Clownfish are mysteriously dying quickly!!! Please help!

[jcjacobs13]

I have a 14g Biocube and I bought a Picasso clown and a carmel clown from two different stores. The Picasso spent all day at the top of the tank breathing fairly quickly. After 6 days suddenly his fins became very frayed and his tail was becoming white. Hours later I found him dead. After 3 days I bought a new black ocellaris to replace the Picasso.Just yesterday my carmel clown started breathing rapidly and swimming in place. Today I woke up to him having the same frayed and white fins as the Picasso and hours later he also died. I tried giving him and the newer black ocellaris a freshwater bath but it didn't seem to help the carmel clown. I now have given my remaining ocellaris an hour long bath in quICK cure as it contains formalin. He has not show any symptoms beside possibly breathing faster but I really do not want him to succumb to the same illness as the other two. Please can one can tell me what is going on with them and how to treat my clown so he also doesn't die

My tank parameters are fine so I don't believe water quality is the problem

 

[jcjacobs13]

Nobody???

 

[HumbleFish]

I can't see anything visibly wrong from the pic, except the discoloration/frayed tail fin. Did any of the clowns exhibit symptoms of Brooklynella - white mucus covering parts of the body? Sometimes the gills become clogged with mucus.

The two other possibilities would be Velvet (should see tiny dots all over the fish) or an aggressive gram negative bacterial infection. The latter would be consistent with tail rot.

 

[jcjacobs13]

There was no mucus or dots that really pointed to brook or velvet.. It looks like tail rot but it just killed so quickly it's hard to say. Any advice on treatment or prevention for my other clown. Thanks

 

[jcjacobs13]

Here's a pic of the second clown. He shows the same tail rot

 

[HumbleFish]

There was no mucus or dots that really pointed to brook or velvet.. It looks like tail rot but it just killed so quickly it's hard to say. Any advice on treatment or prevention for my other clown. Thanks

Assuming it's a bacterial infection (which would be the most likely case if both Brook & Velvet are ruled out), you'd need to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic in QT. You could try any of the following: Furan-2, Kanaplex, or Maracyn Plus. But know that gram negative bacterial infections can kill fast (24-48 hrs), and survival rates are pretty low (even with antibiotic treatment).

 

[msderganc]

Could it be flukes?

 

[saltyair]

"My tank parameters are fine so I don't believe water quality is the problem "
how old is the tank? what are the parameters?

imo that looks like ammonia burns that have turned into an infection.

please clarify 3 clowns in a 16 gal? clowns are very territorial and will pair up leaving aggression toward the 3rd

 

[sc50964]

Here's a pic of the second clown. He shows the same tail rot

Looks like fin rot. Check the following for reference and treatment method.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/disease.html

 

[jcjacobs13]

I had three clowns, not all at the same time. My mandarin goby shows no signs of ammonia poisoning or anything else and my tests have shown 0ppm for both ammonia and nitrites.

 

[jcjacobs13]

My parameters
0ammonia
0nitrites
20ppm nitrates
8.0pH

The tank is about two and a half months now

 

[STX Diver]

How long did each fish live before it died?

 

[jcjacobs13]

About 2-3 days after I started to see symptoms

 

[STX Diver]

Ok but total time in your tank till death.

 

[jcjacobs13]

The first clown that died was in for about 6 days and the second was in for 2 weeks

 

[msderganc]

I'd still say flukes. They can cause the fin rot appearance and the erratic swimming. Plus, easy to treat with prazipro.

 

[MrTuskfish]

A little off topic; but I'd never put two clowns in a 16 gal tank. I don't keep up with all of the designer clowns, so don't know what species they are. Mixing clown species in any tank is iffy, in a nano-tank, its probably a death sentence for one of them.

 

[Halo_003]

A little off topic; but I'd never put two clowns in a 16 gal tank. I don't keep up with all of the designer clowns, so don't know what species they are. Mixing clown species in any tank is iffy, in a nano-tank, its probably a death sentence for one of them.

True, but picasso is based off of A. Percula, and caramel is A. Ocellaris. I wouldn't mix them personally but I see it done a lot without any issues, so in this case I don't think that's the issue. Can't remember if it was here or NR, but I remember seeing that A. Perc and A. Occ can't really tell that the other is different.

 

[MrTuskfish]

True, but picasso is based off of A. Percula, and caramel is A. Ocellaris. I wouldn't mix them personally but I see it done a lot without any issues, so in this case I don't think that's the issue. Can't remember if it was here or NR, but I remember seeing that A. Perc and A. Occ can't really tell that the other is different.

These two species will often spawn producing hybrids. Or, as they sexually mature, the larger female will often kill the smaller male of the another species. I just think that keeping two clowns in so little water isn't a good idea at best, these fish need more room. Either of these fish can reach 3" or so and are fairly robust. A tank this small, containg, maybe, 10 gals of water should have tiny fish, IMO.