some sort if disease is giving me a headache... help please

[supersporter69]

Okay.. We will begin from the begining... In august I set up my tank with 1 bag of live sand and let it run for a month... Then I added a couple pieces of live rock.. let it sit for a week.. Then added a purculus clown, and a couple damsels... The damsels all survived but after 2 weeks my clown fish got a whole bunch of little white dots on his face and fins, and died a day later.. i got another and the same thing happened... I order more live rock from "aquarium arts" to get the look I wanted, I tried purchasing a small hippo tang another clown which again saw the same numerous white dots covering the body.. I looked online and it looks oodinium? or matches the pictures at least.. Someone told me my damsels could be causing stress to the others so I got rid of them.. I bought a firefish and he was doing great for like 2 months. But I kept loosing clowns. So i took all the live rock out and invertibrates out and cleaned the whole tank with bleach(making sure all the bleach was out) put new live sand in and let it cycle and put everything back in.. that worked for a week then another clown kicked the bucket with the same symptoms but my firefish survived. Then my LFS told me that my firfish may be the cause and to take my inverts out of the tank and treat it for oodinum, so i did with some instant ocean pills... thought that fixed it but NO!! my firfish came up missing 2 weeks later but showed no signs of anything! thats when i began looking for creatures... I bought a pearl butterfly fish.... Who i saw getting attacked by the gorilla crab.. thus gorilla crab got boiled... butterfly fish saw the same signs as the clowns, started loosing scales then died.. So i got another fire fish who was the one i just found dead.. no signs on him because he never came out of the rockwork ... I got a headache now lol

[leebca]

I'm not convinced you're dealing with Marine Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)

It is usually invisible 'spots' giving the fish a shiny/velvety appearance. If you can see individual spots and they are the size of a grain of salt or sugar, that isn't Marine Velvet. By the time you see MV, the fish is about to die. It is far more likely you're dealing with Marine Ich. I want you to read through the first part of this post and re-think the diagnosis: Curing Fish of Marine Ich

You will need to change you're approach to the hobby. First you need to set up a quarantine tank (QT) and then follow good quarantine procedures. All you need to do is leave all fish out of your aquarium system for no less than 8 weeks and the Velvet and/or Marine Ich will die off. BUT you don't want to add anything during this time AND you will add nothing more until it has been through quarantine.

For QT info, follow these guidelines:
A Quarantine Process (step-by-step)

Last comment is the start up procedure. You began nice and slow, then rushed the fish in. I know it doesn't seem like that to you, but, that is part of the initial problems. The better approach, with careful water analysis and attention to giving the system time to adjust would be like this: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

In average sized aquarium, one fish added every 6 weeks would be the right rate of addition AFTER the fish passed through quarantine. But what exactly is the size of your aquarium?

[supersporter69]

I appreciate the input an will be followig this to the T... I have a 29 gallon aquarium with an eclipse 3 hood. The lighting has been retrofitted with a corallife 65W CP. also added is a K1 pump and about 40 lbs of live rock.. the 8 weeks. Ihave numerous inverts and a very small scooter blenny that do not appear to be affected by any disease are they okay to leave in for he 8 weeks and still expect the disease be gone?

[leebca]

ALL fish must come out. Don't be fooled just because you don't see any display of the disease. Once the parasite is present, all fish have it and can carry it. ;)

I'd like you to follow that link regarding curing Marine Ich. That will be your best guide AND it will answer questions like this.

[supersporter69]

sweet! i just ordered all the medications you suggested in stocking the medicine cabinet. I also ordered the sponge filter. I will go today and get a 5 gallon tank to set up as my QT. and remove my scooter blenny an start the 8 weeks and treat him at the same time. I really do appreciate all the help. I really hope idont kill off as many fish or any.. anymore.

[leebca]

You're welcome. Good luck!