against velvet is Chloroquine Phosphate (you find it at Amazon: New Life Spectrum Ick-Shield Powder)

The tank has to stay without fish for a minimum of 6 weeks to let the parasite die out.

The best preventive measure for new fish is a formalin bath upon arrival and then 2 months of quarantine.
 
Oh, and pray it isn't Uronema marinum - the only thing that gets that out of your tank is a bottle of bleach.
 
Thank you for the insight. Velvet was on my list of potentials, but I haven't seen it present with no detectable blemishes or discorloration on the eyes or sides of the fish. Is this a common trait in you experience?

Purchase and acclimation procedure.. Try to be picky with the LFSs but thats not likely worth much. I do an initial dip and isolation for 2-4 weeks depending on what is being brought in. The tank doubles as a frag or isolation that can be shut off for a QT. All fish went through that process and showed no signs of illness or distress. All fish ate all food listed above.

It may be velvet, but worth asking if the above influences anything..?

Thanks again.
 
Purchase and acclimation procedure.. Try to be picky with the LFSs but thats not likely worth much. I do an initial dip and isolation for 2-4 weeks depending on what is being brought in.
Thanks again.

Dip with what? Quarantine needs to be a minimum of five weeks.
 
Sick Fish

Sick Fish

Can anyone help me figure out whats wrong with this fish? I just purchased a setup from someone that was not putting in the work to keep it up. So it was in bad shape. I put the fish in a 30G until the 110 is back up. This fish i think is a tang? Has two spots on the tail that look like cracked skin but it is on both sides. What is it and what can I do to treat it? Any help would be great.

Thanks
 

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It's a Naso and the white spots on the tail are normal to them. They are defensive/offensive weapons that can be sharp as scalpels.
 
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