wild True Perc Juvenile

[grinner30]

I received two true perc juveniles from an LFS. I thought what i was purchasing was tank raised. they did not eat and I lost one. The other lived for about 9 days and also died. They were replaced.

The juveniles were slightly yellow and had 2 bars each. I watched them and they would seem to die in the night. They seemed extremely stressed. My water parameters were very good:

Ph 8.2
Alk 10
Phos <.5
Amm 0
Nitrite and nirtrate 0
Calcium 420
Mag 1080 (a little low)

I found out they clowns were wild. The death rate on these must be close to 60-75%. I received replacements after I found out they were wild. I cannot find many posts on wild Juvenile percs. They are very finicky eaters.

Only one is alive now and I am not happy about this situation. I would not have purchased wild percs had I known. My mistake, the fish paid for it.

If you get wild juveniles, they require found like cyclopsez at least 6 times a day and somewhere to host. I watched mine stress until I got an anemone and I still lost one. The last is eating now and seems to be happy as it found a host. I was not planning on buying an anemone.

Ask questions and do not put fish through what I did, I feel very bad about being so ignorant to think that the big ORA sticker on the display isle meant they were tank raised.

I found out that not asking questions caused me 12 days of stress and killed 3 fish ( they most likely would have died anyway but that does not make it right.) Buy tank raised unless you really know what your doing.

 

[jt_milstead]

Ive purchased wild caught clowns. The issues isnt that they are finicky eaters. The issue is that they almost always(in my opinion) come down with brookynela. It can be a pain in the butt for sure.

 

[dalilgriffith]

I would start looking for a new LFS

 

[grinner30]

I am not sure what to do. I hope I can keep the last alive.

 

[jt_milstead]

Put fish in hospital tank with no sand or live rock and treet for brook.....ASAP

 

[Sullyman]

If you fed them six times a day, too much imo. What size are these fish?
I've got 5 month old baby percs still eating crushed flake. The parents are a wild caught
pair that I've had since they were juvies. I don't know about them being a hard fish to raise or a hard fish period, I've always found mine to be very hardy.
One thing I've seen is that juvi's will over eat if allowed and end up on the bottom breathing like a race horse trying to digest, some make it some don't. Might be the distress you witnessed. I hope this last one makes it.

 

[grinner30]

So I cannot find formalin in town. Will a fresh water dip do the trick for brook?

 

[Sullyman]

Can you post a pic of the poor fish so maybe the problem can be ID'd before you start treating. Formalin could easily kill a fish like the one you describe.

 

[tahoe61]

Clowns

Clowns

Next time make sure they are eating at the LFS, have the LFS feed them in front of you. If they are eating try to get them the same food the LFS is feeding while they acclimate to your tank.

 

[grinner30]

I will get the picture tomorrow as the lights are out. I have read several articles on Brooklynellas and only the fact of faded colors and stress match the description. they do ( or did not) rub on things, there are no white parasites or fungus, Not fuzzy and no mucus around the gills areas that I can see.

The fish is eating PEmysis as of this afternoon. That is the first time I have seen it eat in 3 days. It is swimming around in the tank more now also.

 

[Sullyman]

That is good news, do you have any garlic to soak the mysis in? It should help stimulate eating and help the fish fight what ails it.

 

[hottuna]

I just picked up a pair of wild caught true percs recently,the smaller of the 2 was very, very smal...
Had the same problem....not eating,breathing heavy on arrival...the next day I gave them both a formalin bath @1ml/gal/1hr....well the day after the bath -the tiny one was breathing normal and started eating...both are eating good and doing well now...formalin is now a staple part of my qt process on ALL incoming clowns regardless of origin...

 

[elegance coral]

How did you conclusively determine that these are wild clowns?

It's very common for clowns to not eat for the first couple of days in a new system. Captive or wild. Most ORA clowns I see on arrival are pale, skinny, and have white stringy poo. It's also common to find skull, and other deformities in ORA, or other captive bred clowns. These deformities are very rare in wild clowns. My success rate is about the same for wild and captive bred clowns. If you want to buy captive bred to keep from taking fish out of the wild, that's great, but I've seen nothing to indicate that captive fish are healthier than wild fish.

 

[phil519]

I tend to side with elegance on this one.

Need to post pics to see the size of these "juvenile" clowns. A "two" bar true perc clown is either mis-barred or less than 30 days old. I would find it highly unlikely that the LFS was able to get a dealer in wild 30 day old clowns.

 

[grinner30]

When I went back to the LFS after the second died I was told they were wild. I worked all day and didn't get home unitl a few minutes ago. I will get a current picture of the only living prec tomorrow when the lights come up. Here are some previous ones.

First Clown at 7 days from LFS, died at 8

3rd clown Still alive, Kind of blurry this is at 3 days from LFS. Still alive. Anyone know why there is a bubble in the middle of that frog spawn? Branching again?

 

[NCSUsalt]

those aren't wild caught

 

[grinner30]

Well, now I am even more concerned. Why would the LFS tell me that? Also why do you say they are not wild caught? More information I have the better...

 

[elegance coral]

I agree. Those are captive bred. Most wild clowns have perfect textbook markings. A misbar like that would be rare. To find multiple clowns, appearing to be the same age, with the same type of misbaring, in the wild, would like hitting the lottery or getting struck my lightning. It is very very very common to find siblings from a captive pair that have the same type of misbaring. Your fish appear to be, not just small, but very young and roughly the same age. This means it is HIGHLY unlikely that they are wild. When you see a group of small, young clowns in the same tank at the LFS, you can be confident they are captive bred.

That first fish appears to be covered in ich.

 

[grinner30]

Some of the white specs your seeing are because of dirty glass. I never got this good a look at the fish until I saw the picture yesterday(wife took the pic). I am still not understanding the waffling about where the fish came from by the LFS. I might have to talk to him personnally adn see what is going on.

Update:
The last fish is doing very well (knock on wood). Pics today. Never tought of snapping pics to get a better look at the health of the fish, but after seeing that picture I might start doing that.

 

[phil519]

well good to know the last one is fine.

Fwiw - I can't tell the whether they are true percs or false percs - and given your LFS lack of correct info - they could be mis-barred false percs. My pair - only one has a mis-bar and their fry will typically be 90% barred correctly, and a few with the mis-bar. The fact that all of yours are identical makes me agree with everyone else in that they are captive bred and purposely bred to be mis-barred like that.

No go clean your glass and take more pics.