Help All But My Nasty Draggon Wrasse Have Died

[sally036]

help i have a 100 litre tank which had a small yellow tang, two clown fish, a blue damsel a pajama cardinal a cleaner shrimp and a few hermits in..all was well all levels were and still are ok. i then made the mistake of getting this draggon wrasse..he was agressive has destroyed what little coral i had managed to afford and upset his tank mates. last week i saw the odd white spot on my tang. then she seemed ok. then with out any definate syptoms in 24 hours all have died bar the dragon wrasse i wanted to take back anyway. archhhhhh can it all be stress or is it white spot/ please give advice not sure wether it is safe to take him back or to restock my tank...very sad right now......thanks

 

[Amelia]

Although tangs are prone to white spot I think it will have been the stress that brought it on as that is the biggest cause of white spot. I also think your stocking load is way too high for your size of tank. Tangs are best kept in bigger tanks to with more swimming space. I think if it were me i would take the wrasse back and deal with your white spot problem before adding anymore fish. Hope this helps

 

[Colin_T]

whitespot has three stages in its lifecycle. One stage is on the fish. The second stage it drops off the fish and sits in the gravel for a few days multiplying inside the whitespot cyst. The last stage is where the cyst ruptures and releases 1000s of little whitespots parasites into the water to reinfect the fish.
As soon as you see whitespot you need to start treatment immediately and continue treating for at least a week after the spots have fallen off the fish. If you stop treatment too soon the remaining cysts rupture and a massive infestation will attack the fish and cause rapid death.

 

[sally036]

Although tangs are prone to white spot I think it will have been the stress that brought it on as that is the biggest cause of white spot. I also think your stocking load is way too high for your size of tank. Tangs are best kept in bigger tanks to with more swimming space. I think if it were me i would take the wrasse back and deal with your white spot problem before adding anymore fish. Hope this helps

hi 5 fish too many? the tank is really quite large and the tang still small. i thought the treatments for white spot are no good because of the hermits and cleaner shrimp or have i got this wromg...ta

 

[sally036]

whitespot has three stages in its lifecycle. One stage is on the fish. The second stage it drops off the fish and sits in the gravel for a few days multiplying inside the whitespot cyst. The last stage is where the cyst ruptures and releases 1000s of little whitespots parasites into the water to reinfect the fish.
As soon as you see whitespot you need to start treatment immediately and continue treating for at least a week after the spots have fallen off the fish. If you stop treatment too soon the remaining cysts rupture and a massive infestation will attack the fish and cause rapid death.

hi colin what can i use in a tank with my hermitts in and cleaner shrimp? also why do you think the dragon wrasse is the only one left is it just the stress thing, will he therefor be safe to inflict back on my lfs

 

[Colin_T]

Most whitespot remedies will affect invertebrates like shrimp and crabs. If you have to treat the tank I would remove the shrimp and crabs to another tank and treat the main tank. If you have corals in the tank then don't treat the tank because the medications will upset the corals.

The dragon wrasse was probably the cause of the stress and quite often if the fish aren't stressed, they don't get the spots. I'm not sure why it happens that way but quite often it does. You can have some fish that cause all sorts of problems and everything dies from whitespot except the problem fish.
You could leave the wrasse and everything else in the tank. If the whitepost doesn't affect the fish the whitespot might just die off. Whitespot won't affect the inverts so they will be fine. If the fish hasn't developed spots in the next few days you can take him out.
Once you get rid of the wrasse don't add any new fish for a couple of weeks. This will allow the whitespot cysts a chance to hatch out and the spores will die after a couple of days without a host fish to live on.

 

[sally036]

Most whitespot remedies will affect invertebrates like shrimp and crabs. If you have to treat the tank I would remove the shrimp and crabs to another tank and treat the main tank. If you have corals in the tank then don't treat the tank because the medications will upset the corals.

