Need help determining what's killing my fish.

[TomTheWicked]

So, my tank setup is about a month old (60G high, properly cycled) and I've had about 5 fish die.

The first fish I introduced were a maroon clown, a Firefish Goby, and a hippo tang (to the tang police: I had a plan for when it outgrows the tank.). Now, I asked repeatedly at the LFS if it was a good idea to introduce all three of these fish at the same time, and she emphasized it shouldn't be an issue because of the size tank I had (again, only 60G). I took her advice and left with all three fish.

The Hippo was at the LFS for about 3 days before I brought it home. It lasted in my tank for less than 24-hours before it died. I snapped a few pictures of it and sent them to the LFS to see if they could identify the issue. They said that it likely arrived that way, but would credit me if I wanted something else.



So, about a week later I went a picked up a B&W Sabae (sp?) clown which also lasted about 24 hours. This one didn't have have the spots but had a "velvet" type coating on it shortly after it died. Because of this, I was thinking that this fish died of Marine Velvet, pure speculation on my part, but the pics I've seen of other fish confirm it. This fish however, the LFS had for about 2 months before they sold it to me. Sorry, no pics of this one.

At this point, my Maroon clown and Firefish has been in the tank for about 3 weeks, no problems. Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate are all 0/0/0, but sometime the nitrate gets up to 3-5 ppm, still shouldn't be a problem though.

I waited about two weeks after the B&W clown died before I introduced any new fish. Wednesday, I went back to the LFS and picked up 3 Green Chromis. One died on Friday, and the other one died just now. Both looked like they had something eating at their scales, and this looks nothing like either thing disease that killed the other two. So essentially, I think I've had three different diseases kill 4 different fish.

EDIT: The one commonality between all of these fish dying was a rapid breathing for the last few hours. All of these symptoms (the spots and heavy breathing) come on rather quickly, and then the fish dies. By rather quickly, I'm talking about a 2-4 hours. I've taken the fish out of the tanks as soon as I start to see the symptoms, but it's always too late.

All of these fish were drip acclimated for 3-4 hours in a bucket and then temperature acclimated in bags for 45 minutes.

My Current readings:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
PH: 8.3
Temp: 79.4F

In the tank currently:
4 Turban snails
4 Astrea snails
2 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Sandsifting star
5 red dwarf hermits
Maroon Clown
Firefish Goby
Chromis
Diatoms everywhere (just started full-time lighting)

I know that strings of bad luck exist in this hobby, but I can't help but think it's something I've doing wrong. Hopefully I've given you all enough info to tell me what it is.

Thanks

 

[grcforce327]

Slow down!!! Shut the lights off,and start doing daily water changes.See if you can get someone to keep the fish. What is your "total" filtration setup?

 

[DownwardDawg]

Explain your acclimation process. It sounds way too long. When they're in the bucket, are they still in the bag? I can't help with disease because I'm battling a velvet outbreak right now myself, but my acclimation procees is a lot shorter than what you're doing. I float the bag for about 20 minutes in the sump to temperature acclimate, then I open the bag in a bowl or small bucket and start drip acclimating for about 20 minutes. Once you open that bag, ammonia starts rising and the clock is ticking.

 

[TomTheWicked]

My filtration is 50Lbs of Live Rock, and about 50Lbs or live sand. I have a 20G sump and a Reef Octopus 150 Skimmer. I have a GFO and carbon reactor, but it's not installed yet.

For acclimation, I empty the bags into a 5G bucket. I then start my drip into the bucket at about a 1/3-1/2G per hour. I do this over the course of a few hours, then put them back into the bags, rubber-band them closed, and then sit them in the DT for about 20-30 minutes and let them temperature acclimate. Once that's done, I open the bags and let the fish swim out on their own.

I was told by the LFS that this was a sure-fire method to keep the stress on the fish low. Is that the case?

 

[DownwardDawg]

My filtration is 50Lbs of Live Rock, and about 50Lbs or live sand. I have a 20G sump and a Reef Octopus 150 Skimmer. I have a GFO and carbon reactor, but it's not installed yet.

For acclimation, I empty the bags into a 5G bucket. I then start my drip into the bucket at about a 1/3-1/2G per hour. I do this over the course of a few hours, then put them back into the bags, rubber-band them closed, and then sit them in the DT for about 20-30 minutes and let them temperature acclimate. Once that's done, I open the bags and let the fish swim out on their own.

I was told by the LFS that this was a sure-fire method to keep the stress on the fish low. Is that the case?

I would float the bags 1st for 15 minutes and then start the drip. This is just my opinion though. I follow the acclimation guide from BlueZoo Aquatics pretty closely and I never lose fish due to acclimation. I don't drip acclimate quite as long as they reccomend, but that's the only thing I do differently. I drip acclimate 20-30 minutes and that's about it.

http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/acclimationguide.asp

 

[MrTuskfish]

Acclimation is pretty irrelevant if your tank has velvet.

Your original post said you had velvet. If that the case, that's the problem. Velvet is extremely contagious, deadly, and can kill within a day or so. If this was velvet, it still is. Velvet is in your system and will be there, killing most fish, as long as there are fish to kill. Acclimation wouldn't cause velvet, only velvet causes velvet. The only way to get rid of this parasite is to treat ALL fish with Cupramine (or other copper) in a HT/DT while the DT stays fishless for 6+ weeks. I'd go fishless for 10 weeks, that will kill any possible ich as well.

If you don't start quarantining all new fish; problems like velvet, will ruin the hobby for you.

 

[Mrscribbled]

Acclimation is pretty irrelevant if your tank has velvet.

Your original post said you had velvet. If that the case, that's the problem. Velvet is extremely contagious, deadly, and can kill within a day or so. If this was velvet, it still is. Velvet is in your system and will be there, killing most fish, as long as there are fish to kill. Acclimation wouldn't cause velvet, only velvet causes velvet. The only way to get rid of this parasite is to treat ALL fish with Cupramine (or other copper) in a HT/DT while the DT stays fishless for 6+ weeks. I'd go fishless for 10 weeks, that will kill any possible ich as well.

If you don't start quarantining all new fish; problems like velvet, will ruin the hobby for you.

I totally agree

 

[Painted skin]

For acclimation, I empty the bags into a 5G bucket. I then start my drip into the bucket at about a 1/3-1/2G per hour. I do this over the course of a few hours, then put them back into the bags, rubber-band them closed, and then sit them in the DT for about 20-30 minutes and let them temperature acclimate. Once that's done, I open the bags and let the fish swim out on their own.

I was told by the LFS that this was a sure-fire method to keep the stress on the fish low. Is that the case?

I just wanted to point out something about your acclimation process; you've got it backwards. If you are going to float the bag, it's normally done so prior to emptying into the bucket. Drip acclimating for that period of time not only you're acclimating to the water parameter, but you're also acclimating to temp you do not need to float the bag. You can if you want to, but do it prior to dripping doing it after defeat the purpose and it's an extra waist of time step. Also if are putting them back into the bag which has LFS water mixed in it, who knows what pathogen you maybe adding into your system. Rule of thumb never use LFS water that comes in the bag or even mix with it.

If your LFS told you that I would second guess what they tell you in the future.