white dust?
 

Something is not right with my tank.

After 2 years of everything running smoothly, I've had 3 fish die on me in the last month. Two jumped out of the tank and the third (my precious powder blue), just stopped swimming one day.

I've checked the Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, and Ammonia and everything seems fine.

The only thing "wrong" I can think of is that I do have a lot of aiptasia.

I was taking a look ay my fish today and noticed that all of them are covered in a pwodery white dust, like they are covered in sand or something. I know what ick looks like and it is definitely not that.

They do appear to be eating fine. Any ideas?

When was the last time you add livestock, especially new fish? A few marine fish diseases/parasites have "white dust" as one of the symptoms. Maybe a picture will help. If no pictures, and you are sure its not marine ich, then google "velvet" or "Brooklynella" to see if the symptoms match yours.
Good luck.

Marine velvet

Definitely Marine Velvet. Your gonna have to quarantine your remaining fish and treat them and let the display tank remain fallow(no fish) for at least 6-8 weeks.

Sorry for the late response. It does look like marine velvet. I've been at work and busy setting up a hospital tank as soon as I got home. I maanged to get my puple tang out of there but looks like he won't make it. I'm treatinmg with copper. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm going to go in there now and try to get the rest out. It's not going to be easy. Not sure how I'm gpoing to fit all my fish into the 10 gallon tank.

Yikes!! What a nightmare. Everything was going so well for the last few years.

sorry to hear that. When you see symptoms for velvet, it's usually too late. A fresh water dip before you put them in the hospital tank might kill off some of parasites on the fish skin.
Good luck.

It is a nightmare, I dealt with it just over 2 years ago. Depending on how many fish you have, you'll need a bigger hospital tank. Velvet took out 3 of my 8 fish and I was able to keep the 5 of them in a 20gal. I left my main tank fishless for 3 months just to make sure it was gone. Sorry to hear you have this and good luck dealing with it.

Not good.....every fish that I was able to catch has died in the hospital tank. there are two remaining in the main tank (hippo tang and green wrasse). I abandoned trying to catch them. I've spent all night last night and today again since I've been home. I've taken out the rock but it just isn't happening. the green wrasse burrows himself into the sand and cannot be found. The hippo so far seems to be 100% healthy and just way too fast to catch. I've tried to add a glass barrier but I'm still having a hell of a time.

The fish that I was able to catch were not as fast due to the disease and were basically beyond hope.

I'm gonna give it a snother shot but is there any chance that fish can fight it off on their own?? If not, I'll keep trying. I did notice that they do have a white film on them. is it too late?

The only silver lining here is that I can now start treating my aiptasia outbreak. I'll by a bunch of peppermint shrimp and not feed the tank. Hopefully this forces them to eat off the aiptasia

YOu can't add any new fish until you have treated all of the contaminated fish in QT and have left the main tank empty of fish for 8 weeks.

When was last time you added something?

This is why quarantine make sense... it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.

if it is Velvet I would be very surprised that any survive if you dont treat them with copper.
IMO you need to catch the remaining fish and treat them if you want to give them a chance to survive.

Trust me, I'm not planning on adding new fish for a long long time. I was thinking of adding peppermint shrimp to eat off the aiptasia. is this a no no as well?

I have not added a new fish to my tank in over 2 years. The only thing I can think of is that about a month ago, my clown fish jumped out of the tank and lucky for it, I happened to be in the area. I was able to get him into the tank again alive. His eye began to bulge after a few days so maybe this is what caused it?

That is the only thing I can think of

if you added coral within the last month then it could have come on that in a dormant stage and then hatched in your tank.
that is very odd because there is no way that marine velvet would have been in your tank for 2 years without wiping it out.
Marine Velvet is horrible and brutally efficient at wiping out complete tanks in a very very short period of time.
other than that, I have no explaination.

Nope, no new coral either. It really doesn;t make sense. The first to go was my second jumper (foxface). I found him the next day all dried up on the floor. Then it was my powder blue. Then the first jumper (clown). Then my purple tang and now my tomato clown. I've given up trying to catch the hippo tang. He's looking like a goner too and there is no use. It is just crazy how fast it happens. One day they are eating and the next day they are dead.

It could only have been from the clown that originally jumped out. His eye bulged and likely infected the rest of the tank. He was the only guy that was introduced back into the tank after the fall. I can't even remember the last time I bought a fish.

The more I think about it, the more I may be leaning towards getting out of the hobby. It is difficult to see all your fish go like this.

If you did not add anything for months then it is not marine velvet.

However it could be some bacterial infection.

Discus plague is caused by a nasty bacteria that can be present on some fish and kill any new fish coming in contact with it that are not immune to it.

If we think about the flesh eating bacteria, it is present in our environment yet for no apparent reason it can start eating people flesh.

Maybe when you put your clownfish back into your tank it cought some bacterial infection and that spreaded to other fish?

I cannot be marine velvet if you did not add anything to your tank.

Does not make sense in deed.

When my discus cought the discus plague, they were covered with a white powdery looking film. Some were floating on the side half dead. I had to treat them with potassium permaganate baths each day for 4 hours at a very critical dosage and they all survived, but I was very tired by the end of that week. All this for a bacterial infection that became very potent very fast.

Don't know what it was but I was never able to catch my green wrasse. He hides into the sand and makes it difficult to even find him. Anyways, he is swimming around with no apparent symptoms. The hippo tang is in the hospital tank and he looks fine as well.

Everything else is dead. Just like that. Craziness. That's a real lonely 180g.

Maybe it was a case of out of control ick. Every time I have seen ick, it has been a bunch of pin prick type marks. Also, with ick, it took a while before the fish would pass away, giving you enough time to take it out and treat it. With this, the fish was swimming around and eating one day but dead the next.