total tank wipeout

g-reef

g-reef

New Member
i have a couple of tanks a 120 reef and a 180 gallon aggresive setup
i found a nudibranch eating my corals in my reef tank so i took it out and put it in my aggressive tank .
MISTAKE
everythiong in the 180 died the next morning. my tessealata
eel, unicorn tang, lionfish,titan trigger
i threw away everything in the tank live rock gravel and rinsed the bio balls.
now nothing will live in this tank. if i put a fish in it shows signs of distess in a matter of one hour. should i filter with carbon.
should i do another complete water change?
how do i detoxify the tank. i have had this tank for 2.5 years with only one fish death until now.
 
g-reef

g-reef

New Member
i believe it was the nudibranch it had just grown in my reef tank.
the titan trigger was 3 inches.
i emptied the tank again filled it with fresh water then refilled it with salt water.
i rinsed the bioballs in saltwater and put them back in with some live rock.
now the tank is ok.
 
grouperhead

grouperhead

Active Member
Let it sit for a good while. Maybe put a mollie or damsel in it and see if it will live. I'm terribly sorry to hear about your loss, and hope you get back on the aggressive circuit soon. Bo
 
polarpooch

polarpooch

Active Member
How WEIRD.
I have read that nudibranches feed on corals, and produce poision afterwards, but I always thought a fish had to try to eat one for it to be deadly.
And why your tank is a dead zone AFTER you cleaned it is truly odd.
I hate to redirect you from this fine board, but a great marine Q&A expert resource is www.wetwebmedia.com (not a webstore, just an info source). I've posted several questions to their experts and always gotten a valuable response. Perhaps it's a place to try if you get no luck here.
Also, have you posted the Q on the Reef Tanks board? The reef people here really seem to know their stuff.
So sorry about your tank. That just SUCKS>
 
hunterdaddy

hunterdaddy

Member
Ive done a little research on the nudibranches and asked someone who is pretty knowledgable at my LFS.
We don't beleive the nudibranch was the problem. They aren't poisionous and your cleanup crew would have eaten him. Now maybe he died and rotted and that killed your fish but it more than likely wasn't your nudibranch.
 
sammystingray

sammystingray

Active Member
Nudibranchs do have toxins. I have read some interesting stuff about the possibilities that they may be descended from shelled creatures, and as they evolved the ability to "steal" toxins, they lost their shell which they no longer needed for protection. Nudis would be easy prey to most any fish without some defense. They collect and store toxins and entire nemocysts from the food they eat. Sorry about the loss, that sucks. :(
 
rane

rane

Member
I dont know if I agree with that, I had a Nubi in myh tank and after seeing it for 3 weeks I never saw it again, I just tore my tank down because I needed to redo the pvc piping and I did not see the nubi anywhere it is MIA and nothing has died in my tank...(well come to think of it my Unicorn was fine when I purchased him and he was eating greatfor a few days and from one minute to the next he started to act strange and finaly died with in an hour or 2 after he started to have seizur like symtoms could he have eaten the nubi? even tho I hadnt seen the nubi in a while?
 
hunterdaddy

hunterdaddy

Member
Sammy when you get a minute could you let me know where you got the info from? I looked and looked and didn't see anything about them having toxins. Sea Cucumbers aren't toxic to my knowledge and they are similar.
 
sammystingray

sammystingray

Active Member
BTW, they aren't all toxic, but judging from the original post, I bet his was. It does make you wonder though if it would be enough to take out a tank worth of fish, but....
 
lion-up

lion-up

New Member
G-Reef,
I know that this is an older post but I do want to share my information that I have gathered on these beautiful creatures. Dr. Ron Shimek is an invertatrate expert and someone I truly admire. He has dedicated himself to the study of iverts. This is a quote from him that I received and I would like to share it with everyone in this group. QUOTE: " CERTAIN Nudibranchs are very toxic, they sequester and modify poisons from their food (Sponges). It is also likely that toxins are continually 'oozed' out of the nudi."
Take it for what you want but when Dr. Ron speaks, I listen.
 
g-reef

g-reef

New Member
the tank is doing good now with no problem.
but it must have been that nudibranch the tank was so toxic that even after a complete water change and new gravel and live rock it was still toxic.
finally i had to refill it with fresh water let it circulate for one hour with the pumps running i had taken out the bioballs and rinsed them in saltwater and then finally it was able to sustain life. i think maybe little bits of this nudibranch were either in the pump or maybe where the bioballs were. now it houses a green moray and a testellata eel. with some crabs and snails, and starfish.
strange thing was when the tank was toxic it would kill crabs or invertabrae in a matter of minutes. yet a leoaprd shark i had
would be the only thing in that tank that the toxins did not bother. someone at the fish store told me leopard sharks ate nudibarnch. i have never heard of this but it would explain how come he was able to live in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top