Unexplained fish death

ReefPharmer

Active member
So I consider myself a semi experienced fish keeper. I have a 300 sps tang reef with little to no fish issues for quite a few years.

I qt via ttm w prazi. In the last two weeks I have lost more fish than I have in the previous 4 years

The basic gist is I qt in a 10g w pvc / heater and recently a bubbler (instead of a powerhead) using tap water and Prime water conditioner. It's basically the same thing Ive been doing for 10 years. Fish in qt were 3 smaller angels about 3 inches each. No agression. At the 14 hour mark angel 1 died w heavy breathing being the only symptom. 24 hour mark, angel 2 died the same way and at 36 hour mark angel 3 is looking like he is gonna die.
The water tested 0 ammonia , 0 nitrite. Fish are active before death. Fish do not gasp at the top of the tank for air. No ich, or other damage seen on fish. All fish came through a store from the same wholesale place (bought them in bags of wholesale so didn't touch LfS water.

I qt by mixing fresh water and adding prime x2-3 dosage. I thought maybe something wrong w the air pump so I went back to powerhead, still dying. Fish go from alive and fine to struggling in a few hours and to dead in 4-5 hours after that.

I am at a complete loss. I'm thinking maybe prime was explored so I opened a new bottle. Still dead. Between death 1 and 2, I moved the fish into a fresh new tank of water, thinking maybe there was something in the water. No, still dead.
 
Unexplained fish death

What's the salinity? For them to die that fast there must be something with the water. Flukes don't kill that fast. Only thing that does is like velvet.

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I have been seeing a ton of velvet lately. Recently watched a friend lose 16 fish in a matter of days. Healthy one moment dead the next. Some showed symptoms but a lot of them did not. They ate in the morning and were dead by lunch.
It would not surprise me to find out certain times of year are more likely to produce parasite heavy fish. In our closed systems those loads can only be devastating.
 
I never dealt w velvet but the fish show no symptoms at all other than heavy breathing. When I googled velvet, the pics have a fine dust like appearance which is not what I have.
 
I don't think it shows up very visibly on certain fish.. I could see it better on my naso tang but couldn't see it at all on my queen angel. But the behavior was consistent. It completely wiped my tank out last summer and was the most devastating experience in my 8 years in the hobby.

Are they swimming towards the powerhead at all? Not all fish did this, some were fine until they suddenly started acting shy and then would be breathing hard and then dead within an amazingly short time frame. Velvet also would not be treated with ttm or prazi.
 
I do the same exact thing as you when it comes to QT. It sounds like you're dealing with something that kills quick, like some other people said, velvet.
 
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