Total fish wipeout

[thefishman]

About 4 months ago I purchased all the gear to start a saltwater habitat.
Everything was great, all the fish were healthy. Then I added a regal tang. He had a whitish spot on him. it didnt see to serious but I went ahead and treated the entire tank for white spot. He just continued to get more white on his body and laid in the corner of the tank as if he couldnt breathe.
One by one my fish began to develop the same symptoms and died.
I also noticed a wormlike creature swimming along the gravel.
What should I do as far as quarantining the tank. Also what caused this massacre.

 

[thefishman]

It is a 45 gallon tank. WIth a 300 series fluval.
I had everything to make it work and it did untill that regal came in.
I was up to about 6 fish. 2 clowns, 1picasso trigger, regal and naso tang, blue damsel.
There are many snails and crabs still left in the tank along with a live rock. Can the parasites live off of these. Will I need to start all over or has the parasites died off. It has been empty of "Fish" for about 2 months now.

 

[nacl-man]

Chances are your parasites have died off, but I am not the expert on that, I don't believe they can live on LR or inverts... but again I am not sure about that.
It seems that you may have had a few more fish in there than you should have.. in a 45 IMO there should be a maximum of 4 fish, and most certianly not two tangs. It was most likely the tang w/ ICK that caused your fish to die, but that many fish in a tank that isn't that mature prob did not help the matter much. Again that is just my opinion, take it or leave it
How much live rock do you have? Do you clean the fluval on a regular basis, run Carbon or any other chemical media? Also, how much water movement exists in the tank, how many times does it turn over per hour (do you have any powerheads? Skimmer?
Answering those questions may let us help you get better situated to start adding some more fish to your setup.
HTH.
Cheers!

 

[beaslbob]

As I understand it, you added the regal with an existing naso tang in a 45 g. I think you overloaded the tank and the naso bullied the new regal. As a result the regal's immunity suffered from the stress and its death greatly added to the bioload of the system. Then one by one the fish died.
If it was ICH 2 months running fishless should prevent a return as long as you have healthy fish you are introducing. I also would monitor parameters especially nitrItes, nitrAtes and ph. NitrItes may spike and ph may drop when the capacity of the tank is exceeded. NitrAtes are hard to get low but if high (say 20-40 ppm) would indicate you need to add more plant life.
I think that if you take it slowly you can start adding fish again. Just don't expect to have two tangs in a 45g. I would also add plant life if you have not already.

 

[jillian ayers]

Originally posted by beaslbob
As I understand it, you added the regal with an existing naso tang in a 45 g. I think you overloaded the tank and the naso bullied the new regal. As a result the regal's immunity suffered from the stress and its death greatly added to the bioload of the system. Then one by one the fish died.
I think that if you take it slowly you can start adding fish again. Just don't expect to have two tangs in a 45g.
I would strongly recommend not even putting ONE tang in a tank that size.