Gotta sad little clown fish...

[jodinm]

We have/had 3 clown fish in the tank at work. They were fine when I left for the weekend, I came in this morning and one has died and a second is going in that direction. He swims poorly, almost floating with the current and he is losing his color. He is no longer the bright orange he was, he is very pale. I gave the fish their morning feeding and he managed to work his way out of the corner he's been hiding in, but did not actually eat anything although he acted like he wanted to.

No signs of ich. Just pale coloring.

Any ideas?? I want to try to help this little one and if possible stop whatever it is before it hits the third and last little clownfish.

BTW, the tank is full of tangs. Many varieties and they are all getting along, no problems.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

 

[kraze3]

Did you check all water parameters? if so can you list the results.

 

[jodinm]

We are having someone come check it this afternoon.

 

[kraze3]

Id say check all parameters and make sure your feeding proper foods as a good start. Here is an excellent thread by leebca on proper nutrition
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=785228

The fish you found this morning, was there any signs of foul play. Also WHat size tank is this, how many tangs? and what else is in the tank such as other fish, corals, etc.

 

[jodinm]

Every level was fine except Nitrate. It was sky high so we had to take out 50% of the water and refill the tank. The little clown died and we have a brown tang acting like he may be next.

You will have to excuse me when it comes to knowing the actual names of the fish. I have been suddenly selected to care for this tank and my knowledge is growing very slowly.

We have several varieties of Tang. Blue, Brown and yellow. We also have shrimp, the clown fish and anemoni and a beautiful brown and white fish that no one knows anything about. All in all we probably have about 12 fish and a large variety of snail.
They are fed frozen brine shrimp as well as "Formula One" and "Prime Reef" flakes.

Thank you all so much for your help. I hope you don't mind me turning to you all for help. I really enjoy this tank and caring for it, I just wish I knew more about it. Thanks again.

 

[jodinm]

Scratch that. We are now down a shrimp (had 3) and one of our blue tangs is very very pale in color.

What is happening???? Help!!

 

[leebca]

The choice of foods is not good for the fish you have listed. Even the anemonefishes should not be fed that kind of diet.

We could use some photos, if you can get them, so we can see what you're seeing.

Usually poor diet works slowly and would not necessarily begin an 'epidemic' if any kind in your tank, so I'd suspect more than just high nitrates and lean towards other water quality issues either you are not testing for or taking into account.

So, we're left needing photos and more information if we are to be of much specific help. Want to lay this all out for us?

How old is your tank? When did it originally cycle?
What kind of system do you have (tank volume, dimensions, bio-filtration method, the equipment you use, any carbon or other chemical filtration, kind of substrate, etc.).
If you have a refugium and/or sump, what is living in it?
How long have you had these fish?
Do you use any vitamins? Fat additives? Any elemental or other additives? Please list all.
Chemistries ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ please give actual numbers (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, Silica, Ca, Alk., and any others you have)
Water parameters ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ please give actual numbers (pH and your pH range, salinity or sp. gr. & range, temperature range)
Do you see any of the following in your system: hair algae; micro algae; cyanobacteria growths (red slime algae); dinoflagellate (zooxanthellae) growths; brown algae; diatom growth; slimes; off-colored patches on rock or substrate that are not coralline; etc.?
Water changes (how much and how often). Kind of artificial salt youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re using. Kind of source water you are using? Have you analyzed your source water for the above chemistries? When did you do these tests last? What is the TDS of your source water?
List what you added or taken out of your aquarium system (living, decorations, and equipment) during the past 6 weeks.
Maintenance schedule. What have you done lately?

 

[jodinm]

Jiminy.

This tank has been set up since the business was started about a year ago. The water naturally decreases with time and my boss fills it using a hose and tap water. (Usually once a month) We then test the salt level and adjust using Red Sea Salt. As far as I know we have never had the tap water tested. This is our maintenance other than removing the alge build up occassionally.

We have not taken anything out of the tank recently. We have added a few living rocks and several fish.

We do get green alge and we scrape it off approx every two weeks. Not much. I have noticed lately some spots of a red or brown alge.

We have a 240 gallon tank and we use carbon filtration. We use the Fluval404 actual 2 of them and then one smaller. These are also cleaned every week/ week and a half.


We do not have any additives we give the fish.

Unfortunately I do not have a camera here at work. I will definately bring one tomorrow, if there are any fish left.

We have called the gentleman that has helped us in the past and he is supposedly on his way here now to help us out. We have been told that we need to de-chlorinate the water immediately because the fish aren't being able to breathe, which would explain the pale coloring.

Cross your fingers. This is heartbreaking. I love all these fish! They get happy to see me every morning and come right to the glass when I walk up. I could just cry for letting them down like this.

 

[leebca]

The replacement of evaporated water with tap water is a significant error. Definitely not the way to go.

You don't mention any water changes. Are you making any water changes?

You can't add live rock to an established tank without some negative impact on the water quality. You usually don't add live rock to an establish tank with fish in it. If you do, you have to do so slowly and with a great deal of attention.

You don't mention testing for ammonia and nitrites, two significant poisons to fish that need testing, especially if you're adding live rock to an established aquarium.

Red and brown 'algae' (they aren't really algae) are signs of poor water quality and a tank going through transitions.

I'd say if you don't perform a very large water change, using RO/DI water to make up fresh salt water, matched to the salinity, pH and temperature of the current tank water, you will probably lose more fish. There is a very distinct possibility that the water is bad, along with the less-than-optimum feeding.

Good luck!

 

[jodinm]

Proving you know what you are talking about.... 99% of the fish are dead this morning.


Also.... how do you know when an anemoni is dead?? Ours has always been small. Now it's just seems to be all closed tight, even smaller. I'm afraid I've lost him, but I don't want to be too imature in removing him from the tank if there is a chance of him surviving.

Obviously there is nothing I can do to stop what is happening to these fish. But can you help me figure out what to do to cure the tank so that we will be able to buy more later and have them be ok? Do I need to treat the water? Do I need to drain it? Will my live rock be ok?

Thank you all so much.