Please help!!

[A.addixtion]

I have a year old 20 gal tank with a pair of clownfish, royal gramma and a damsel fish. This morning I found one of my clownfish laying down in the sand. She would get up, swim for a little bit then lay back down and she looked like she was panting. She has no white spots or patches or any other physical signs of disease, none of my other fish are acting different. I have no recent additions to the tank, the last addition was the gramma and damsel fish in December. I tested the water, no ammonia, nitrate was at 40ppm, phosphate was at .25. I did a 50% water change and added stress coat around 12pm today. I also moved my powerhead/wavemaker closer to the surface to hopefully increase oxygen as i read that could be a factor. It is now 7:30pm and her behavior has not improved, can anyone point me in the right direction?!

 

[griss]

@leebca @Dr. Reef

@A.addixtion leebca is going to want a video of the fish under white light longer than one minute, close up,

 

[reefing102]

Welcome to RC! Laying around all day is a bit odd. I would do as @griss said and the others should chime in shortly

 

[A.addixtion]

@leebca @Dr. Reef

@A.addixtion leebca is going to want a video of the fish under white light longer than one minute, close up,

How do I send you a video?

 

[A.addixtion]

I have a year old 20 gal tank with a pair of clownfish, royal gramma and a damsel fish. This morning I found one of my clownfish laying down in the sand. She would get up, swim for a little bit then lay back down and she looked like she was panting. She has no white spots or patches or any other physical signs of disease, none of my other fish are acting different. I have no recent additions to the tank, the last addition was the gramma and damsel fish in December. I tested the water, no ammonia, nitrate was at 40ppm, phosphate was at .25. I did a 50% water change and added stress coat around 12pm today. I also moved my powerhead/wavemaker closer to the surface to hopefully increase oxygen as i read that could be a factor. It is now 7:30pm and her behavior has not improved, can anyone point me in the right direction?!

Update @8:40. The fish died, I really don’t know what happened. I’m just hoping whatever it was doesn’t affect my other fish.

 

[A.addixtion]

I have a year old 20 gal tank with a pair of clownfish, royal gramma and a damsel fish. This morning I found one of my clownfish laying down in the sand. She would get up, swim for a little bit then lay back down and she looked like she was panting. She has no white spots or patches or any other physical signs of disease, none of my other fish are acting different. I have no recent additions to the tank, the last addition was the gramma and damsel fish in December. I tested the water, no ammonia, nitrate was at 40ppm, phosphate was at .25. I did a 50% water change and added stress coat around 12pm today. I also moved my powerhead/wavemaker closer to the surface to hopefully increase oxygen as i read that could be a factor. It is now 7:30pm and her behavior has not improved, can anyone point me in the right direction?!

Please help, I woke up this morning to find my damsel fish dead as well. I have no idea what’s going on!!

 

[A.addixtion]

@leebca @Dr. Reef

@A.addixtion leebca is going to want a video of the fish under white light longer than one minute, close up,

@leebca @Dr. Reef

@A.addixtion leebca is going to want a video of the fish under white light longer than one minute, close up,

 

[A.addixtion]

@leebca @Dr. Reef

@A.addixtion leebca is going to want a video of the fish under white light longer than one minute, close up,

 

[leebca]

There are so many weird, worms and diseases. Worms in particular can live in a fish for months before the fish dies for them. I’m not saying that this is that case, however, it seems likely the tank has an infection of some sort.

The best you can do, for the remaining fish is to provide them the best foods and nutrition.

What are you feeding these fish?

 

[leebca]

In the event, this is some sort of toxin in the water, perform a very large (over 50%) water changes soon as you can.

 

[A.addixtion]

There are so many weird, worms and diseases. Worms in particular can live in a fish for months before the fish dies for them. I’m not saying that this is that case, however, it seems likely the tank has an infection of some sort.

The best you can do, for the remaining fish is to provide them the best foods and nutrition.

What are you feeding these fish?

new life spectrum marine fish pellets and brine shrimp 1-2 times a week

 

[leebca]

Thank you for the reply. Thank you for the video. Brine shrimp are not very nutritional. Please read through the Fish Nutrition post when you can. Also, frozen foods are better than pellets.

You wrote that no additions have been made to his aquarium since last December. Does this mean all marine life too (e.g., invertebrates and corals)? What about changes to the filtration system? What kind of filtration are you using?

Have you added anything to the water? Like additives, supplements, etc.

Look for any source of toxins. Has there been any household cleaning going on recently? Any source of chemicals that may have been added to the water?

Rather than a parasite or disease, this seems more like a poisoning.

Have you checked on water quality? Temp, pH, salinity, ammonia?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Toxic or poisoning will effect most all fish and other clown seems to be happy. i have a feeling it was internal parasites or worms as i saw in that video it twiched and rubbed against the sand.

