Please Help Fish Dying

[tonytran]

I just brought home a fire fish last week along with 2 green chromis to put in my reef tank. Here are my tank parameters as of this morning:

Nitrate=0
Ammonia=o
Calc=420
Alk=13.1
Temp=81
SG=1.023

The firefish now has cloudy, puffy eyes and its fins are deteriorating. This also happened last month when i bought an anthias fish with the same symptoms and went on to kill about $300 in livestock. The green chromis seem to be doing fine the inverts are doing fine. Can anyone help with what might be causing this? Is there a reef safe treatment?

 

[tonytran]

Oh, and before i added the firefish and chromis, the tank sat empty only with liverock for about one month after all the fish died. Also, with the anthias, it killed all its tankmates within one week. So i am in a bit of a panic. Please help!

 

[ghostrida3]

are u able to seperate them to a qt tank? i havent heard of any reef safe treatments that are actually effective but i could be wrong.

 

[tonytran]

Too late. I came home today and the firefish was clinging to the overflow. Hope there wont be more victims. Pray for me!

 

[ghostrida3]

mos definantly. i had a clown die last night. but he was in the quarantine. which is a blessing. thats what the quarantines for.
not to preach to u but thats why i started a quarantine this time around. i was tired of getting a fish and it bringing in some parasite and killing all the other inhabitants. w/ a reef ur pretty much helpless and there is nothing u can do. u cant medicate. its hard to get the fish out due to all the rock. if all ur fish end up dying i would let the tank run for 6 weeks before adding anything else just so whatevers parasite or disease thats in there will die off.

 

[N8ster]

I lost a few fish I had in QT last month. I didn't catch the deteriorating fins soon enough.

My problem was flukes. If you lose another fish, or can catch one that is having problems, do a freshwater dip.

Aerate some RO water, add some ph buffer, and match the temperature to your tank. Put the fish in the water for 5-8 minutes (depending on whose instructions you read). If you have flukes, you will see them all dead floating at the bottom. They look like little clear or whitish scales. Use a clear dish, or one that black or another dark color.

 

[tonytran]

thanks ill keep this in mind if i see symptoms.