Help please!!!!!

F

ferni

Member
I have a 90 gallon reef tank with a sailfin tang, blue hippo, yellow tang, powder blue tang, 2 engineer gobies, 2 clowns, and 5 chromis. I had the 2 clowns and a dottyback (died today) for a week in the new 90 before i put in the gobies tangs and chromis. I had the clowns and dottyback in my 28 gallon for over 2 months. Two days ago I noticed my orchid dottyback had a bilge in his stomach area and thought it was normal because he was eating like CRAZY and was very active. It kept getting bigger and bigger and this morning it had raptured his skin and he died :(. I noticed that one of the chromis has an open sore in the fin area and part of his tail is "eaten away". I got the tangs gobies and chromis on last wednesday and I picked up a huge elegance coral last Saturday. 3 days ago when my clowns started sleeping in the elegance (so cute!) i noticed an open wound by the fin of the female clown. It was deep and looked as if it was a cut from brushing on a rock or something. Its healed a lot on its own but I noticed the male a couple days ago lost some of its coloration in the same area as the female but as of today it hasnt gotten worse. The chromis and the two clowns are acting completely normal and are eating like crazy. I have NO idea whats going on and I don't want this to progress and infect other fish if its bacterial. My 4 tangs area doing amazing and eating like beasts( romaine lettuce, mysis, and pellets) all my fish are acting normal and as if they werent sick but the death of the dottyback and the weird wounds on the chromis and the clownfish are REALLY starting to worry me! I don't runa UV sterilizer but i have a aquacremora protein skimmer and a phosban reactor. My parameters are Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 and nitrate less than 10. All the parameters are fine. Thanks in advance for replies!
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
sounds like multiple problems, the open wounds by crab, the dotty probably a tumor or some parasite, Id think the tangs would show an illness first as they are kinda wimpy, try setting baited crab traps?
 
F

ferni

Member
I thought the same about the Tangs but theyre doing great. I have no crabs in my tank besides 10 or so lblue leg hermits as part of my CUC. That's whats so weird. And I did a waterchange today, as i do every week and my nitrates are at 0 also. What I also think is weird is that the day after my clowns started hosting the elegance they got those wounds. Thanks for the reply!
 
L

leebca

Well-Known Member
I'm sure you have high hopes and wish your fish well, but in fact your fish are not doing very well at all. These are just a few of the concerns I have, without knowing more information or having actual data about your system:

1. The tank is too small for the Tangs;
2. The fish in the past were overcrowded in their 28;
3. The foods you are feeding are not very good choices for those fishes and in fact, not nutritious at all for the herbivores;
4. I suspect water quality to be an issue and the main problems to be infections, mal nutrition, and space stress.

I can point you to doing more reading if you want to learn how to improve the above:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...41782-how-feed-macro-alage-marine-fishes.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...eeding-marine-fish-marine-fish-nutrition.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums.../23069-different-forms-marine-fish-foods.html
and
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/24702-marine-fish-stocking-limit.html

I'd say you are not getting very good advice on running/operating a marine aquarium. Thus, I would suspect maybe several other things are not as they should be. There are some good stickies in this Forum as well on Reef Sanctuary I suggest you get into and read, read, and read.

Good luck! :D
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I'm not trying to beat up on you. I want you to have a great reef system, but major mistakes were made.

You added way too many fish, way too fast, without quarantining them. In addition, you added 4 tangs in a tank that should have one at most. Most likely the cuts on the clown were from one of the tangs, but it's tough to be sure.

Here is what I recommend. Return all but one of the tangs to your LFS. Set up a quarantine tank, put all other fish in it. I would assume they have SW ich, at least, and would medicate with copper for that. At the first sign of a bacterial infection problem medicate for that also. Quarantine for 8 weeks minimum.

Make large partial water changes to your main tank, about 6 water changes of 1/3 the water, because you had fish die in it.

Upgrade you skimmer. It's a good skimmer, but too small for a 90 gal tank. Use this 8 weeks to re-evaluate the rest of your filtration system.

Yea, this is a lot of work, and going to be expensive. No doubt this post is not the sort of message you want to hear, but IMO it's the only way to correct the mess you have the system in.
 
F

ferni

Member
Thank you for your reply leebca. As for the foods I completely agree with you and I also feel that I should give macro algae. Where is a good place to get it? I read all three of your links and personally I dont agree with the fish stocking limit. I didnt have any tangs in my 28 gallon so I dont know how the fish were overcrowded in the 28. The tangs are all about 4 inches each. Obviously once they get bigger I ill give them away but as of now they're great and seem to love their home. As for my setup, I have about 100# of live rock and some in my sump. I have dual 250 watt metal halides. Have multiple fans running and the temperature is never higher than 80. Have about 2 to 3 inches of sand bed. Have GREAT flow in my tank. Every corner of the aquarium has flow in it. All of my parameters are perfect and I have my own ro/di system and use it for weekly 10 gallon water changes and top offs (I have an ATO system as well). My salinity is at about 1.024 and is always steady. I thank you for your reply but I simply don't agree with everything you said. Also, do you have any idea what type of infections, if any, are causing these wounds? Thanks!
 
