My foxface started showing signs of HLLE. I suspected my tusk was picking on the foxface and at one point it looked like a chunk of tail was actually missing from the foxface. I never actually witnessed any aggression and my fox would sometimes follow the tusk around so it seemed odd but at this point I wasn't sure what else to think. I had a Humu trigger in qt and added him to the tank to keep the tusk otherwise occupied just in case it was aggression thinking the 2 would keep each other in check. After a few days the Fox appeared to be on the road to recovery and was looking better colorwise. At first the tusk would chase the humu a bit but after a few days he gave up on that. Then one day like a week later I found the fox dead in the tank. He didn't look picked on at all but he did have a big black spot on him like some sort of bacterial infection. A couple days later I started seeing ich or velvet like spots on my tusk and porcupine puffer. Knowing that it could be cause by stress but with good water quality they should be ok I let it go. I tested my water and all was good and i did a large water change anyway just to be safe. Maybe a day or so later I started seeing the same thing on my humu trigger. On top of this my humu started 'scratching' himself on the rocks and puffer would go through random bouts of twitching.
Both of these are symptoms of ich or velvet and it was getting bad so i started setting my qt up again. The next day late at night I noticed my angel was acting more lethargic then usual, but otherwise looking ok. The next morning both my flame angel and tusk were near dead. I proceeded to give fw dips to all fish in the tank, sans the eel who has been unaffected by the whole thing. Neither the tusk nor angel survived, altho in their condition I knew it was a longshot already. I put the humu and puffer back in but they still show the same twitchy/scratching symptoms as before. The next day I go pickup some stuff I needed from aquatics unlimited and had them test my water. The only thing out of whack was my alkalinity was a bit low, but this shouldn't be at all harmful in a tank with no corals. I move them both to qt and started reducing the salinity last night. Only the eel remains in my display.
So this is where I'm at now. I know its not chemicals in tank or poor water quality. I have a choco star and urchin and some hermit crabs in the tank and they all seem ok along with the eel. Something caused the onset of all this and it all seemingly started with the foxface showing hlle symptoms, which is a suspected problem of stray voltage. Adding the humu may have introduced ich or velvet into my tank. He was in qt and had previously been treated with copper but who knows. I did pull him out of qt early because I didnt want the tusk messing with my weakened fox. Suffice to say, if it was only aggression related stress it never shouldve affected the puffer or angel at all who were never messed with by anyone and I wouldnt expect it to affect the tusk who was the only real aggressor in my tank anyway. So something caused the onset of all this and I've ruled out chemical poisoning and water quality and I'm fairly certain its not aggression related stress. That only leaves voltage in the tank. Like I said though, I'm open to suggestion if you have some other ideas.
I'm waiting to do any treatment but i want to get started on something(hypo or copper) before its too late.
