Water perimeters are great, but fish keep dying!

Quick facts about my tank:

155 Gallon
125 pound live rock
225 pounds live sand
Fluval FX5 filter

nitrates 0
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
pH 8.0
salinity 1.023


Current stock:
Foxface
2 clowns
3 cardinals
1 lionfish (baby)
1 puffer
1 snowflake eel
1 marine beta

They are all small except for the fox, he is full grown.


I lost 1 lionfish, and an angler fish recently. Now I'm seeing red spots on the foxface, and a small white patch on my puffers face. Pretty much now everyone in my tank is losing their appetite and hiding. The cardinals and clowns are in the corner, and the foxface is swimming alot less. The lionfish that I still have refuses to eat, which is very unusual for him. Wondering what these fish have, and how to treat them. I'm willing to do whatever, but I don't have an extra tank for a QT. I'm looking for some options to dose and treat the main tank and leave everyone in there...



I just don't understand what happened, my water perimeters are always spot on, I change the water once every 1-2 weeks because the ammonia and whatnot never raise above 0.

Any thoughts??? Melafix/Pimafix? Copper medications?? Something outside the box??? Any advice is appreciated!



Here is some pics of the fish:

 

it's hard to tell from the picture especially on the foxface. I'll let others chime in in terms of what it might be. Are there spots on the fish, like ich? it looks like that may be what's on the puffer. Have you added something recently? if so, when and was it the first to get sick? how long are the fish alive once you see the spots on the fish. It doesn't sound like velvet but I could be wrong.....if they are dying quickly then suspect velvet and treat as soon as possible. I just don't know enough about medications to steer you in the right direction for that....

Is this a fish only tank?

 

Sorry for the bad pictures, he moves too much, and my camera phone sucks. The foxface has red spots on his sides. No white spots on him, which makes me think it may NOT be ich?? I'm not sure. I might not know enough about Ich though...

On the puffer he only has a white patch on his mouth, and it's bigger then typical "ich," and it's nowhere else on his body other than on his mouth... Maybe it's a fight wound? Or a fungus of some kind??


I did actually buy one clown fish rather recently. Like, a week ago. This all started happening about 3 or 4 days ago. The clown fish appeared perfectly healthy though, and I really don't see anything wrong with him... yet. It's just the puffer and the foxface that are showing visible affections.

The other fish show more signs of fatigue and loss of appetite, and hiding in corners, stuff like that... I'm really at a loss of what to do =/

 

Kind of looks like it could be a bacterial infection from the faded white spots. What were you feeding these guys before you lost the lion and angler?

 

I was feeding the majority of the fish a mix of flake foods, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen krill.


The lionfish and angler ate feeder fish, and ghost shrimp. They wouldn't touch the frozen yet...

 

Just to clarify, what kind of feeder fish and what type of flakes were you feeding?

All those fish have different dietary needs and should be fed a large variety. IMOPE, fish that are not receiving proper nutrition will eventually become lethargic and stop eating. This can take several months for some species. Their immune system is also compromised in the process, leaving them more susceptible to parasites and infections.

 

I guess you could assume they have some sort of bacterial infection - they would all be in really bad shape right now if it was velvet. I would read the various medications and see if they treat something similar to what they look like. It sounds maybe they are in a weakened state and then that makes them susceptible for secondary bacterial infections.

 

Just curious is the fluval fx5 your only mechanical filtration? No skimmer or sump?

 

How old is your tank by the way? Looks really new since your rocks are still white. Thats a lot of fish for a new system. From my experience, if you add them that soon its always a 50/50 of them living very long.