The dragon wrasse was probably the cause of the stress and quite often if the fish aren't stressed, they don't get the spots. I'm not sure why it happens that way but quite often it does. You can have some fish that cause all sorts of problems and everything dies from whitespot except the problem fish.
You could leave the wrasse and everything else in the tank. If the whitepost doesn't affect the fish the whitespot might just die off. Whitespot won't affect the inverts so they will be fine. If the fish hasn't developed spots in the next few days you can take him out.
Once you get rid of the wrasse don't add any new fish for a couple of weeks. This will allow the whitespot cysts a chance to hatch out and the spores will die after a couple of days without a host fish to live on.

oh great thanks, i was thinking i had to wait a couple of months....will get rid of him next week then. i am planning to set up a quarentine tank so i can deal with anything before they all die. i have been reading up for info and a uv steriliser seems to be a must i was told i didnt need one ....what do you think does it really clean the water and helm prevent a outbreak...thanks for your help.. sal

 

[Colin_T]

I don't bother with U/V units unless I have a number of tanks running together on the same system. Then I use it to kill everything and prevent diseases from spreading between the tanks. If you only have one tank they are kind of pointless. If you want them to kill everything in the water you need a massive unit and you have to put the tank's water volume thru it every hour. Anything less and it won't do much.
A quarantine tank is more important because you can prevent a disease from getting into the tank in the first place.

 

[Amelia]

Although tangs are prone to white spot I think it will have been the stress that brought it on as that is the biggest cause of white spot. I also think your stocking load is way too high for your size of tank. Tangs are best kept in bigger tanks to with more swimming space. I think if it were me i would take the wrasse back and deal with your white spot problem before adding anymore fish. Hope this helps

hi 5 fish too many? the tank is really quite large and the tang still small. i thought the treatments for white spot are no good because of the hermits and cleaner shrimp or have i got this wromg...ta

I think 5 fish is to many for a 100l tank. The general rule for tangs is they like at least 300l tank.

 

[steelhealr]

Sally...can you give us some stats on your tank?
-date of startup?
-how much LR?
-test readings..pH, nitrite, nitrate, calcium levels

Thanks. SH

 

[sally036]

Sally...can you give us some stats on your tank?
-date of startup?
-how much LR?
-test readings..pH, nitrite, nitrate, calcium levels

Thanks. SH

hi lots of live rock all growing purple coraline and mushroom polyps etc. this tank only been going about 3 months but everything in it came from a nano tank that had been running without a hitch for about 8 months. nitrate 0 nitrate 0 ph i always struggle with at about 8 calcium levels i havent been testing is that a big no no ? should point out tang was not in nano tank so she is the only addition but i am told she was in lfs for six weeks she is was only small i thought she would be ok in 30g tank for a good while?

 

[steelhealr]

Sally...I am not here to beat you but to try and help. As you know, nano systems operate on similar principles as large marine systems but do not RESPOND similarly...they are smaller, increasing aggression among some fish..and do NOT tolerate rapid changes or deterioration in water quality. It is of the UTMOST importance to read about and research everything BEFORE it goes into the tank. Although I am not a HUGE fan of the following site, I post it here for you to review as a basic.......see how this may have made a difference?
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...tid=314&N=0
We're glad to help here. Don't add anything right now and see if you can re-home the tang. SH

 

[jeasko]

SH maybe you can answer/confirm this regarding whitespot.

Seems to be alot of people who recommend dipping infected fish in just clean RO water as this shocks the parasite into falling off the fish most people say upto about 4 min should do it without affecting the fish adversly, does this ring any bells?

Anyway sally another step you may want to consider is uv steriliser as this will help prevent the spread of whitespot by killing it off in the water as it passes through the filter, also tangs are notorius for stress even to the point if its near a source of noise it can stress it to much and develop white spot so unfortunately not everyone has a tank that is suitable to these fish.

there are a few treatments that are reeefsafe for whitespot but not 2 sure how good they are im afraid

 

[steelhealr]

Many people forget to one thing before doing the dip...ADJUST THE PH. RO water is pH 7. It can be less if a lot of CO2 dissolved. FW dips work by a change in osmolality. However, I would keep the pH the same.....so..the fish goes from pH 8.2, eg, to pH 8.2...IF one does a FW dip. SH