all my fish just died, what do I do?

[zepplin48138]

I came home from work today and noticed that my fish were acting strange. So I started testing the water and nothing looked out of the norm. Within a 1/2 an hour I noticed that my perc was dying and that my orange spotted goby had died. I quikley changed about 20 percent of the water and an hour and a half later i am watching my juv emporer angel die.
I am new to the hobby, I have a 40 gal tank with about 20 lbs of live rock and about 20 lbs of LS. I run a lifeguard fluidized bed filter and a whisper filter. I also have a blood shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, a emerald crab, 2 sea slugs, a condy anenome, and a host anenome.
I am not running a qt tank but will be in the future.
I just bought the goby on sunday and put him in the tank and now all the fish are dead, I am guessing that the fish was diseased.
What should I do now, I need help.
Also I have a shark egg, hopefully he will survive, I was planning on starting a 180 by summer time to accomadate the fast growing fish. also everybody seemed fine yesterday and even this morning.

 

[beth]

I'm assuming that all your corals and inverts are fine? Which would indicate that the problem was not an environment issue.
Likely the the new fish intro-ed a disease, as you surmised. What were the symptoms of the fish while dying? Rapid breathing? With a death that came on that fast, my thought would be oodinium [marine velvet]. If nothing else determines a different problem, I'd suggest you leave your tank fishless for 2 mos.
Very good idea to get a QT so this will never happen again.

 

[zepplin48138]

what is marine velvet? Does it kill that fast. I noticed that my emporer looked velvety but I thought that was normal, I noticed it for about a week, would it take that long for him to die and then all the fish suddenly die at once???

 

[beth]

Its a parasite. The fish will carry it for a short time before most hobbyists will notice a problem. By that time, it is usually too late, and, yes, it can wipe out a tank within hours.
The parasite is nicknamed velvet because it has a velvety dusted appearance to it [when you see it]; as if the fish has been dusted with fine powder. Rapid gilling is a typical symptom.

 

[zepplin48138]

my entire fish looked velvety and I didn't see it on any others. It doesn't sound like the problem, I think it was the goby. I also put a peice of squid in the tank that i bought from a fish store and had frozen. Ever herd of problems with squid?

 

[irenicus]

Inverts I believe don't carry that parasite.