Help!! White powdery looking spots?

I have been doing this for 30 years plus and I'm stumped for the first time. I have been lucky with avoiding illnesses and ich. So here's the deal.
70 gallon tank
4 months old
Water tests perfect
Had a fish kill over night. None were sick that evening. So it was fast moving. Killed 6 bala sharks,1 red tail shark. The other fish are still fine 3 days later. 6 dojo loaches, 1 cory cat, 1 pleco, 1 killifish, 1 lace catfish, 4 tiger barbs. White spots on the dead fish. But not while they were alive. Looks almost like a white powder on them. So it may be bacterial or viral rather then parasites. Only killed the fish in the same family. BALA AND RED TAIL SHARKS(I'm assuming that). Any idea on what causes this and how it could be avoided moving forward. Do I treat the remaining fish? None are sick. If yes, with what? Dojo loaches are not too good with medication. So i was reluctant to treat. I cant raise the temperature either. 72 is max. Any thoughts, ideas,opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this.....I will update soon. I Do have the other retail in quarantine. He is acting normal. But does have the spots. I will attach pictures.

 

I have been doing this for 30 years plus and I'm stumped for the first time. I have been lucky with avoiding illnesses and ich. So here's the deal.
70 gallon tank
4 months old
Water tests perfect
Had a fish kill over night. None were sick that evening. So it was fast moving. Killed 6 bala sharks,1 red tail shark. The other fish are still fine 3 days later. 6 dojo loaches, 1 cory cat, 1 pleco, 1 killifish, 1 lace catfish, 4 tiger barbs. White spots on the dead fish. But not while they were alive. Looks almost like a white powder on them. So it may be bacterial or viral rather then parasites. Only killed the fish in the same family. BALA AND RED TAIL SHARKS(I'm assuming that). Any idea on what causes this and how it could be avoided moving forward. Do I treat the remaining fish? None are sick. If yes, with what? Dojo loaches are not too good with medication. So i was reluctant to treat. I cant raise the temperature either. 72 is max. Any thoughts, ideas,opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this.....I will update soon. I Do have the other retail in quarantine. He is acting normal. But does have the spots. I will attach pictures.

Looks like ich, if you can't raise it, I would get a different heater. I would also add medications or salt.

 

Looks like ich, if you can't raise it, I would get a different heater. I would also add medications or salt.

Dojo Loaches are a cold water fish. The higher it is. The shorter their lifespan. So as for now I'm treating the sick fish in a seperate tank. For whatever reason it appears to only make the sharks sick. Today is day 4. And no other fish show symptoms. If the dojos start to get sick I will raise it. They can tolerate it for a short period of time. I would rather shorten their life span then watch them die a miserable death. It killed the bala sharks in under 8 hours. That's fast. Especially for such a hardy fish. Thanks for the advice...do you know of an illness that's species specific? In my experience ich doesn't care what kind of fish they are. That's what got me stumped. 7 dead sharks. And not one other fish is sick. Looks like ich to me too...

 

I cant believe ich killed 2 fish overnight with no signs that day. Absolutely crazy. I would wait for more opinions before doing anything else.

 

I cant believe ich killed 2 fish overnight with no signs that day. Absolutely crazy. I would wait for more opinions before doing anything else.

Killed them in less than 8 hours. Thats another reason I'm hesitant to diagnose ich. Ich kills fish in 5-7 days. The Bala sharks were eating and fine when i went to bed. Woke up to all 6 dead, one red tail, and one sick red tail with spots. Who is in quarantine and doing a bit better today with ich treatment. I have 9 tanks, 37 years of experience and a degree in freshwater fish. And this one has got me puzzled. I have never had anything attack one species of fish like this. And this fast. Its heartbreaking and i fear it will spread to the other fish at some point. Odds are against that. No chance it randomly picked the sharks. My guess its a bacterial infection that only effects bala sharks and other fish in that family. We will see. Parasites attack everyone. Its the only explanation that I can come up with.

 

Killed them in less than 8 hours. Thats another reason I'm hesitant to diagnose ich. Ich kills fish in 5-7 days. The Bala sharks were eating and fine when i went to bed. Woke up to all 6 dead, one red tail, and one sick red tail with spots. Who is in quarantine and doing a bit better today with ich treatment. I have 9 tanks, 37 years of experience and a degree in freshwater fish. And this one has got me puzzled. I have never had anything attack one species of fish like this. And this fast. Its heartbreaking and i fear it will spread to the other fish at some point. Odds are against that. No chance it randomly picked the sharks. My guess its a bacterial infection that only effects bala sharks and other fish in that family. We will see. Parasites attack everyone. Its the only explanation that I can come up with.

I've only been doing it for 5 months but still have never heard of ich doing this. id say its a bacterial disease that attacks only bala sharks as well

 

The shark sure looks like ich. The other photo looks like something eating away at the fins. Possibly a secondary infection.

The white spots you can see are just one small part of the life cycle of ich. Once you see white spots, your entire tank has been infested for some time. Ich tends to attack the gills first, meaning you might not see it for several days. Most of the life cycle is invisible.

You say none of your fish are sick and everything's perfect. I really think that's not the case. I've never heard of fish being perfectly healthy then dead overnight from a disease. You said you have a fish in quarantine that does have spots. That would also support a diagnosis of ich.

What are your actual test readings?

