Unexplanable fish deaths. Can you help?

I see. I'll use formalin in my hospital tank.

In terms of the main tank, I'm leery about using meds because of my inverts (hermit crabs, snails and cleaner shrimp). But the fish seemed to be breathin a little more heavily, but there were no white spots at all.

 

The fish were purchased at different stores. The LFS I got the flame angel from quarantines for 2 weeks and had the fish for another 2 before I bought it. I'll definitely keep an eye on the fish.

 

Really? I really haven't had any true cycling issues since I put all that live stuff in there. I was under the impression that a fowlr and a skimmer was already a great set up. Do you suggest I add the mechanical filtration. I do have an XP 4 canister filter I can set up, but I really thought a my current set up was already quite good, because my readings in terms of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were quite good.

 

I agree never use medication in the display. The only way to kill the ich is to leave the tank without fish (fallow) for anywhere from 21 to 28 days. With 28 days being ideal. All present fish would have to either go into a qt for treatment or treat the display with hyposalinity and remove all inverts and corals while you treat the display.

Now with all that said, if your parameters remain good and constant. The fish are well feed, and reduce any stress, you may be able to alleviate future ich outbreaks. Adding a cleaner shrimp can be of some assistance as well. Ich is opportunistic and stressed fish, from over crowding, bullying or poor nutrition will be the most severely hit.

And I agree this sounds like a typical case of new tank syndrome, with a side of ich.

 

I'm a bit sad that I'm losing fish. So no new ones for now.

 

every so often these things happen to majority of us IMO
Not at diseases, parasites, viruses, have signs visible to the naked eye
and only a post mortem may identify some fish deaths

leaving the stock for a while and not adding anything new, is exactly how I have dealt with similar situations when they have periodically happened with one of my tank set ups

if it is some infection, some of your tank inhabitants may have built up immunity, but then you get a new fish and its affected quickly and doesn,t live long

Steve

 

I think that is a great idea.

You may want to reconsider your stocking level. All those fish together is a seriously overloaded tank. I had great results with a Flame Angel, 2 tank bred Ocellaris Clown fish, and a Royal Gramma in a 38g tank. Not saying you can't keep more than that (it's your tank, not mine), but as you now know, trying to keep too many fish just causes problems. Even though it may sound like a lecture, it's not. Just trying to help by illustrating what has worked for me in the past.

 

Your filtration is fine. You may want to add a refugium, especially with it heavily stocked and also a bigger skimmer if necessary. Another thing to look at is voltage in the tank. Do you have a grounding probe? Do you get shocked when you touch the water? If there is enough stray electricity in the tank it can affect the fish..

 

A sump/refug would help a lot. I don't think just a skimmer is enough for a heavily stocked tank...

Just slow the stocking down for a month or two is my advice as well.

 

Thank you all. You have given me a lot to think about... I'm just bummed that the stocking is so low compared to my multiple fw tanks I have successfully kept set up. But I see how fw rules don't necessarily apply to sw.