The Plague

[dockmasterjc]

Hi All, I just got finished losing a bunch of fish! I had 2 clowns, 1 pseudochomis, 1algae blenny, and 3 green chromis. My water tests good and I had it checked at the LFS and confirmed my results of PH 8.2 and all other parameters 0. Fisrt the clowns got started to lose their color and had some white mucous on them. They ate like crazy so i just figured that they were ok. They died in consecutive days. The pseudochromis had been beating up on the green chromis and 2 of them died. Then the pseudochromis died and I found a mean crab eating him, I killed the evil crustacean. Then of course my last green chromis went MIA. I could not find him, moved and cleaned everything. My blenny still looks good and all my inverts look great. I have a flower anenome, 2 peppermint shrimp, a bunch of snails and hermits. I don't know what direction to go now? Should I get some damsels to have something in the tank, I still want my nemos and don't know what sequence to add them. Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Start from the beginning.
How long has this tank been set up?
What are your actual water parameters?

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[ChrisRD]

What David said...

...and just wanted to say :welcome:

 

[Meloco14]

Yes, we need to know more. Do not add damsels just "to have something in the tank". You do not need anything in the tank, and adding fish to a tank that potentially has disease or parasites is just a death sentence and will not solve anything. Figure out the problem and fix it before adding any more fish. Let us know how old the tank is, the nitrate, nitrite, ammonia levels, salinity, pH, alk, temp, etc. And if your clowns had white mucous on them I would research diseases. HTH

 

[dockmasterjc]

The tank is a 46 bow, I have a skimmer and use LR for filtration. I have a seio 630 powerhead for flow. The tank is 3months old nitrate is 0 nitrite is 0 ammonia is 0 and ph is 8.2. Salinity is 1.020. at 79-82 degrees F.

 

[ChrisRD]

The symptoms the clowns had sounds something like Brooklynellosis IIRC (except for the part about them eating well). Not sure what got your fish, but the aggression problems could have been a factor (stress generally makes fish more susceptible to parasites/disease).

I would recommend against the damsels as you'll most likely end-up with more aggression problems (most of them are generally trouble that way).

If it were me, I wouldn't add any more fish for at least a month (the longer the better) in case it was some sort of parasite problem. After that, if you want to try more clowns, get healthy, captive bred specimens. You should really QT any new specimens.

BTW, not really relevant to the fish issues, but your SG is a bit on the low side for a reef. Most of us target something closer to NSW conditions like 1.026.

JMO