Fish breathing not moving

[Garyant]

No visible sign of bacterial, fungal or parasitic infection.

I apologize for joining the forum simply to seek help. I have 20 years experience with Marine aquariums. We moved cross country June 5th. We brought our 40 gallon aquarium with us (donated all our healthy fish back to the fish only pet store we bought them from)

We set up our 40 and we bought a 110 reef ready. We bought live sand and live rock to set both up. We never had any intention of making the 110 reef. We choose to do fish only. We bought for larger environment and better filtration for our fish.

We are old school. I know, I know you don't need fish to cycle but we put 2 damsels in the 40 and 6 in the 110. They all made it through the cycle. The 40 is fine.

For the 110, the fish store were we bought it insisted we put in a cleaner crew as well. We added 4 small hermit crabs and 4 turbo snails. 2 weeks later a flame angel, 2 weeks later a yellow tang. We test ourselves as well as bring water to pet store.

About a week and a half ago the damsels began dying off, then the tang died (nothing visible on the bodies) All tests were good but we did a 25% water change. 2 damsels and the flame angel survived.

Now this morning our flame angel is lying on his/her side exhibiting the same symptoms. Breathing normally but otherwise appears "paralyzed" not moving at all. Incidentally, the "cleaning crew" is thriving.

Tests as of this morning - Ammonia - 0ppm - pale yellow, Nitrite - 0ppm - light blue, Nitrate - 0ppm - yellow, PH - 8.0 to 8.2
Salinity - 1.022 (I heard for the first time ever that the salinity should actually be above 1.023. Is that accurate? I've always thought slightly below was less stressful for the fish)

What could be killing the fish with no visible signs but the snails and hermit crabs are fine?

Thank you in advance!

 

[beth]

You're salinity is fine. For those who wish to be extremely precise about salinity, they would need to assess each fish's needs and plan their setup accordingly.

Your water tests seem fine as well but colors of tests don't really aid us, since different test kits can vary with color.

What and how often are you feeding? What are you using for water flow? Do you have water flow throughout? What filters are you using? Are you using additives to the water, and, if so, what and how are you administering the additives? What is your water source and how are you mixing up your water?

Just a side suggestion: Get rid of the hermit crabs. They serve little function, and they will off many valuable snails that do serve a function. Also, as they grow, they can be destructive by turning over rocks, abusing soft corals if you choose to add some, etc.

 

[Garyant]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

Yeah, I didn't think about the color of the tests being too much info. I was over communicating to be sure the water quality wasn't a question. That's the obvious place to go.

As far as feeding, during the cycle, minimal once every other day
Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes
Omega One Marine Pellets (once a week)
Began with frozen brine as well every other day after cycle.

For water flow, using the reef design set up. We're using a sump system below. The only media is a folded filter pad to capture larger particles. The pump provides great circulation throughout aquarium - 1200gph.


Additives - Stress coat to remove chlorine. Mixed our own water with Instant Ocean in 5 gallon bucket. Once salt was completely dissolved tested for salinity.
Also added MicroBacter7 complete bio culture during cycle. Added to sump. The store strongly recommended.

Thanks for the info on hermit crabs. Again, the store recommended.

 

[flower]

Hi,

Do you have power heads, the fish sound like they are suffocating? The flow from the return isn't enough to get oxygen throughout the entire tank. Welcome to the site, I hope you stay around.

 

[Garyant]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. There's plenty of aeration. In addition to the input from the pump into the tank, there's also about a 7 inch drop from the return flow before it hits the filter pad in the sump.

Just FYI for anyone interested, I went to several different aquariums, even driving over an hour away to get opinions. Two employees who sounded very knowledgable stated they believe it's ICH. They stated the parasitic stage can be very deadly early on in some strains, even killing the fish within 24 hours after infestation, without leaving the common white powder look.

I bought Kick Ich to do a 13 day treatment. It's invert (and reef) safe.
I also bought Ich Shield food to feed.


Thank you again for your help!

 

[mauler]

If it really is ich then any reef safe treatment is most likely not going to work. I only know of two true ways to cure ich in saltwater and that's hyposalinity or copper and neither are reef safe

 

[trigger40]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. There's plenty of aeration. In addition to the input from the pump into the tank, there's also about a 7 inch drop from the return flow before it hits the filter pad in the sump.

Just FYI for anyone interested, I went to several different aquariums, even driving over an hour away to get opinions. Two employees who sounded very knowledgable stated they believe it's ICH. They stated the parasitic stage can be very deadly early on in some strains, even killing the fish within 24 hours after infestation, without leaving the common white powder look.

I bought Kick Ich to do a 13 day treatment. It's invert (and reef) safe.
I also bought Ich Shield food to feed.


Thank you again for your help!

kick ich does not work. sorry you wasted your money. you need more flow, its as simple as that. the prof... your fish sound like they are suffocating.

 

[flower]

Ich affects the gills, but you would have noticed spots. I tried kick ick...no, it doesn't work.