Losing scales then death??? Help!

The fish is still alive, but won't be for very long. It's lost all it's scales on the side of it's body and is swimming vertically. I watched it for quite some time yesterday and didn't see it rub on anything. If it was to rub on anything it's all smooth plastic. I'm really at a loss with this.

As for temperature, When my lights are on, the temp seems to stay around 82F and when they're off, it's it's 80F.

As far as the fluctuations in temperature in the ocean, just change depth by a few feet and the temperature changes a degree or two. Cloud coverage, storms, currents all effect the water temperature. Even check out: this. There's large fluctuations in temperature.

Does the swing in temperature stress the fish, yes, I agree with this, but I just can't see it stressing this fish enough to shed all of the scales.

 

Hum that dark spot is weird are all suffer with this dark spot also ?
Except for the darkened area I'd say Dropsy or maybe Columnaris ? hard to really say with out doing a dissection of the fish . I have seen several parasites cause this also that live at the base of the scales . Like a leech or flukes ? Could be a crap or some other predator hiding in there doing the damage also. I myself would just flush them as the cure if possible will cost more then the fish and all the problems and 99.99% chances are it will die anyways and allow the tank to run fish free for a few weeks or a month .

 

About two hours ago I found him dead. Again, this fish was all alone, nothing in the tank with him.

 

hmm im sorry to hear that. i really ran out of ideas on why this could of happen. im with tangster, you should let your tank run fishless for a while, maybe a month. then try again.

try taking our dead fish to the LFS. Maybe he can diagnose?

 

It almost looks like an infection... Septicemia...

 

I tried this the first time and got shrugged off and scolded for having this guy die a day after the return policy. He did replace the fish at 1/2 price, but was unable/unwilling to diagnose what was wrong. I'm not one to put a companies name through mud, so I can just hope no one here lives in WI as to not deal with this pet store.

 

Personally, that's what I thought happened the first time around. I've seen it in freshwater fish a few times, but since I'm still green, I left it up to the experts.