JohnnyW
Premium Member
I posted this in the fish disease forum, but I figured I would post here as well since many of the forum browsers here are really knowledgeable about clowns and thats where my problem is at.
I seem to be completely stumped on what is going on in one of my tanks right now. For some reason, clownfish just aren't surviving in it. Here is what has happened as of late.
About a month, month and a half ago, we bought a pair of GSM Clowns to pretty much complete the stocking in the tank. The next day, it appeared that both had developed Ich. Since we purchased them on a Saturday, Sunday was a very difficult day to obtain anything to knock it out. So Monday morning, my wife got to the LFS and purchased "Kick-Ich". By the time she got back from the LFS, the larger GSM had passed. The smaller GSM wasn't looking that great either so we isolated him from the rest of the tank in a large frag bin I made a while back. By the next morning, the smaller had passed as well. The LFS did a test on our water to confirm that it wasn't something in our tank, and they gave us full credit back in the form of a second pair of clowns.
My wife decided that a pair of black saddleback clowns looked good. The saddlebacks seemed to be doing fine until about the 2nd or 3rd day that we had them, then they seemed to develop a thin white that we thought could be brook or velvet. We don't have a QT tank set up (yet, we will now for sure), so we had to keep an eye on them and see what we could do for them. My wife did a freshwater dip using RO/DI water and baking soda to up the pH to where it needed to be. Less than 2 minutes into the dip, the clown began flipping out and trying to jump out of the dip, so my wife removed her immediately and returned her to the main tank. Less than an hour later, she passed too. We called the LFS and told them what had happened and they agreed to take the final Saddleback back into their care and gave us in-store credit.
In the meantime, in the same tank, there are two green chromis and a small yellow tang who are doing fine and are looking completely healthy.
Now, fast-forward to about a week ago. Thinking that whatever caused our problems before with the clowns may be gone now, we bought a pair of Occeralis Clowns from a different LFS than before. Immediately, they went straight to our GBTA and began hosting with it. After about a day, they seemed to be getting Ich, but it seemed to have cleared up a day later. Then by the end of the next day, they both had a mucus-like layer on parts of the body. Once again, the larger of the pair displays the worse symptoms of the two. We began treating the tank with Melafix in hopes that this would get rid of the problem. It seemed for a few days that it was working, until today. By this afternoon, the larger of the pair was swimming mainly just below the surface and breathing heavily. She also had a whitish cloudy film starting just ahead of her left gill and continuing up to her mouth and covering her left eye. I tried a hyposalinity dip treated with melafix for 15 minutes. During the dip, the film immediately began to fall off and she seemed to be breathing much better. As it got closer to 15 minutes she began to act a little erratic, so I removed her from the dip, rinsed her in a second container, and replaced her in the main tank isolated from the rest of the tank so I could keep an eye on her. 15 minutes later, she had passed. Now we have one Occeralis Clown left in the tank and he doesn't look too bad, but now we have lost four clowns in almost 2 months and I don't want to risk losing anything else.
We have looked at many different possibilities of what this could be but I am stumped. Only the clownfish seem to be affected by whatever this is. The tang and chromis are still fine, showing no signs of sickness at all.
I have debated setting up a QT tank and removing all of the fish from the tank, but have no idea how long I would need to keep them out for, or what is in the tank that is killing off the clownfish.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I seem to be completely stumped on what is going on in one of my tanks right now. For some reason, clownfish just aren't surviving in it. Here is what has happened as of late.
About a month, month and a half ago, we bought a pair of GSM Clowns to pretty much complete the stocking in the tank. The next day, it appeared that both had developed Ich. Since we purchased them on a Saturday, Sunday was a very difficult day to obtain anything to knock it out. So Monday morning, my wife got to the LFS and purchased "Kick-Ich". By the time she got back from the LFS, the larger GSM had passed. The smaller GSM wasn't looking that great either so we isolated him from the rest of the tank in a large frag bin I made a while back. By the next morning, the smaller had passed as well. The LFS did a test on our water to confirm that it wasn't something in our tank, and they gave us full credit back in the form of a second pair of clowns.
My wife decided that a pair of black saddleback clowns looked good. The saddlebacks seemed to be doing fine until about the 2nd or 3rd day that we had them, then they seemed to develop a thin white that we thought could be brook or velvet. We don't have a QT tank set up (yet, we will now for sure), so we had to keep an eye on them and see what we could do for them. My wife did a freshwater dip using RO/DI water and baking soda to up the pH to where it needed to be. Less than 2 minutes into the dip, the clown began flipping out and trying to jump out of the dip, so my wife removed her immediately and returned her to the main tank. Less than an hour later, she passed too. We called the LFS and told them what had happened and they agreed to take the final Saddleback back into their care and gave us in-store credit.
In the meantime, in the same tank, there are two green chromis and a small yellow tang who are doing fine and are looking completely healthy.
Now, fast-forward to about a week ago. Thinking that whatever caused our problems before with the clowns may be gone now, we bought a pair of Occeralis Clowns from a different LFS than before. Immediately, they went straight to our GBTA and began hosting with it. After about a day, they seemed to be getting Ich, but it seemed to have cleared up a day later. Then by the end of the next day, they both had a mucus-like layer on parts of the body. Once again, the larger of the pair displays the worse symptoms of the two. We began treating the tank with Melafix in hopes that this would get rid of the problem. It seemed for a few days that it was working, until today. By this afternoon, the larger of the pair was swimming mainly just below the surface and breathing heavily. She also had a whitish cloudy film starting just ahead of her left gill and continuing up to her mouth and covering her left eye. I tried a hyposalinity dip treated with melafix for 15 minutes. During the dip, the film immediately began to fall off and she seemed to be breathing much better. As it got closer to 15 minutes she began to act a little erratic, so I removed her from the dip, rinsed her in a second container, and replaced her in the main tank isolated from the rest of the tank so I could keep an eye on her. 15 minutes later, she had passed. Now we have one Occeralis Clown left in the tank and he doesn't look too bad, but now we have lost four clowns in almost 2 months and I don't want to risk losing anything else.
We have looked at many different possibilities of what this could be but I am stumped. Only the clownfish seem to be affected by whatever this is. The tang and chromis are still fine, showing no signs of sickness at all.
I have debated setting up a QT tank and removing all of the fish from the tank, but have no idea how long I would need to keep them out for, or what is in the tank that is killing off the clownfish.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
