Problem with clowns

DustinLSX

New member
It is a 29g reef tank. my water tests show perfect. The tank has been up right at a year and no other fish or coral has ever died.

The 2 ocellaris clowns did great for 4 months and then all of a sudden they took a turn for the worse. The smaller of the two started to get a white film just behind it's head and it died 2 days later. The larger clown started to get the same white film. I took it out and put it in another tank and the film cleared up within 12hrs.

I just put 2 new ocellaris' (1 black and 1 orange) in 3 days ago. The first day they acted great. Now they are just sitting in the lower corner of the tank and not very active.

The other fish and inverts in the tank look and act great. I have a blue tang, manderin goby, green spot manderin, clown goby, cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, about 10 asteria snails, and 10 blue legs.

Is it possible to have to many corals for a tank this small? I have quite a few. the amounts are a close guess. 60 green zoas, 40 pink zoas, 20 brown zoas, 20 watermellon zoas, 150 heads xenia, 3 quarter sized toadstool leathers, 1 large bubble tip, 175-200 small green star polyps, 20 large yellow star polyps, 4 heads candy cane, 6 brown mushrooms, and a few i don't even know what they are. Almost everything in here was introduced as a frag or came out of the live rock. Every coral in there has grown at an amazing rate and i've never had a problem with any corals not living.

Is it possible that i might have to many corals and they are causing a problem with the clowns?

One other thing I just thought of was that i added about 5lbs of GARF grunge right before this problem started.

water:
temp: 80
sal: 1.025
nit: 0
nat: 0
amo: 0
ph: 8.3


Please help! I love my little black clown.
 
Without symptoms other than not being active its hard to tell. Tell me you don't have a blue tang in that 29g tank.
 
I would doubt that the corals themselves are cauing the issue. Now whether there is enough space for the fishload is something only you can tell. Stress can surely cause weak fish to succumb to diseases, and a possibly overcrowded tank can stress its inhabitants.

A better long term solution, would be to save some money up and get a quarantine system in place to handle incoming fish and to medicate sick ones. Stop me if you have already done this :) I know, I know, it is a hard sell to justify another setup for this purpose but by the time you realize its importance, your fish are most likely dead.

BTW - I an currently medicating some clowns with similar symptoms. Using hyposalinity (1.018 sg) and a medication called Formalin.

I wish you the best of luck

:) landlord
 
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