Please help...what am I doing wrong?

[marinebio13]

Hi everyone,

I received a shipment of 3 yellowtail blue damsels about a week ago. I put them into a 10-gallon QT and treated 7 days with bacterial medicine...when they arrived their fins looked ragged and they had some wounds on their sides like they had been picking at each other. After the seven day treatment, they've been eating, have good coloring and their fins look much better. I did notice that they seemed to be aggressive toward each other. Yesterday morning I found one of the three had died. He had no obvious signs of illness, so I assumed it was caused from aggression. To give them more space I moved them into my 75-gallon tank, which only had one clownfish in it.

Last night I noticed that one of the damsels has one slightly cloudy, very swollen eye. Online explanations seemed to suggest eye trauma (it had swam into live rock a few times), so I decided to wait till the morning and see how it was doing. This morning, I noticed my clownfish (the only other fish in the tank) swimming strangely. It died a few hours ago. I've now noticed that the other damsel seems to have one eye that is cloudy and slightly protruding, but not nearly as bad as the other one. This doesn't seem like eye trauma anymore...I'm thinking popeye?

Nitrite, nitrate and ammonia are undetectable. No major changes in temperature or salinity. I did my weekly water change on Saturday. The only thing I can think of is I screwed up and put the damsels in too soon. Can that affect a clownfish overnight though? What do I do about the damsels?

Thank you for your help. Any suggestions and advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Sk8r]

Pull everybody back to qt for treatment.
Damsels require space, about 50 gallons for 1, 100 gallons for a half dozen of various species. They are territorial.

YOu probably have a bacterial infection. This is treatable, and if you treat in time, you may avert blindness or worse. I'd treat with a broad-spectrum antibiotic, since this condition can have various causes, and this scattershot may get the one you need it to. Change their filter floss daily, because a cycled filter cannot be used with meds. I recommend using pillow floss from a sewing store, tossed daily. Do not use carbon in any form; it absorbs the antibiotic.

 

[MikeyAl]

Curious where you got the shipment from. Most online retailers have a guarantee.
That won't help you now, but you should at least get a credit.

Agree with Sk8r. Quarantine asap.

 

[marinebio13]

Pull everybody back to qt for treatment.
Damsels require space, about 50 gallons for 1, 100 gallons for a half dozen of various species. They are territorial.

YOu probably have a bacterial infection. This is treatable, and if you treat in time, you may avert blindness or worse. I'd treat with a broad-spectrum antibiotic, since this condition can have various causes, and this scattershot may get the one you need it to. Change their filter floss daily, because a cycled filter cannot be used with meds. I recommend using pillow floss from a sewing store, tossed daily. Do not use carbon in any form; it absorbs the antibiotic.

Thank you! Is there an antibiotic brand that you would recommend?

 

[marinebio13]

Curious where you got the shipment from. Most online retailers have a guarantee.
That won't help you now, but you should at least get a credit.

Agree with Sk8r. Quarantine asap.

I ordered them from Liveaquaria....I've had really bad luck with them. I've had clownfish delivered dead twice. The one that just died today was the only fish I've gotten from them that has survived. These three looked pretty beat up when they arrived. I'm waiting the 14 days to see if the remaining two survive to get my credit. I don't think I'll use them again.

 

[Sk8r]

Check your parameters. I have recommended ones in my sig line. YOu must hold all these really steady before having fish. Popeye CAN be biological, but it can be from many causes. I've ordered from Live Aquaria with no problems but one, which they quickly adjusted. Local tank conditions have to be answered first. You need a test for alk, cal, mg, and best they be numerical, so you can be precise. If it IS the water you're putting them into, simply straightening that out will make life a lot easier and the hobby a lot happier. If it isn't, you can then go to the shipper and say, my parameters are thus and such and we have a problem.

 

[Sk8r]

As for antibiotics, furan or maracyn. I have had better luck with furan---