Every single one of my fish is now dead...

[sagxman]

To add to the brainstorming, have there been any open windows near the tank? Maybe a contaminent came into the house this way?
I had a tank in an apartment, the neighbors below me decided to grill on their balcony (which was against complex rules, and just plain stupid.) The fumes apparently seeped through my sliding glass door, killed all the fish, one quaker parakeet, and nearly killed my roommate's white eyed conure. The only reason his bird didn't die was that I got it to a vet in time to give it some pure oxygen and a B-12 shot.
My point is, there are a number of toxins you might not even realize your tank is in contact with.

 

[dottiekh]

You never realize how something totally insignificant can have such an impact!!! Let me see if I can answer your questions.
My children are 7, 5 and 2. My tank is on a stand and it is a really tall, rather than long tank. They can not reach the top of it, so I'm FARILY certain it wasn't them. I am a BIG fan of air conditioning, so my windows haven't been opened, and I live in a house so vents wouldn't be an issue.
As of today, there a no living fish. There are several that are unaccounted for though. I guess I'm going to have to move around all my lr and see if I can find them. All of my crabs and snails seem to be fine, my pincushion urchin is wonderful. As of right now, it looks like my pencil urchin is dead or dying. My cucumbers are mia. They were out yesterday, but they are not where I last saw them. They must be under some lr. I'm seriously considering just taking them out regardless of fault.
Prior to my mass deaths, with the exception of my puffer, every fish was acting fine. My green bird wrasse was incredibly active....right up until he died. I saw no indications that any of the other fish were ill. My puffer was obviously sick for about two weeks (I don't have a qt tank, yet another mistake). My grouper, who showed no signs of illness, just died the day before my puffer, then my puffer died, then every single fish immediately followed. My trigger held on the longest. The day prior to his death, he was active and eating. I woke up the next morning, and he was just dead.
Again, I had some anemones sneak in on some lr, but they didn't start growing until fairly recently. I didn't know they were there until last week. Now they are quite obvious and growing at an incredible rate. Same thing with some feather dusters. They have sprung up all of a sudden as well.
As for my unknown critter. I'm totally on the fence with him. I'd love to sit back and watch him grow, see what he becomes. He has not moved at all. When I first saw him, he was just a tiny translucent blob, maybe the size of the top of a matchstick. As of today, he is approx four times that large. He is a living thing. He moves his eyes and antenna and you can see his "innerds" because his body is still completely translucent.
Ok, I think I hit on everything. If I didn't I'll come back. I will answer anything you guys need to know. I really do appreicate everyone's help...

 

[maxalmon]

Can you post a pick of "blob"....Also, back to the Am issue, did it go to .025 once and then drop or has it gone up, down then up again? What are your water readings for today?
Could this be a simple bad salt batch? Of all the water changes, did you use salt from the same bucket or bag?
Hey NMreef, Beth, Ophiura, Bang or any other exerienced reefers, do you guys and ladies have any insight or thoughts on this? Would some type of bacterial or parasitic infection cause this? This may sound weird, but I would have done an autopsy on the dead fish after the 2nd or 3rd one, granted, I would have no clue what to look for and would have used latex gloves. FYI this is an interesting site, click on the "scope" at the bottom of the page http://www.gate.net/~mcorriss/PC1.html

 

[dottiekh]

I tried to take a pic several days ago, but it was fuzzy. However, it has grown, so let me try and get a pic of it today.
As for my amm.....I would do an average of three or four tests per week on my water. I am a first class nerd, and I have a log where I have kept every test result, every addition, every death....everything. My temp stays at 82 degrees. My trites have stayed at 0. Every three or four weeks my amm would go up to .25. That is when I would do a water change and it would get me back to 0. My salt all came from a nice big blue bucket.
I guess my sticking point is that my puffer got sick first. He was sick a solid two weeks before any of the other fish died. My other fish never even acted sick, they just up and died.
I will try and get a pic....
Thank you for you help.

 

[sleasia]

dottiekh...I don't think you have any fish which can let off poisons when they are sick. It doesn't sound like the df puffer does. I had a boxfish wipe out my entire tank once, and the inverts were immune to whatever it was....I still think it might be the tap water. Your parameters sounded fine, so it is not something you are measuring, it must be something you are not measuring, or which is not customarily measured ...this leaves a bacteria, parasite, or chemicle thing, either from tap water or something else....some contaminant...what kind of cannister do you use. Are you by any chance using efisubstrat...when I used this I had alot of silicates in the water which I supposed was from that since it is basically glass, but also could have been from the tap water. I think a good thing to do is, if everything has died at this point. leave the tank fishless for 1-2 months while you continue to filter the water and run the tank. Add fish food each day to keep the bio load fed. You may want to switch to r/o water, and hook up a uv.

 

[promisetbg]

Tapwater sometimes has ammonia present..they also do chemical flushes..generally at night . This blob...any chance it's some sort of jelly?

 

[dottiekh]

I have taken pictures of the blob. It could very well be a jelly. Do they stick to the side of the tank when forming? I am the first to admit that these are horrible pictures. It's so small I couldn't get my camera to focus. I am envious of all of you that take those beautiful underwater pictures. It will atleast give you an idea. It is completely transparent, in the middle you see "guts" that resemble jelly, you see a vein of some sort with a reddish color, and the dark spot you see is on the very bottom kind of coming to a point inside of him. He also has two antenna and two eyes that you can see moving. The antenna and the eyes are white. I'll keep trying to get better pics, but maybe this will atleast give you an idea...