 

[A.addixtion]

Thank you for the reply. Thank you for the video. Brine shrimp are not very nutritional. Please read through the Fish Nutrition post when you can. Also, frozen foods are better than pellets.

You wrote that no additions have been made to his aquarium since last December. Does this mean all marine life too (e.g., invertebrates and corals)? What about changes to the filtration system? What kind of filtration are you using?

Have you added anything to the water? Like additives, supplements, etc.

Look for any source of toxins. Has there been any household cleaning going on recently? Any source of chemicals that may have been added to the water?

Rather than a parasite or disease, this seems more like a poisoning.

Have you checked on water quality? Temp, pH, salinity, ammonia?

No new fish since last December, the only recent addition was a turbo snail in March that died a few weeks ago. I switched out the carbon media in the filter for chemi pure elite as advised by my lfs after I saw the behavior change in the clownfish. I was also told to add stress coat, besides those two things I have not done anything different. All water parameters were good. Yesterday reading before the water change was nitrates were 40ppm, phosphate was .25, ammonia and nitrite were both 0 and Salinity was 1.026. Today’s reading after the yesterday’s water change yesterday were nitrates were 10ppm, phosphate was .25, ammonia and nitrite were still at zero and salinity is 1.024. Ph is between 7.4 and 7.8, there wasn’t an exact color match.

 

[A.addixtion]

Update: the royal gramma just died, I have lost 3 fish in not 24 hours. What would cause a decline this fast?

 

[leebca]

Ph is between 7.4 and 7.8, there wasn’t an exact color match.

pH is too low. Get it up to at least 8.2. You want it 8.1 to 8.4. What test kit are you using to measure pH? I'd suggest investing in a quality pH tester you don't have to struggle trying to read colors or a quality pH combination tester.

chemi pure elite

The need for Chemi-Pure Elite is debatable. It needs to be rinsed before use. It hasn't done the pH any good. I would return to carbon after a large water change. Do you perform regular water changes?

I was also told to add stress coat

Usually this product is used on tap water to make it ready to make saltwater for a water exchange. I see no need or reason to add it to the aquarium.

How will you raise the pH? Is the room well ventilated where the aquarium is sitting? Perhaps something like pH Increasing Product.

How do you control algae? Do you scrape it off the aquarium sidewalls? Does the then scraped algae go into the filter? Do you remove this algae? Algae can release a toxin into the water, but this is rare.

What would cause a decline this fast?

Toxins or poisons in the water. As for parasites: Amyloodinium ocellatum (Marine Velvet) kills quickly. But for it to be a parasite like this, it would have to had gotten into the aquarium recently.

I still advise performing a very large water change.

 

[A.addixtion]

pH is too low. Get it up to at least 8.2. You want it 8.1 to 8.4. What test kit are you using to measure pH? I'd suggest investing in a quality pH tester you don't have to struggle trying to read colors or a quality pH combination tester.

The need for Chemi-Pure Elite is debatable. It needs to be rinsed before use. It hasn't done the pH any good. I would return to carbon after a large water change. Do you perform regular water changes?

Usually this product is used on tap water to make it ready to make saltwater for a water exchange. I see no need or reason to add it to the aquarium.

How will you raise the pH? Is the room well ventilated where the aquarium is sitting? Perhaps something like pH Increasing Product.

How do you control algae? Do you scrape it off the aquarium sidewalls? Does the then scraped algae go into the filter? Do you remove this algae? Algae can release a toxin into the water, but this is rare.

Toxins or poisons in the water. As for parasites: Amyloodinium ocellatum (Marine Velvet) kills quickly. But for it to be a parasite like this, it would have to had gotten into the aquarium recently.

I still advise performing a very large water change.

I used the api saltwater master kit for all the water testing. the tank is in my bedroom, I constantly have my fan on and I get good ventilation from the a/c. The only algae I would get is diatom algae which the snail would eat, since I no longer have the snail I use a mag float to clean the walls. I did a 50% water change yesterday, is it too soon to do another change?

 

[leebca]

I used the api saltwater master kit for all the water testing.

I don't like slamming/bad mouthing a product, but API test kits are among the least reliable to use and color matching is subjective. I know you have a small aquarium. Switch to Salifert Test Kits when you can. They are subjective too, but I'd get a pH meter reader (see my post #16).

A year-old tank should not have much of a diatom population. Are you sure they are diatoms? Do you have a microscope or access to one to check this out?

Hold off on doing another 50% water change for two days. Make the water up now and check the pH of the new water before you use it to make the water change. If it is worms, you can treat the water with PraziPro.

 

[leebca]

Read through this post:
Praziquantel Treatment

 

[leebca]

I constantly have my fan on

Open a window now and then.

If you have a wet recently dead fish, put it in some RODI water and see if anything 'comes out' of the fish.