What are my chances?

90sShooter

Active member
It looks like I am about to loose ANOTHER clown... I have the WORST luck with clowns... Last time I posted nobody seemed to think it was my tank or water, but that I was getting unhealthy fish... Well the last clown died and I replaced him with a nice looking True perc straight from the wholsaler (and just arrived at the wholesaler that morning) on Monday... here we are two days later and he has yet to eat and when I came home he was covered in white stuff... So I set up a QT tank and used this stuff called "rally" that I got from a friend... one of the 3 ingredients is Formalin... So I dosed the QT and put in the clown for a little over an hour and since he looked like he was gasping for air I put him back in the display... He actually looks better already but still WILL NOT EAT! I am so sick of getting fish that will not eat :(. In my experience once they stop eating they are a gonner... What can I do? I have tried garlic to no avail... I am feeding a combination of cyclops, brine, mysis, and formula two... also tried some flakes and pellets (with garlic) and he shows no interest in ANYTHING?! He is not breathing rapidly and seems to be swimming just fine (although all he does is hang out at the top of the water in the front right corner...)

Tank is a couple months old now and I have a hi fin goby/shrimp pair and a filament flasher wrasse that are all doing great (both fish eat like animals!) Also have a coral banded shrimp and a red fromia star that are doing well... All parameters check out... and all my coral seem to be thriving... What am I doing wrong?!?!

Please help!

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The white stuff is more like fuz that strings off of him like I just dried him off with a white towel and some of the fibers stuck to him...

Thanks guys!
 
Sounds like it might be brook if it's flaking off.

Stop buying wild caught clowns? Quarantine immediately, whether they look sick when you buy them or not?

A fish that has just arrived at the wholesaler will likely be incredibly stressed. There's a reason you should observe fish at the LFS for a week or two before buying them, to make sure they're eating and healthy. Then you should quarantine them for a minimum of four weeks to make sure they stay healthy and allow them to get used to your foods and your schedule without competition.

IMO captive bred clowns are just a better option for most people. If you don't intend to be fairly serious about raising the fry, there's no reason to get wild caught fish. The captive clowns are generally a lot more disease resistant, and will usually arrive in a LOT better shape than wild.
 
If a fish has ich or brook it needs to remain in the QT for 8 weeks. Now that you exposed your DT to these parasites you now should put all your fish in the QT. If your fish has brook use formalin if it has ich use cupramine with a salifert copper tester. These wild caught fish should always go into a QT process first, or you will expose all the fish you have in your display to this ich or brook. I'm sorry to say this but this fish will die too if its not properly taken care of. First you need to figure out what it is..ich, brook or velvet. Now that the infected fish has been in the display all fish must be taken out of the display and put in the QT. If you don't do this..you'll just be wasting your time trying to cure the clown. Ok once clown cured..you put it back into the display the fish that are still in the tank seem healthy are now carriers. So your clown will end up sick again.
Here is a site that has great information about ich and how to treat it. It helped me treat my ich infested Chrysopterus clowns. They are doing very well now and are ich free.
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html
Fish quarantine process
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums.../23584-fish-quarantine-process-step-step.html
 
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