marlow1008

OK, after the shock of all of my fish passing last week, I am now focussed on what the heck happened. It is a 90 gallon tank and is right at a year old. Everything has always been good beside minor ICH problems with the Powder blue tang (expected). So, last Wednesday notice my Flame was pale (not bright orange as usaual). I gave the good food (Angel Frozen mix) that day and Thursday. Woke up Friday he was dead. All the others loked fine. Saturday morning I went to feed and my Emporer wasn't grunting at me and wasn't the first to the front. He was dead behind a rock. 6 Hours later my power Blue was struggling. I tride to put her in mt QT and that didn't work. Sunday my clown and BW stripe Damsel went.
Note, I recently added hermit crabs in (about a week ago). They are fine along with my cleaner Wrasse.
I did test my water and verything looks fine. NO spikes in anything even with deaths.
Questions
1. What disease, virus, anything can wipe a tank out like this?
2. Should I drain and start over? I guess, what would be the best way to start over? Could whatever it may have been live in my live rock? Could it live in my crushed Coral?
I did see Ich spots on the Powder Blue Tang the day after I added the crabs, but that was typical of her. Usually a few good days of feeding ans she was back to good. Open to any and all knowledge here. I am not giving up, just want to be better for the next set of fish.

agsansoo

Did you check for flukes ? Flukes are so common.

sirdarksol

Okay, I don't know much about saltwater, so I can't go into specifics, but I can make an observation or two that may help point you in the right direction.

You say that you had some minor ich problems. Ich doesn't generally bother fish unless something is stressing them. It may be another illness (the flukes that agsansoo mentioned are a possibility), or it could be something environmental, like high nitrates, the wrong temperature, excessively hard water, that kind of thing. I'm not saying you've got all, or even any of these things in your tank, but it's a good idea to go over everything and see if you can find any sort of anomaly that could have weakened the fishes' immune systems.

marlow1008

Nitrates and everything checked out fine. I used RO water. So, I really do not feel I had a water issue. I am not aware of Flukes. I will have to do a little esearch on that. These fish have been in the tank a minumum of 6 months. I usually did 15% water chances over other week, or at least 20 gallons a months. The PB Tang wouls show Ich if I added anything, did a water change, or once time I have a bad thermometer. That is just the nature of that fish. It has been tagge the "Ich Magnet" and it earned it. None of my other fish showed Ich except for the one temperature issue. I am just looking for any knowledge so when I go to repopulate the tank, I will not run into this again. So, thanks for the input and thanks for any future input.

sirdarksol

Well then, you're thinking along the same lines that I am (analyzing everything), and are a few steps ahead of me, so I've got nothing more to add.

defcon11

I'm also kind of new to SW, but I've heard that you should leave the tank empty for a couple of weeks, that will allow the parasites to go through it's life cycle. I'm not sure if inverts like crabs carry ich, anyone?

agsansoo

Ich is an obligate parasite...without a fish host it cannot complete its life cycle.

agsansoo

The symptoms for Flukes are:

1) Fish twitching the head side to side once in a while like if wanted to shake something off his head.

2) Discolored blotches of skin (Most people think this is velvet or some bacterial infection and misdiagnose it with antibiotics)

3) Frayed fins or tail.

4) Sudden loss of appetite. Fish was fine yesterday but today it’s not eating at all.

5) Cloudy eye(s)

6) Rapid breathing

Do any of these apply ?

marlow1008

Yes, I really didn't notice them not eating until it was too late. The day before they all ate. I am just going to turn the heat up, get new filters and let it unr for a month. Then I will drop a damsel in there and see what happens. I don't know what else to do. I don't want my live rock to die. I didn't recognize any heavy breathing or abnormal swimming. I did notice on the face of the Emporer (about a month ago) that it was discolored, but it looked more like he was changing than a virus/disease. Like I said, the flame appeared to be a little sick, four days later my tank empty besides hermit crab and a cleaner wrasse (which is doing great), plus I can't catch him to put in my Nano.

chocolatechip

so...just asking how do you get rid of flukes if any(or all) of your fish has it?

cerianthus

Do you happened to have deep sand bed? or Had massive slime algae build up recently? Did the fish died all at the same time?

Yes, PB Tang or generally Tang are more prone to Crytocarryon irritans (Marine Ick).
But from my experiences, never had all fish go like that at the same time or w/i short period when tank was well-established even with tankful of Tangs..

I did have incident where DSB had caused a problem to all fish, pretty much over night.
I am guessing toxic gas from the DSB or even from slime algae.
Sorry for all the questions but need more inputs before can assist more in order to prevent such unfortunate losses in the future.

I am positive that your tank is/was well established but does not hurt to test when such thing takes place to eliminate unnecessary guessing.

Oh, one more thing, Did you happened to paint the room or did some kind of spraying?

Personally, i'll never breakdown well-established tank unless toxic substances was accidently added.

Will be waiting for your reply.

Cerianthus

Beeker

How do you take water out and put it back in when you do your water changes?
I had a similar problem once. I found that it was caused by filling my tank with the hose I use to take the old water out. There was a bacteria build up in the hose and I was putting it into my tank when I put new water in.
Now, I use one hose to take the water out, and a different hose to put the water back in. No problems since.

cerianthus

I never had that happened to me. But want to be safe, run tap water thru the hose or soak it in hot water will sterilize.

caseyholland

I dont know for sure. there are already alot of good suggestions. One thing I might add is the possibility of external chemicals contaminating the water. My buddy had it happen to his aquarium after using silicones and epoxy in the same room to repair a stereo, and some how it contaminated his water and everything but a couple corals were dead the next day. Its still recovering after a couple months.

Matt

I am sooo devistated to hear about your fish

Poor fishies and you.

I Hope You Find What The Problem Is

Sorry I Cant Be Of More Assistance