dead fish, what was the culprit

moraym

Active Member
Beth, elfdoctors, Disease Forum, et al,
Received a frantic call from the girlfriend yesterday at noon that my large green scat (5 yrs old) was dead on the bottom of the tank. And there was no way for her to get him out as he had floated under some substantial rockwork that she could not lift. She had found him that morning, but he fish was alive the night before.
About 1 or 2pm she called again saying that my clownfish was also acting abnormal. Sitting on the bottom, not swimming much. I asked her about several symptoms, and she confirmed he had no white spots, no cloudy eyes, but when I asked if it looked like he was covered in a white film she said yes. Possible brooknyella (sp?).
I was out of the area but rushed back and got there at 9pm or so, and the tank was dead. The green scat was under the rocks, the clownfish was dead as well. Upon moving a few rocks I also discovered the tank's final fish, a near-foot-long engineer goby, was also dead. He was curled in a circle under some rocks, with his skin essentially peeling off, and when i moved him more skin floated off the sides, almost as if he was disintegrating. You never see the engineer goby in my tank, so he may have been dead for a bit and started the whole thing. Last time I saw him was about five or so days earlier. As I said, I was out of the area and out of contact w/ the tank.
The final inhabitant, a SFE, is still alive and doing well. He is 8" or so, but he was picking a bit at the clown as I removed him in a net.
So any ideas of what may have caused this. Brooknyella doesnt strike so fast it would kill these things overnight I wouldnt think. And there weren't white filmy signs earlier that week according to the gf.
Also, I am in the process of moving tanks. How should I proceed? As I am mixing LR from multiple tanks and mixing sand. I moved half the rocks to the new tank a few days earlier, were they already contaminated? How should I treat the current tank? Is it contminated? I'd hate to have to treat and essentially kill all the LR in my two tanks now.
 

moraym

Active Member
decaying? tail of the engineer goby, maybe picked on by SFE post-mortem? sign of disease?
 

moraym

Active Member
green scat, dead for probably 24 hours of so. signs of some fin rot. post-mortem? fins nipped by SFE? again, potential sign of disease?
 

moraym

Active Member
close-up of green scat's fins. again, he was fine five days earlier, no sign of fin damage. gf didnt see any signs of fin decay apparently a few days before.
 

moraym

Active Member
clownfish. same as above fish, fins splitting/rotting. except clownfish looks white and filmy before death, still has milky skin post-mortem.
 

moraym

Active Member
^^^
White specks on picture above are sand. I made sure to double-check.
Thanks again Beth, elfdoc, forum, etc.
for listening. Asked a bunch of questions, but just trying to figure things out as I now have possibly-contaminated LR in two tanks, one of which was almost ready for livestock to be introduced. Just want to try and confrim a few things.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
What fish have you added to the tank recently? Did you notice any peeling as in the pictures of the brooklynella example shown in the Diseased Fish Thread?
 

moraym

Active Member
No fish added to the tank recently, actually the opposite. Over the week or two prior to this I was removing things from the tank. Removed half to two-thirds of the LR in the couple weeks prior to this. Performed water changes as usually, normal top-offs.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Perhaps the disruption of the LR was the culprit. Did you take water readings following the removal of the rock? Did you disrupt sand bed?
Removing so much live rock at once would really be a hit to your biofilter. What other filters did you have in place?
 

moraym

Active Member
Due to the moving process, had two Millenium 3000 HOB filters running, with a ph402 for added water flow. (in a 40g breeder tank)
I most likely disrupted the sand. However my engineer goby (approaching a foot in length) was constantly stirring up the sand, and i was constantly having to push sand away from the filters and move large quantities away from the heater. He'd build 8 inch sand mounds I'd have to push away from equipment. So my sand bed was commonly disrupted for years, as this was a recurring problem.
As I said, i'm mainly worried about contaminated LR/LS.
btw Thank you Beth for your continued service to SWF members!
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
The only way that you may have intro-ed brook is with a fish addition recently.
Did you take your water readings any time during this catastrophe?
 

moraym

Active Member
Water levels were fine a few days before I left, with the exception of high nitrates. But due to the digging of my engineer goby, my nitrates in that tank have been high for five years, w/ no impact on the stock. The levels were similar when I returned.
 
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