sick sebae clownfish

[RownSurf]

Hello,


I've been setting my 75 gallon tank up for about the last month. I've cycled the water using about 445 lbs of live rock and 20 lbs live sand. Everything seems to have gone throguh the cycle correctly and my LFS agreed th water was good. So I've just purchases three small sebae clowns. I drip acclumated them over two hours and they seemed okay, if a bit shy. After a few hours I noticed one was acting odd still and had a greyish film over its eyes. They eyes also seemed somewhat enlarged. This morning the other two are swimming around fine, but this one remains on the bottom, only occasionally moving and still with the same symptoms. As I'm new to this end of the aquarium hobby, Im not familiar wiht this sort of disease/stress, or whatever. Any thoguhts on whatr might be the cause and anything I cna do to help it, would be appareciated.

thanks,
Justin

[cj10488]

Grey film on the eye? Does it look like the Eye is cloudy??? Have you ever used copper in your main tank?? Also what kind of water are you using? ro/di? What are your exact levels in your tank.. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate.. After your cycle did you do a rather large Water change? My first indication is that the fish has some sort of bacterial infection however the cloudy Eye from what I have read seems to be brought on by bad water conditions.. Is there Anyway that you can get a picture?

LMK,
James

[Big Jim]

Here is another possibility. 2 of the clowns may be pairing up and giving the "F-You" to the 3rd :cry: . I had a trio of percula clowns that were fine for 3 weeks and then the 3rd stopped eating and eventually died. While that was happening the 2 were always together and still are and have been happy for 3 months :razz:

[RownSurf]

The three came out of the same tank from the store and this was just yesterday. I guess they could have paired up prior to my purchasing them, but it seems more likely to me to be some sort of water problem or bacteria.

I suppose a cloudy eye would be a better way of describing the symptom.

I keep check on the water though. Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites were not apparent in my tests this morning. I used tapwater at first, but realized that was raising phosphates and so switched to using RO/DI from my fish stores until I cna process my own. Phosphates had dropped back to near 0 before I put the fish in.

I will try to get a picture when I get home this evening assuming nothing has changed...

thanks,
Justin

[cj10488]

I would Remove the Fish to a QT tank and treat with Penicillin.. Here is a link to SW fish disease (http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=7) I would think that the penicillin would take care of anything bacterial... I would treat as it were PopEye personally even though its not popeye its still some sort of eye infection... The cloudy eye can be caused by quite a few different things and bacterial infections are one.. The other is something in the water.. High Nitrates ect.. Make sure if you treat the fish with penicillin that you remove it to a QT tank and treat in there..

HTH,
James

[jman785]

Let me get this right.

445lbs of LR in a 75 gallon?

is this correct or a typo?

[cj10488]

I took it as a typo.. I figured 45#s

James

[Zack]

took it as a typo.. I figured 45#s

same :doubt:

[RownSurf]

Definetly a typo on the 445 lbs of rock. Only 45 just now. Thanks for all the replies to my problem. I'm going to see how the fish is doing tomorrow and decide on some action from there. I don't have a QT tank, but could set one up I suppose. Several local pet shops suggested a medicine called Melafix as a reef-safe way to deal with some bacterial problems. Anyone have any experience with this?


thanks again,
Justin

[Big Jim]

I have used Melafix before but not with any success. The guy at the LFS told me that it acts like more of a bandaid than a medication. I do use it for the first few days when I quarantine fish from the LFS to reduce stress. It is hard to treat reef tanks. Maybe vitamin C and garlic could help?

[RownSurf]

Alright,

Well my roommate, who works on my tanks with me, didn't get my message about holding up on the melafix. He added the normal dosage yesterday and by the time I got home the skimmer had gone crazy. So now I have two problems...Should I keep treating the clown in the man tank ( I have no QT setup yet) and allow the skimmer to run normal and reelease all those excess bubbles? Should I treat with the Melafix and turn the skimmer off? Just stop with Melafix? And how will I get the Melafix out now? Any thoguhts on these options or others are greatly appreciated.

Justin

[Big Jim]

:lol: Yeah I did the same thing. The skimmer goes crazy. You should have removed any carbon if you had any. You'll need to turn your skimmer off or it will get out of control. If you want to continue with the melafix, turn off the skimmer. If you want to stop, do a 25% water change to reduce the amount of melafix. Usually a couple of water changes over a couple of days will be fine on removing the melafix. You'll know when its gone when you turn your skimmer back on and it is normal. If you do not have a QT, keep trying the melafix. Let us know if you have any success, I did not but my fish may have been too far gone. Melafix is the only thing you can really put in a reef tank other than vitamin C & Garlic. How does your house smell now? :razz:

[RownSurf]

Hey everyone,

Sad to say the clwon fish didn't make it. I continues the melafix, but he was look pretty bad to begin with. It seems to have cleared out of my system well, but I'm going to do a partial water change anyway. Thanks again for all your help in this. The other clowns are doing well!! I'm sure Ill be bak for more help as my tank builds!!

Justin

[jman785]

Justin,

Sorry to hear that, and hopefully all goes well from now on with your tank. Good luck and happy reefing.

:rip: