Help! All Fish In Very Established Tank Are Dying Cause Unknown

[Emmabrownie]

Hi,

I went on holiday at the beginning of the month for a couple of weeks and left my marine tank in the very capable hands of another marine owner. I have 2 clowns, 1 regal tang, 4 green chromis, 1 pyjama wrass a couple of cleaner shrimp and turbo snails. Before I left I did a thorough clean out and set up my auto feeder. All seemed fine until she rang me after a couple of days saying the light had broken (I have it on an automatic timer and it comes on for a few hours each day because the fish are kept in a fairly dark alcove). I thought this wouldnt be an issue so I told her not to worry as most people have told me that the light is kept on for display purposes only.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I came home and she told me one of my clownfish had died (I put this down to the light not being on as they arent used to it). Anyway when I actually checked the tank 2 of the chromis and the other clownfish were dead too. I have no idea when they died or why!

I have had this tank established for well over a year now with no problems so assumed it was the lack of light which caused them to stop feeding or something. Anyway I have been back from holiday for over a week now and all the other fish (except the pyjama wrass) are now sick!

The Tang is lying on the bottom of the tank and has been for two days, he seems a bit better today as I have been treating the water with melafix because I have no clue at all what is going on.He is very pale and has pretty much lost all his colouring and is not eating. Im not sure if he has ich because he has no spots really on him and it has come on so suddenly.

This morning I woke up to find my remaining 2 chromis darting around the tank very erratically and twitching which I have never come across before having been a tropical and marine fish owner for years. They also didnt want to eat. I dont know if it is ich as they dont seem to be breathing rapidly and I cant see any white spots on them either. They both seem unable to swim properly. The tang however seems to be steady but is lying at the bottom of the tank with no colour, when I turned on the lamp this morning he seemed much better than last night as I thought he was going to die in the night.

Please help me, there is no point me moving them to a QT tank because pretty much all of them have died.

I checked the water and did a 10% change yesterday because I thought it may be due to this but all the numbers are fine, there is no ammonia or nitrite, nitrates are at 20ppm, the pH is 8.1 there is no phosphate in there either. It cant be the water so what on earth is going on?

Shall I keep treating with melafix or is it a lost cause? I hace some anti white spot treatment however this is from my old freshwater tank supply and Im not sure I can use it with shrimp in there.

Thank you for your advice in advance I wouldnt wish this on anyone!!

Emma

 

[Luzi]

It's definately not ich! It's very rare in marine tanks as the parasite doesn't tolerate salt well. Never dose marine tanks with freshwater meds, the salt usually turns them toxic

I know it's a late reply but if any of your fish are still alive it might help
Get a light asap and switch it on at the same times that the old one was on.

Aquarium lights, especially in dark tanks, set the times for the fish's day. When yours went off they probably had a 48h night which stressed them and weakened their immune system, especially if they weren't eating.
Melafix is a good idea once the routine is back to normal, but there's not much else to do apart from keeping stress at a minimum

Good luck

 

[karin]

Unfortunately you are in a forum that focuses on fresh water aquarium and species. Have you tried to post this to the forum's saltwater section. You would get more experience people there.