Mysterious fish death!

[genesis]

So just had my 3 largest fish randomly just die...... Scribbled rabbit fish, yellow tang, flame angel. Only thing out of the ordinary I did today was I was getting quite a bit of GHA on some of my rock so I went through the entire tank with a toothbrush and gave it a good scrub down. Siphoned it all out afterwards for the most part. The tank was still cloudy but I was expecting it to clear up by the morning like normal. Any ideas how this happen? Pretty sad right now.... These were some of my original fish that I've had for a long time and watched them grow from little guys
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[jbdreefs]

What a bummer!

 

[genesis]

That's sand not ich in the picture. All my fish went through an extensive QT process so parasite is not an option. This was a sudden death that happened in less than an hour

 

[bkostuch]

Oh no, sorry for the losses Brandon Those guys look really healthy, I know with all the GHA I had I removed rock and scrubbed, dipped in RO and then placed it back in the tank. Just throwing stuff out here, possible nitrate spike from the scrubbing? Some weird chemical on the toothbrush?


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[lsu_fishfan]

Sorry for the loss Brandon. I've had a similar experience when I had gha in my tank. Moved around rocks to scrub and remove gha. When I woke in the morning my yellow and kole tang were both dead.

 

[camellia]

bkostuch;1077282 wrote: Oh no, sorry for the losses Brandon Those guys look really healthy, I know with all the GHA I had I removed rock and scrubbed, dipped in RO and then placed it back in the tank. Just throwing stuff out here, possible nitrate spike from the scrubbing? Some weird chemical on the toothbrush?


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If it's the fist time you've done this, I agree with above!

So very sorry!

I had a simulair issue with 3 new fish awhile back. It was just a "normal" weekly feeding then rock cleaning routine of mine but the new additions had probably never experienced such spike. It's the ONLY thing I could one up with to contribute their death. So sad for you

 

[genesis]

I'm thinking it was either a nitrate spike or an oxygen depletion because it was quite a bit of detritus suspended in the water... I don't know it just sucks that they went out like that...

 

[jennm]

I'm sorry for your losses

Do you have other fishes in the tank? If so, are they showing any signs of stress?

My first thought was some sort of toxicity. Was it a new toothbrush, or one previously used for something else? (Fluoride is toxic to fishes).

How long did you have no circulation in the tank?

Do you vacuum your sand-bed regularly? And how thick is it? And did you smell anything foul (thinking hydrogen sulfide from a disturbed pocket of detritus).

Something on your hands? Lotion, bug spray...

This points to either a sudden toxic event or a lack of oxygen. Turbid water won't necessarily lead to low oxygen, so stirring up crap isn't necessarily the issue.

Jenn

 

[butch]

Sorry for your loss Brandon. Did they look overly stressed out when you were cleaning the rock? FWIW, they looked extremely healthy.

 

[grouper therapy]

JennM;1077306 wrote: I'm sorry for your losses

Do you have other fishes in the tank? If so, are they showing any signs of stress?

My first thought was some sort of toxicity. Was it a new toothbrush, or one previously used for something else? (Fluoride is toxic to fishes).

How long did you have no circulation in the tank?

Do you vacuum your sand-bed regularly? And how thick is it? And did you smell anything foul (thinking hydrogen sulfide from a disturbed pocket of detritus).

Something on your hands? Lotion, bug spray...

This points to either a sudden toxic event or a lack of oxygen. Turbid water won't necessarily lead to low oxygen, so stirring up crap isn't necessarily the issue.

Jenn

That is my thoughts especially coupled with the algae floating in the water possibly impairing water passage over the gills. Those fish being large enough to pull in the debris.

 

[genesis]

JennM;1077306 wrote: I'm sorry for your losses

Do you have other fishes in the tank? If so, are they showing any signs of stress?

My first thought was some sort of toxicity. Was it a new toothbrush, or one previously used for something else? (Fluoride is toxic to fishes).

How long did you have no circulation in the tank?

Do you vacuum your sand-bed regularly? And how thick is it? And did you smell anything foul (thinking hydrogen sulfide from a disturbed pocket of detritus).

Something on your hands? Lotion, bug spray...

This points to either a sudden toxic event or a lack of oxygen. Turbid water won't necessarily lead to low oxygen, so stirring up crap isn't necessarily the issue.

Jenn

All other fish are okay. 2 clowns, 8 chromis, blue hippo tang, sailfin tang, Midas blenny, spotted mandarin, snowflake eel.

I think it was about an hour of no circulation/scrubbing. Siphoned out junk and started everything back up.

The toothbrush no issues. It was a dedicated maintenance brush.

No foul smells, I don't vacuum the sandbed unless it has some detritus build up on top. It's a couple inches deep.

Nothing on my hands, they were clean.

Fish did seem stressed during the cleaning but they have gone through similar situations (milder) during monthly maintenance/water change. My clowns afterwards were sitting on the bottom breathing kind of heavily but they snapped out of it.

 

[genesis]

Another side note. Started dosing nopox a couple weeks ago not sure if carbon dosing played a role in the scrubbing of the rock?

 

[genesis]

Appreciate all the support btw

 

[genesis]

Water parameters
SG- 1.027 ppm (usually in the 1.025-1.026 range)
Alk- 8 dkh
Ca- 425 ppm
Mg- 1400 ppm
No3- 1 ppm
Po4- 0 ppm
Ph- 8.0
Ammonia,nitrite- 0 ppm

I was expecting something to be out of order to justify this but nope.

On top of the fish loss I had a couple acros RTN and other corals not looking so healthy