What's killing my fish????

phantomg

New member
Help!! I just recently upgraded my tank from a 55g to a 100g with a 20g sump. I changed my lights from T5 to LED's. My parameters have been good across the board and my salinity is 1.25. I bought a few chromis and noticed one had a dark band running vertically down it. Didn't see it again after a day. Then my yellow tang had some king of ulcer on it that quickly spread and killed it by the next day. Since then, in a period of a couple of weeks, I have lost a Japanese Swallowtail, a bi-color angel, a coral beauty and a lawnmower blenny. I'm quickly running out of fish. I did find the Japanese Swallowtail and bi-color angel dead and didn't notice any of the discoloration or anything like the yellow tang. The other fish have just disappeared without a trace. I've looked on the floor and all over the tank. I purchased the bi-color angel recently along with some additional live rock. The coral beauty did not like him at all. I thought maybe the bi-color was killed by the coral beauty. But after the bi-color, then went the swallowtail, followed by the lawnmower blenny and most recently my coral beauty. I am thinking I may have got a hitchhiker with the rock I purchased. If that could be it, any ideas on what I should be looking for? I pulled out some rock and found several serpent stars. None looked big enough to kill my fish but I suppose it's possible. Not sure if they are bad to begin with. Any ideas please??
 
Did you let the tank cycle or check for ammonia and nitrite levels? You may have just rushed the upgrade and caused a cycle and the ammonia would kill the fish. You aren't finding the bodies because your clean up crew is doing a good job most likely. Plus lawnmower blennies are hard to find in general so I'm not surprised about you not finding that one.
 
My levels have been good. I should also mention that my corals still look healthy. I have not noticed them showing any ill signs though I don't know if a temporary spike would affect them. When I upgraded by tank I used my old water and rock, with additional water of course but I've been monitoring the ammonia and nitrates/nitrites and haven't seen any spikes.
 
Google uronema marinum. I'm not very knowledgeable on diseases, but I think chromis are prone to it, it causes blotches or sores, and it kills pretty quickly and can live in the tank for a while. I hope that's not it though.
 
Thanks, I actually across the uronema marinum yesterday when I was searching around about fish and thought that may be it too. I guess the CUC could be working fast but that seems really fast, here today, gone tomorrow. But it could be.
 
Please report numerical results on parameters. Good and not-good can be defined by very small differences.
 
I take my water to have it tested at LFS and I was told 0 ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Being a color blind makes it a little difficult to read the tests myself but I may have to figure out a way that I can do it more often.
 
... Being a color blind makes it a little difficult to read the tests myself but I may have to figure out a way that I can do it more often.

I've seen a few threads where people have good ways to work around that. I think it's like a free phone app where the camera registers a number for diff colors, and you use your phone cam to pic the color card for the test, and your sample. Then just compare numbers. I think if you search for colorblind reefer it won't be too hard to figure out. Also, there are checkers that give a digital number, and tests that change hue at a certain level rather than needing to match a sample. There's quite a few color blind folks in the hobby, maybe one good thing about having so many boys around :)
 
Thanks CStrickland. As for CUC, I have some snails and a couple of peppermint shrimp. That's about it at this time. I need to bolster my CUC but considering that is all I have, you would think I would find more. Unless they dragged in some holes in the rocks are under/behind them and I just can't find them.
 
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