A sad, sad day for FishyFishy

[FishyFishy!]

:cry:

So I had a massive fish die-off in two of my tanks yesterday. Its the weirdest thing...

I have 3 small tanks right now, and I came home to find all fish dead in 2 of the tanks. All my corals and inverts are doing awesome still. Water perameters are perfect. The only thing that I can think of is that I got a bad batch of Mysis. I know its a long shot, but its the only thing that the two tanks have in common. My third tank that I feed pellets only too was totally fine and normal. I opened the package on Tuesday night, fed the BC29, and the shallow tank that night with Mysis, the BC14 with NLS pellets. Wednesday afternoon, I came home to all fish dead. Not a single one left in the two Mysis tanks...

I lost the following fish, but nothing else! Inverts are fine, corals are looking great...

1 X Maroon Gold Stripe CLown
1 X Flame Angel
1 X Kole Tang
1 X True Perc clown
1 X Tailspot Blenny
1 X Black back Butterfly
1 X Bi-color Dottyback
2 X Black Yellowline Damsels

A sad, sad day for FishyFishy... and an expensive one.

[Vitaminz]

Sorry to hear about your losses, that totally sucks.

[Leah]

Oh no! so sorry to hear.

[DCDN]

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss

[Coleus]

sorry to hear Mike.

[Steve'o]

ahh sorry to hear
:(

[skabooya]

OMG thats horrible. I will cry for you, Im pretty emotional right now anyway.
That is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard. Must be frustrating too.

[naesco]

Sorry to hear this.
When almost all fish die suddenly in a tank it is often oxygen starvation. This can happen for a number of reasons including a combination of a tank overheating, sand bed disturbance, too many fish for the size of the tank and lack of flow near the top of your tank.
Did you observe that the fish were swimming near the top of the tank prior to leaving your home?

[FishyFishy!]

No, they were all perfect, and swimming normally. I have high flow, and surface aggitation in both tanks. They were all fine and thriving for more than 6 months. All my corals look fantastic still, and are all growing normally. I don't think that either of the tanks were over stocked.

[Reefpins10]

My heart goes out to you for losing the fish :sad::sad:. I had lost all my fish from ich within a month too, so I totally understand how you feel right now. I am so sorry for you, Fishy.

[amy]

Oh, thats very sad! And frustrating too, I wonder if the mysis company would be willing to test the food and see?
I am sorry for your loss :(

[Delphinus]

Wow that's terrible, sorry to hear it man. :(

How are the tank temps?

[FishyFishy!]

BC29 is at 80.2
Shallow 30 is at 78.5

Read with two different thermometers for accuracy.

Just bewildered at this point

[Bblinks]

It really sounds like the food. Man, that really sucks. Are you gonna "test" the food some how?

[Lance]

:sad: Terrible news!
You may be on the right track with the bad Mysis assumption. I've read about several cases of Vibrio poisoning from Mysis. Apparently, the vibrio is in the frozen Mysis water and it is very important to thaw and rinse well before feeding. Mrfish55 thinks he had the same thing happen.

[FishyFishy!]

The Mysis is the only thing that I can think of. Thats the only thing that was introduced into the two tanks the night before. Brand new package, no previous signs of disease or stress from fish, water perams are perfect, and killed all fish and nothing else.

How would I go about testing? Not that I really need too, because the worst has already happened, but it would be nice to find out.

I will from now on thaw and wash all mysis before feeding thats for sure. I used to just let it get mooshy then drop it in.

[daniella3d]

sorry for your loss but all these fish in such small tanks????!! My guess is they died from lack of oxygen from the temperature rising.

That's a lot of fish in such a tiny tanks.

Contaminated mysis? I think not all the fish would have died...unless it is poison and if it is poison then other things would have died as well. Surely the invertabrate ate some too, and they would be dead too.

BTW, was that PE Mysis? because those are freshwater and are unlikely to carry any saltwater disease or bacteria.




:cry:

So I had a massive fish die-off in two of my tanks yesterday. Its the weirdest thing...

I have 3 small tanks right now, and I came home to find all fish dead in 2 of the tanks. All my corals and inverts are doing awesome still. Water perameters are perfect. The only thing that I can think of is that I got a bad batch of Mysis. I know its a long shot, but its the only thing that the two tanks have in common. My third tank that I feed pellets only too was totally fine and normal. I opened the package on Tuesday night, fed the BC29, and the shallow tank that night with Mysis, the BC14 with NLS pellets. Wednesday afternoon, I came home to all fish dead. Not a single one left in the two Mysis tanks...

I lost the following fish, but nothing else! Inverts are fine, corals are looking great...

1 X Maroon Gold Stripe CLown
1 X Flame Angel
1 X Kole Tang
1 X True Perc clown
1 X Tailspot Blenny
1 X Black back Butterfly
1 X Bi-color Dottyback
2 X Black Yellowline Damsels

A sad, sad day for FishyFishy... and an expensive one.

[abcha0s]

Hey Mike. I'm also really sorry to hear this. I know you must be bummed.

I'm not convinced it's the food. If it were the food, you might expect one or two fish too tough it out. You might also expect them to show signs of distress over a couple of days. That's not to say that it couldn't be a toxin in the food that kills rapidly, but if that is the case I think we can expect to hear of other occurrences in the coming days.

The oxygen theory is plausible. It's worth exploring, but also seems unlikely to hit both tanks simultaneously. Stranger things have happened.

I'm not sure that I can help with the answer, but there must be one. I know it's cruel, but I would be tempted to buy a 'canary' fish and see if the tank water is the culprit. If he was fine in the tank, I'd feed the mysis. I would document everything and if that killed him I would threaten the manufacturer with a massive publicity campaign. With proof in hand, they might settle.

At the very least, I wouldn't throw out the food just yet. Nor would I really suggest using it ever again.

- Brad

[Oxymoron]

Oh No! So sorry to hear this Fishy.
Best of wishes on a speedy recovery.

[ALang]

So sorry to hear that Fishy. Hard to say what happened, except for your hunch.
Scary because we feed Mysis, too. When your other tank is not effected, that's pretty suspicious. I know that you would have racked your brain thinking of the common link to what has happened.

[naesco]

No, they were all perfect, and swimming normally. I have high flow, and surface aggitation in both tanks. They were all fine and thriving for more than 6 months. All my corals look fantastic still, and are all growing normally. I don't think that either of the tanks were over stocked.

Fishy you have a 2 foot , 25 gallon tank with a tang and a butterfly in it. Much much too small a tank for these type of fish.
For a tank you size 3 small fish would be enough

[Wayne]

Sorry to hear about the fish losses :( Never a fun thing to come home too.

[toytech]

Overstocking isnt likely the problem , all depends on equipment .

[Stumped]

Overstocking isnt likely the problem , all depends on equipment .

First off I definitely am sorry to hear about the losses. It's certainly a terrible thing to lose any fish, let alone that many in such a short period of time.

But I have to disagree with this statement. I'm not saying it was the cause of this situation, but overstocking a small tank can definitely lead to this outcome.

With the relatively low surface area in smaller tanks, all it takes is the temp to go up and then the oxygen saturation goes down with it, and then it's all downhill from there.

Other than the blenny, all the fish are quite active and require more oxygen rich water than a perching or substrate dwelling fish would. I have no idea what kind of equipment he was running, but for the most part no small tank has an excessive amount of equipment running in it. Cost and space are prohibitive. Which is why the margin for error with them is usually much smaller than a larger tank.