what is this?

Really hard to tell from the pictures what the cause of death was. Can you provide more details on these fish, e.g. behavior, when added, quarantine process etc.?
 
Personally, I'm really distracted by the holiday card option to the lower right with the dead Hippo picture.

Moving forward, details will help solve this. Were there symptoms prior to death? Recently added fish? etc. etc.
 
They were both QT'd about a month ago they both got ich but that was expected and I copper treated and the ich ich was gone and then I moved them to my DT 6'x2'. They were in there for about 3 months the only new fish I added were some chromis that I only QT'd for a week since they looked good and were eating well but after moving them to the DT they started to die one by one and they had red vertical wounds on their sides. 2-3 days after the last chromis died my Achilles and hippo both didn't want to eat anymore and then a few days later they died. The only other fish that were in the tank with them was a red tail trigger and yellow tang. I never witnessed any aggression from anyone.
 
They were both QT'd about a month ago they both got ich but that was expected and I copper treated and the ich ich was gone and then I moved them to my DT 6'x2'. They were in there for about 3 months the only new fish I added were some chromis that I only QT'd for a week since they looked good and were eating well but after moving them to the DT they started to die one by one and they had red vertical wounds on their sides. 2-3 days after the last chromis died my Achilles and hippo both didn't want to eat anymore and then a few days later they died. The only other fish that were in the tank with them was a red tail trigger and yellow tang. I never witnessed any aggression from anyone.

How long were the fish treated with copper? Which type? What level? My guess based on the limited information presented is uronema marinum.
 
I used cupramine for about a week at .5ppm.
If it is uronema marinum why isn't it affecting my trigger or yellow tang? Also how should I treat it so far I've done two 50% water changes and I'm adding paraguard to my tank.
 
For some reason I can't copy/paste into this reply box, I'm trying to provide links to more information. If you go to the top of the fish disease forum, click on the Fish Parasites sticky, then Brooklynella hostilis and Uronema marinum, there you will find all the info you need on Uronema. It is a serious problem in your display because it doesn't require a fish host as part of its life cycle, therefore, pulling all fish will not cause the parasite to die off. Paraguard will not help, the best course of action is to pull the remaining fish, treat them appropriately in quarantine and bleach your tank. Some have suggested to remove all inverts and treat the tank with chloroquine phosphate, but I'm not sure how you would then treat the inverts, basically you can't. It's a terrible parasite in a reef tank, always quarantine for at least 10 weeks to allow symptoms of such disease to become present.

Also, there's another current Uronema thread, Wound(?) on Side of Butterfly, please reference the pictures of the saddleback butterflyfish's infection to help confirm the diagnosis.

It may take some fish a bit longer to succumb to the disease, hence the reason you have a couple seemingly unaffected fish.
 
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Is there anything else it could possibly be? I don't want to nuke my tank unless it's 100% uronema. Also I my tank is fish only so could I just treat the DT?
 
Without doing a skin or gill scrape there is no way to make a guaranteed diagnosis. Uronema had been known for being a predominantly Chromis disease but of late it is showing up more in other species of fish. The thread Sarah refers to is concerning uronema and the aquarist treated with Metro. He's used it before with success. Providing you don't have inverts you could dose the display. I wouldn't do it but it could be done.
 
I have a cleaner shrimp and chocolate chip starfish. Is metronidazole a one time treatment or do I need to dose daily? Also how do I know if it worked considering my current fish aren't showing and symptoms?
 
Is fish zole the only non prescription form of Metronidazole? If so will fish sole work? If not what else can I get?
 
I see two different Metronidazole products from seachem one is metroplex the other is just called Metronidazole is there a difference between them?
 
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