New fish dying??

T

tjbaca

Guest
I have had my 55 gal reef tank established for about 8 months with the same fish. I added a purple tang and blue tang and in a few days they were covered with white spots and died. I thought it was ICK and treated with No-Ick for reef tanks.In the next few days we also lost a few of the fish we had already had for a long time. We were left with three blue/green chromis, a dwarf angel, a purple fire fish and a scooter blenny. Our fish were fine. We had treated with the ick medication. We waited for about a month and then added a Naso blonde tang, a royal gamma, two percula clowns and a sally lightfoot. Also a carpet anemone and a ricordia and a green hairy mushroom. The fish we added all died within a few days. They did get a few spots but because they died so fast we thought it was something else so we treated with Revive. All the amenomes, corals and invertabrates in our tank have not been affected at all through all of this. So the same five fish stated above are still alive and doing well. After treating with Revive and a 50% water change we waited two weeks, bought one percula clown and within three days it was dead. Can anyone tell me what is going on??? Help....
 

elfdoctors

Active Member
I think that Beth is away so I will try to give some advice.
Are you sure that the fish had ich? Did the spots look like salt grains? If they did, your fish probably did have ich. However, considering how fast the fish died, I am more worried about other diseases such as marine velvet or brooklynella. These tend to have more of a white slime over their bodies but it may appear bumpy.
No-ich has a very spotty record for treatment for ich. The only reliable treatments are hyposalinity and copper. I am not familiar with Revive. LFS owners tend to sell you all sorts of medications that won't work and then blame something else as the cause to appease you (and then suggest another marginally effective medication).
You are adding too many fish at a time. It is usually recommended to only add 1-2 fish at a time and every new addition should be quarantined for at least 3 weeks. This will eliminate the vast majority of fish diseases. Because you are adding the fish this quickly, I am wondering if you are a newbie. Adding fish too quickly can also cause a mini-cycle which can still be toxic to fish. Have you checked your readings.
Some fish are able to develop a limited immunity to ich so that the disease is not fatal to them. These fish are still infectious. Whatever disease is in your tank, it probably is still there. Don't add any more fish without getting to the bottom of this problem.
BTW, Welcome to the Boards!
 
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