 

[washowi]

Just a thought. I sprayed Fabreeze (sp) in my office a while back and within 3 or 4 days the entire tank was dead. DO NOT EVER use Fabreeze if you have marine tanks or heck animals. This stuff is deadly!!
Just a thought. Do any cleaning lately?
Todd

 

[promisetbg]

Hmm this is a weird mystery. Any way you could take the picture from a bit farther away so it's in focus and photoshop it to bring it in closer? Or better yet...what if you put a glove on..remove this thing, and take a pic of it in a bowl w/ tankwater in it?

 

[maxalmon]

The fact that your Am would spike every few weeks is interesting, what do you feed your fish and how often? Are the cucumbers stil MIA?

 

[dottiekh]

Originally Posted by washowi
Just a thought. I sprayed Fabreeze (sp) in my office a while back and within 3 or 4 days the entire tank was dead. DO NOT EVER use Fabreeze if you have marine tanks or heck animals. This stuff is deadly!!
Just a thought. Do any cleaning lately?
Todd

If you read my earlier posting, I mentioned I had three kids (7,5,2)....so there isn't a whole lot of cleaning going on around here

But, no, I haven't used anything in that room. There is no furniture in it, just my tank and some toys.
I will try and take the blob out and take a pic of it. I'm a little afraid of it, but I won't admit that. Maybe it can't sense fear.
When I had fish, I fed them once per day. I would alternate formula 1 cubes, mysis shimp and krill. At one point I was over feeding them, and my trates got up to the 30's. Once again, you guys came to the rescue, I fixed the problem and maintained.
My cucumbers are still mia. I'm thinking that tomorrow I will have to move the lr around and find them, plus several damsels that haven't floated to the top but I have doubt they are dead. They haven't come out for food in days....they just kind of disappeared.
Now that I'm thinking about it....over the last month or so, I've had a real hard time keeping my ph up. It kept wanting to drift down to 7.8 or 8.0 I know that 8.2 is ideal. I would add buffer, but it would drift back down within a couple of days. I hate to keep adding info, because most of it is probably extraneous....but just in case.
Ok, I'm going to go try and tackle the blob...

 

[dottiekh]

Well, I now know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that I will not be a photographer when I grow up. I took the blob out, he's just so small and so translucent that I am not getting any kind of decent picture. I did find out one thing though....he has a "shell". When I took him out, he actually became very active and he was moving across the container and attaching to the side. But his shell is translucent also, and really pretty hard. He has formed this shell as he has grown over the last couple of weeks.
This is probably some mundane, ordinary, normal old snail or something...but I have no idea.
I keep coming back to my puffer. He was the only one that showed signs of illness and that was for two weeks. The others, along with my puffer, all died within three days of one another. The other fish never acted sick, they just died. What would kill my puffer slowly, but kill the others over night? Is there any chance that puffers death is unrelated to mass deaths? I'm thinking there is no chance of that, but I am the first one to admit that I know even less than I thought I did.
So, should I move my lr around and find my cucumbers and any other dead critters? Or will moving my lr around be more harmful than letting nature take it's course on the remaining bodies? I sincerely hate being this ignorant about anything....but especially something I thought I knew.....thank all of you for your help.

 

[timdaddie]

I'm sorry for the lose of your fish. I'll keep checking this post because there's a lot of good information in it. I haven't read any thing from the more experienced reef people on this sight. maybe someone should get them to read this they might have the answer for her.

 

[stang5_o]

This might sound crazy, but did any of the dead fish have any wounds on them when you found them dead? The reason Im asking is im wondering if you have a Mantis Shrimp. They are very mean and will kill just for the fun of it. Be careful with your hands in the tank as they can leave a nasty cut.
The puffer may have died of a sickness, and the others by the mantis. Its just a thought. But on the other hand, the mantis would have probably killed the crabs and snails also.
If you decide to move the rock around, keep you eye out for anything out of the ordinary. By that I mean mantis shrimp, or some kind of carnivorous crab or something.
Again, wear gloves when moving the rock just in case.
I know this is far fetched, but its worth considering.

 

[dottiekh]

I haven't seen any wounds...but that doesn't mean they weren't there. I found myself looking for ick, so I believe I would have seen them. I'm actually a little nervous about mvoing things around.....whether it be some carnivorous monster, or some unknown toxin....neither sounds like fun. I appreciate your thoughts, and I will keep an eye out...

 

[alyssia]

Have you heard any snapping sounds at night? I believe that mantis' snap.

 

[dottiekh]

My tank is in the playroom, so the only reason I go in there is to do something with my fish. So, once the lights go off (they are on a timer) I rarely go in there. So it's possible, but I just would not have heard it. Short of putting my hand in there as bait

, how can I find it, if it's there?

 

[alyssia]

I think you have to buy a mantis trap. I would do a search on here for mantis shrimp.
BTW, you're brave putting a tank in your playroom! My kids would probably put toys in it, put their hands in it, etc.

 

[dottiekh]

I know exactly what you mean!!! Fortunately, this tank is really tall and my kids are still really short. By the time they are tall enough to do any damage, they will be old enough to fear me

 

[maxalmon]

Time for the really experienced reefers to chime in, come on guys brainstorm with us! Are any of us on the right track? Anyone have something similar to this happen? I like the point of the puffer taking a few days and showing signs of distress and the others gone in one day, anything you could think of that would affect the puffer so soon? Some kinda progressive problem where he was the most sensitive and reacted first?