HELP FISH DYING

[~TG~]

Here is my situation.. I had the following fish in a 125g
Miniatus Grouper (large)
Argus Grouper (med)
Undulated Trigger (small)
Humu Trigger (small)
Hippo tang (med)
Porcupine puffer (large)
Lunar wrasse (large)
Naso Tang (large)
Yellow Tang (med)
Coral Beauty (med)
Before I get yelled at :( there was plenty of Liverock and they all were in there together for months and co-existed very well... it was a stable tank until I moved into my new home 3 weeks ago. I think the "MOVE" stressed them all out and the unfamiliar placement of the rocks added to the stress they ALL (except the lunar) broke out in ICH bad..

I raised the temp slightly, started feeding with garlic and Zoe turned off the skimmer and did the "Ich attack" treatment for a week and didnt notice any difference.. the first death was Thursday Naso tang. Friday the puffer had severe cloudy eyes and couldnt see so I did the "ich cure" blue liquid drops for 3 days puffers eyes cleared a bit and I did about a 15-20% water change on Sunday because i noticed they (the groupers) were having a difficult time breathing then Monday the Miniatus died.. and this morning I had 3 more die, the Argus grouper, the coral beauty and the hippo tang which was doing ok last night ...

What do I do... Please any advice would be greatly appreciated..
I setup another tank tonight 75g but it is a brand new batch of saltwater that i mixed tonight and about 15 gallons of it came from a water change i did from my 58g reef tank to help a bit i guess....
but its temp is still at 73.0

should i dip the fish in freshwater and place them in the 75g?
should i dip in freshwater and place them back in the 125g?

I dont want to lose any other fish tonight..

Thanks Again
Thelma :cry

[Richard]

I wouldn't do FW dip.

You can raise the temp of the 75 quicker by floating ziplock bags of hot water. I would move them over when the temp is up a bit more and then lower the sg to 1.010.

[Richard]

Have you checked ammonia levels?

[~TG~]

ok let me go check the ammonia levels of the 125g and start heating the 75g tank faster....

if I drop the sg to 1.010.. should i put them in first and then slowly drop the sg after they are in? or do I drop it before they go in? the sg right now is 1.025

[Richard]

I would move them in and then lower the sg but either way will work. Just acclimate them for about an hour first. If your at 1.025 you'll need to replace over 50% of the water with FW. Normally what I do is remove about 20% of the water and then top off with FW(add some buffer if it's DI/RO to maintain alk). Then repeat about every 30 minutes or so until you get to 1.010. Fish tolerate the salinity going down very well it's bringing them back up that you need to take more time with. Of course if they are too far gone it doesn't matter what you do.

I've had fish clear up completely, literally overnight in hyposalinity. IME, if they aren't strong enough to tolerate the move and the drop in salinity then the odds are VERY low they would have survived long enough for any type of meds to work.

[~TG~]

I wouldn't do FW dip.

I would move them over when the temp is up a bit more and then lower the sg to 1.010.

nevermind I read it again...

[~TG~]

what do recommend as far as the temp? right now the sick tank is at 79.9 and the new one is creeping up to 76...

should i just move the ones i think have a good shot and leave the sicker ones in the 125 and slowly drop the sg there too? The Scopas looks real bad white streaks all over BUT the Lunar is showing NO signs of any stress or ich at all ... one thing i did notice was the fins on all but the lunar are looking a bit tattered/torn not sure if thats where they were fighting with each other or what thats from?? i can try to take pics if you think that will help??

ammonia level is at 0.2

[~TG~]

one more question for you Richard...

What if i drop the sg in the 125 tank slowly to 1.010 ? can i do that rather than stressing them out more by trying to catch them all and the move to the 75g? is that possible? I have no corals in there its a fish only tank... let me know Thanks again for all your help

[Richard]

ammonia level is at 0.2


Well that's not good. I'd move them all over. Maybe you'll get lucky with some of the really sick ones. Getting them away from the ammonia can only help. Be sure and go pick up some bacteria culture (TLC or Bio Spira) to keep from having an ammonia spike on the 75. Both work great but TLC is WAY cheaper. You should add some to your main tank also to get ammonia level down to zero.

[Richard]

What if i drop the sg in the 125 tank slowly to 1.010 ? can i do that rather than stressing them out more by trying to catch them all and the move to the 75g? is that possible? I have no corals in there its a fish only tank... let me know Thanks again for all your help


In your first post you said you have lots of liverock. If you do then you don't want to lower the sg on that tank. That would kill alot of life on the rock and cause your ammonia to spike even higher.

[matt]

You're getting really good advice from Richard, I just wanted to add some encouragement; IMO keeping fish healthy in a reef tank is a major challenge and even the best reefkeepers can be helpless when an outbreak of fish parasites ocurrs. Good luck!!!

[thedude]

Honestly and not to sound too harsh, but this was just a catastrophe waiting to happen. There were simply too many fish in that tank for it to remain stable for any long period. If it were my tank, I'd reduce the fish load signifigantly and then follow Richard's advice. I especially agree with the school of thought on not dipping. Dipping a fish is much to harsh a method and should be used as a last resort in my opinion.

[v2k]

The TLC and biospira that Richard recommends could also save the day.

Good luck. Were the tanks originally connected? Was the 75 a refugium for extra water? Dilution reduces pollution as they say... maybe stuff died on your live rock in the transfer and it needs to be cured again?

[pilot_bell777]

man the best thing I found for Ich was a good UV Sterilizer and running it for an hour or two a day really worked. I fought ich on and off for over a year and lost some prize fish to it. I used to be anitUVSterilizer but now I swear by them. I wouldn't run one all day but I will be running mine for two hours a day!!!!

I tried lowering my salinity, using reef safe Kick Ich, raising my temp, etc, etc and it would just keep comming back. I then found instructions on WWM to remove all the fish to a QT tank, let the display sit empty for 6 weeks and that way they would all dye in the main tank and then treat the fish in the QT tank. I kept my fish in QT for 8 weeks for added security and within a month I had Ich again. I broke down, bought a UV Sterilizer and haven't seen hide nor hair of it since. By running it only two hours a day I still get plenty of pods and other beneficial stuff.

Just my experience......

I would put the fish in and then slowly lower the salinity in the tank....that way you are stressing them less then taking them from one salinity and dumping them into another. JMT