All of my fish are dead and I am done!

[Matt110]

All of my fish are now dead. I lost a Powder Blue Tang, Peacock Lion, Picasso Trigger, and a Damsel in three days. The only survior is Harry the Honeycombe Eel. I have had the tank up and running smooth for 10 months with no problems and all of the sudden I have a parasite that kills my fish in three days. I had the water tested three times and they all came back good, did numerous water changes and nothing helped. I have no idea what stressed them but boy did it do the job. I think I may be done with saltwater for a while, the fish people said that they dont know why they were sick and the water wasnt showing any negative readings, but said it was a fluke. I dont want any more $300 flukes, so I guess I have to do a boreing ol fresh water!

Thanks for letting me ***** and moan.

[LoneStar]

Did you add anything new to the tank recently?

[abe77901]

Same thing happen to me Matt, sorry to hear for your loss, I let my tank sit with just my eel for about a month and a half then slowly added a yellow tang, then more slowly, seems everything is ok now, I was told everything from parasite, to me changing salt did it, to temp. flucuations, just numerous explanations....good luck..

[Bill S]

There are LOTS of things that can cause a tank to crash that won't be picked up by the typical tests. Poisons aren't easily detected - nor worth the very expensive tests to find out what they are. Could also be something as simple as a faulty heater - they aren't perfect, and sometimes go back to working just fine.

About the only thing you can do in these cases is mass dilution. If your fish ALL have parasites in just a few days, it's my guess they were weakened by something else, and the parasites were just another symptom.

I feel your pain - I had a similar experience many years ago that got me back to FW for many years. And I've been doing this (SW) since the late 60s...

[matt]

Probably one or more of your fish had some parasites on it when introduced into the tank, where it spread quickly to all the other fish. Big bummer....but this happens to almost everyone in the hobby at some point. I personally think fish parasites are the single most difficult thing to prevent in reefkeeping. It's almost impossible to buy fish completely free of parasites.

[Tim Marvin]

How about 02? Did you change any returns, turn off a skimmer, or anything like that?