 

I've only been doing it for 5 months but still have never heard of ich doing this. id say its a bacterial disease that attacks only bala sharks as well

Update:

Tiger Barb has spots now. So i have decided to treat the 70 gallon with a half dose of life guard(parasite,viral,or bacterial. . This way it won't be too much for the scale less dojo loaches. This will cover every possible thing. I cant sit back and do nothing. I'm going to hold off on the temp. raise at the moment. If anything it will be a good preventative maneuver against ich.. thanks for responding. I'll update tommorow on progress. Maybe we can learn something from this disaster. As long as my Golden Dojo Loaches make it through. I will view it as a win. All 6 are still fine.

 

I hope you save the remaining fish. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I'm 90% sure that is not ick. The dots are clumpy and not uniformed. There is another disease that looks similar to ick but is much more deadly but i can't recall the name. Vaguely I think it was Cody who mentioned it in another thread.

 

If read and look at the pictures it’s compares pictures of ich and epistylis. What makes this looks similar to Epistylis is that it doesn’t appear to cover the fishes head but it does the rest of the body. Which is a common difference.

 

Update:

Tiger Barb has spots now. So i have decided to treat the 70 gallon with a half dose of life guard(parasite,viral,or bacterial. . This way it won't be too much for the scale less dojo loaches. This will cover every possible thing. I cant sit back and do nothing. I'm going to hold off on the temp. raise at the moment. If anything it will be a good preventative maneuver against ich.. thanks for responding. I'll update tommorow on progress. Maybe we can learn something from this disaster. As long as my Golden Dojo Loaches make it through. I will view it as a win. All 6 are still fine.

columnaris is the diagnosis. Which would explain why the red tail shark has ick too. The tiger barbs look faded now. Attacks their scales leaving them open to ick. I will begin treatment. But it may be too late for most of them. Everyone took a turn for the worse.

 

It isn't ick.

columnaris is the diagnosis. Which would explain why the red tail shark has ick too. The tiger barbs look faded now. Attacks their scales leaving them open to ick. I will begin treatment. But it may be too late for most of them. Everyone took a turn for the worse.

 

If read and look at the pictures it’s compares pictures of ich and epistylis. What makes this looks similar to Epistylis is that it doesn’t appear to cover the fishes head but it does the rest of the body. Which is a common difference.

Wow this is what happened to my angelfish in the shipment with aeromonas bacteria. Tx for that, now I know what it was.

Def looks like Epistylis on the shark too, no question and would make sense if it was a secondary infection since the other sharks look to have something bacterial going on. And something really quick moving like columnaris or aeromonas.

 

columnaris is the diagnosis. Which would explain why the red tail shark has ick too. The tiger barbs look faded now. Attacks their scales leaving them open to ick. I will begin treatment. But it may be too late for most of them. Everyone took a turn for the worse.

Look at what Cody put. That definitely seems to be what's going on. And columnaris may be a secondary infection aswell.

 

Look at what Cody put. That definitely seems to be what's going on. And columnaris may be a secondary infection aswell.

Or the other way around......

 

Or the other way around......

Yeah columnaris isn't something to play with. Depending on the strain it can wipe your fish out overnight or it will take up to a month.

 

Look at what Cody put. That definitely seems to be what's going on. And columnaris may be a secondary infection aswell.

They all died. All 9 tanks. Every fish I own. I didnt even get a chance to treat. They died within hours. I dont mix nets or algae scrapers. I spend hours daily making sure everything is perfect. This is completely unfair and just ended my 33 years of collecting. I'm selling everything and quitting. Maybe I'll get a cat. I cant handle this. They were the only thing that made me happy. I'm devastated. I have never seen a more brutal infection in my life. These fish were fine hours ago. They are completely white and look like they have been dead for days. Whatever it was I pray no one else ever has to deal with it. Because mortality rate is near 100%. It didn't harm my cory cats. And my betta is OK too. But she is in a 10 gallon with a couple bottom feeders. I have 4 or 5 fish left out of more than 120. And I'm sure they will be dead by morning. I dont have any idea how it spread from tank to tank. Must be in our water supply. Nothing else makes sense. Water tests perfectly for everything. I didnt even bring in new fish. It was completely random.

 

Thats insane. Did you suspect that the other tanks had the disease or did they just out of the blue develope spots and die? I'm sorry I can't believe something that terrible happened.

 

Once again I'm honestly sorry. That's like losing a part of your self, especially for how long you have been doing it. I hope you find joy in whatever else you pursue.

 

DoubleDutch what do you think of this? You seem to know a lot about diseases.

 

DoubleDutch what do you think of this? You seem to know a lot about diseases.

The only thing I do know it is not Ich, somraising the temp isn't a good idea indeed.

Doubting what it is. Looks a bit like Trichodina but expected reddish spots after some time. The other fish show signs that could be Saprolegnia to me.

Could you place some more pics OP?

Not sure I can wrap my mind around it.

 

The only thing I do know it is not Ich, somraising the temp isn't a good idea indeed.

Doubting what it is. Looks a bit like Trichodina but expected reddish spots after some time. The other fish show signs that could be Saprolegnia to me.

Could you place some more pics OP?

Not sure I can wrap my mind around it.

Its weird that it killed all the fish in every tank even though he didn't share anything between them, and the rate at which it killed all the fish.

 

Its weird that it killed all the fish in every tank even though he didn't share anything between them, and the rate at which it killed all the fish.

Agree. Maybe it travelled on the hands.