F

ferni

Member
I have birsttle worms in my tank so they took care of the dottyback in a matter of hours. My protein skimmer is the ev 120 series and is always pullng out nasty gunk. As for the fish additions, about 35 pounds of the live rock in the 90 now were from the 28 gallon and were live, I put live sand in the tank, and I waited for all of the parameters to be at zero before I transfered any fish. I understand what youre saying. I probably do need to quarantine. Now, I know copper kills corals and inverts. Should I remove my corals and inverts and then dose the tank? Or if I do that will i never be able to have corals or inverts? Thanks for the quick reply!
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
ferni said:
... Should I remove my corals and inverts and then dose the tank? ...
Click to expand...

No, never ever medicate a reef system to treat a fish disease. Always remove the fish to a quarantine tank and treat there.

Treating with copper in the main tank prevents it from ever containing inverts like corals again. The copper is absorbed by the live rock and live sand, and it's in rather large amounts. After treatment, the copper will leach back out into the water, and kill your corals. Don't do it.
 
F

ferni

Member
Okay, thanks Dave! I still have my 28 gallon that I took down. Will that be big enough? Will I only have to medicate the sick looking fish or all of them? Thanks
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
umm, I wouldn't jump into coppering anything without cause, I didn't see any diagnosis of disease or parasite just some wounds that could be accidental or inflicted, patience in this case may be warranted? can you get a good close up picture of one or two Tangs?
 
F

ferni

Member
Yeah that makes sense. And yeah I could. Would it help to see if maybe they sliced the clown? I have a blue hippo, sailfin, yellow, and powder blue.
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
sasquatch said:
umm, I wouldn't jump into coppering anything without cause, I didn't see any diagnosis of disease or parasite just some wounds that could be accidental or inflicted, patience in this case may be warranted? can you get a good close up picture of one or two Tangs?
Click to expand...

Here is the thing. Multiple tangs were added. Tangs are often noted for being "ich magnets", especially a powder blue. I'd say the chance of having the disease is close to 100%, so I'd treat now.

All fish should be medicated.
 
Val

Val

Member
Great advice Lee, DaveK and sasquatch

Welcome to RS ferni, as I read this I agree overstocking, poor nutrition are part of the problem. It's good you are looking for help. You can buy dried sheets of algae in most pet stores, just put it on a clip and with that many tangs I would keep it available to them. Tangs I have read are more aggressive if their diet lacks algae. I like SF Saltwater multi pack for frozen food. I like the variety and I supplement with vitamins, selcon and garlic.

A general rule of thumb in saltwater fish is one inch per 5 gallons of water. It's one of the hardest rules for me to keep with my tank, so many beautiful fish and so little water.
 
F

ferni

Member
Thanks for all the replies. The tangs have been in the 90 for 1 week and a half. This morning I noticed some white spots on the sailfin and powder blue but the powder blue also has some type of ridges/ bumps on his body. This is probably ick or some other disease thats similar. They're all eating well and acting normal. I know I need to put the in a QT but i dont know where ill find one big enough for all the fish. Thanks
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
whelp? that changes everything, select one of the tangs you like and get it in quarantine, ask your lfs if they will take the others back or hold them in a treatment tank for you, not doing this will most likely result in losses, I know its hard but not everyone can win in Vegas
 
F

ferni

Member
Im going to do a freshwater dip and see how that goes. Ill do it to all the tangs. I still have my 28 gallon nano cube thats in a box. Will that be big enough for the tangs?
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
28's barely enough room for one and thats going to be a stress factor. fresh water dips are kind of a last hope remedy to clear gills no real help as the catching and dipping upsets them even more, Im sorry ferni your in a pickle here and your options are limited
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
It seems your best option is to pick one tang (and i hate to say this, maybe 2) and try to save it (them). Trying to work on all 4 with the equipment you have will most likely result in the loss of all of them. You will most likely need help from your LFS or possible try to find a cheap 55 gallon quick for treatment. since it seems like ich is coming, you can treat them all at once if you have enough space. As Sas said, you're in a tough spot though with that 28 as it will add more stress. In your favor though, it seems like you're catching the ich early so you can save them but I would go with a copper treatment vs the FW dip

moving forward, check out Lee's post on how to properly quarantine fish and you should be able to avoid this. Also, you should only QT 1 fish at a time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top