I think my clownfish have ich!

[Qwank]

so thursday my clown goby got stuck in the skimmer of my 12g NC. so when i found him he was still alive but doing really bad. so after a minute of being back in the tank my cleaner shrimp decided to eat him. and my nass snails finished him off. i couldnt get him out of there because the shrimp had pulled him under a huge rock and i couldnt get him out.

 

 

 

so saturday i do my weekly water change of 10% and check the ammonia level first. its at .25. so i do the water change and everything seems fine.

 

 

 

today the clownfish were fine up until i took my dog to the vet at 6:30, i come home at 8 and one clown has white spots ALL over him, everywhere. the other one has a few spots on his fins and hes picking on the clown that has all the spots. this happened all within 1 1/2 hours. does ich show up that fast? i check the parameters again

 

 

 

ammonia <.25

 

nitrites 0

 

nitrates 0

 

ph 8.4

 

salinity 1.025

 

 

 

so i do a 20% water change and check it an hour later. the ammonia is at 0 now. but the fish are still spotted. what do i need to do to make sure these fish dont die and spread ich around my tank, if its not already too late?

[idog]

Sorry, but ich is in your tank. Nothing you can do about that now. Problem #1 is that your tank is still cycling. Either that or your test kits are bad. 0 ammonia in your tank should be a given to keep any livestock.

 

You could try and medicate the tank, but that is risky to your inverts. If it were me, I would wait it out. The ich won't affect your inverts, and you have a cleaner shrimp that can be helpful to your fish. Feed a garlic fortified food.

 

another option is removing the fish to a QT and medicating them with a formalin solution. Your tank should fallow with no fish for 4-6 weeks to ensure the crypto cycle is broken.

 

edit: oh and try to figure out what is producing the ammonia.

[Qwank]

my tank is not still cycling, eveything has been 0 for the past 5 weeks. all was well until the clown goby died, i'm pretty sure the ammonia spike was from me not removing the dead goby, ( I was late for work and did not have time to remove my rock to get him) anyways, i have no way of QTing them since i have no other tank set up, guess its goodbye clowns.

[idog]

Don't count them out. Clowns can recover from this. Get a garlic supplement.

 

Are you sure your 'trates are 0? Seems odd you would have ammonia and nothing else. Might want to get a 2nd opinion on your water.

 

What killed your goby? A small clown goby should not have polluted the tank too much, especially if you are doing waterchanges.

 

No more fish for up to 6 weeks though! Thats the crappy part.

 

edit: Try raising your temp to around 82-84 degrees. This speeds up the protozoan's lifecycle if you are allowing the tank to fallow.

[Qwank]

nitrates are definatly 0 the clowns have been in the tank for 3 weeks and the goby went in 1 week earlier. cycle had finished 2 weeks prior to adding the goby. i am not planning on adding anymore fish anyways, its just going to be the clown pair if they survive. i did move the live rock around looking for the goby after i got home from work but didnt find it. maybe disturbed something or caused some dieoff from part of the rock that was under the sand? i will bring the temp slowliy up to 82 since i keep it at a steady 78 right now. thanks for the help i'll keep you posted.

[Qwank]

i just came home. the spots are 90% gone from the fish. is this normal? they are acting fine swimming all around and they ate normally too.

 

checked my parameters again

 

salinity 1.024

ph 8.2

amonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

 

i'm going to a LFS to get a second opinion on my test results. i'll post back in a little while.

[Qwank]

ok this is what the LFS got with their test kits. they use Elos testing kits

 

ammonia 0.1

nitrite 0.2

nitrate 5

 

salinity 1.030!

 

my salinity is way high, they use a refractometer. so my floating hydrometer is .006 off. so my first order of buissiness is to get that down. i think the rest should go down to normal levels soon with a few more water changes. i also picked up Kent garlic xtreme to add to the food. hopefully all will be well soon. the fish are still eating and they loved the garlic suppliment.

[idog]

Sounds promising. Params are bit out of what so once you get them in order, you may be okay.

 

No need to raise the temp if the fish are still in the tank. You probably just kicked off a mini cycle when you stirred up your sand and rocks.

[Six]

running your tank fallow will do nothing if the environment the fish are being kept in is still causing them to get sick.

 

just keep doing your water changes and you shouldnt have another problem unless another fish dies and pollutes the water. when the fish are stress free and in good water, its amazing how fast they can recover.

 

gl

[kismetsh]

I am surprised no one commented on the speed at which you stocked the tank. You added 3 fish to a 12 gallon tank that had been cycled less than a month. JMO, but I doubt the new tank was able to absorb that much added bioload in such a short amount of time. I think water quality probably contributed to the goby's demise and also stressed the clowns.

 

Good luck with your clowns, I hope they recover quickly!

[Qwank]

the tank water was definatly fine until the goby died, and i'm positive didnt die from water conditions it got stuck in the skimmer. this goby was very active and never hid. it was still alive when i found it. i believe the problem was caused by the decomposing goby and moving the live rock which caused a small cycle and high salinity added to the stress.

 

i have the salinity down to 1.027 as of now. i am out of non mixed water so i coulnt get it down any lower then that at the moment. i'm getting more water after work and will drop it down to probbly 1.024.

the clowns are still swimming and are showing no signs of stress. all the white dots are gone as of this morning. they ate at their feeding last night.

[kismetsh]

the tank water was definatly fine until the goby died, and i'm positive didnt die from water conditions it got stuck in the skimmer.

 

How can you be so positive about the tank water being "fine" before, when your test kits were off when compared to the LFS?

 

At any rate, most people would consider 3 fish a "full load" (some would say overstocked) for a *mature* 12 gallon tank. A tank that has been cycled for 3 weeks is not a mature, stable tank.

 

I know it seems like I am busting your chops, but if we don't learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.

 

I am being sincere when I say I hope your clowns recover, good luck with them!

[Qwank]

I know it seems like I am busting your chops, but if we don't learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.

 

 

 

if i would have found the goby completly dead so i could have disposed of him, and had a refractometer this wouldnt have happened in the first place. its not going to happen again.

 

also if my water was that bad i dont think i would have as much coraline algea growing as i do. i had a huge outbreak of it the day before the goby died.

[idog]

Algae growth is typical of dirty water, not the other way around.

[Qwank]

Algae growth is typical of dirty water, not the other way around.

 

 

 

even coraline? didnt know that. still trying to get the salinity slowly down to a normal level, although i dont trust my hydrometer anymore. i'm ordering a refract0meter tonight. anyone got any recommendations?

 

 

 

on a good note, i tried feeding the clowns mysis with the garlic extrac. they loved it, i've never seen them eat so fast. they wouldnt go near the stuff before. all they would ever eat was formular one.

[Qwank]

I ordered a refractometer from drs. foster and smith for $47 shipped after a $5 coupon i had. should be here in a few days.

the salinity is at 1.026 as of now and the clowns are doing really good. they seem so much more active now that the salinity is down. one is even exploring the live rock now picking at it for food.

i'm still using my inaccurate test kit though. the one my LFS used is about $120 but its more precise then mine.

[Qwank]

well i found the clown that was totally covered in ich dead today. luckily i got him out of the tank before he caused another ammonia spike. one left lets see what happens.

[Qwank]

the last clown died this morning. thank you to all you guys who tried to help. i thought the garlic treatment was going good, but all of a sudden it just turned around and they both got worse. i'm going to wait 2 months before i decide to do anything . i have to figure out what caused the ick to keep attacking.

[allenspidey]

I feel your pain. I know how frustrating it is to just watch something die when you work so hard to keep it alive. It is debatable if letting a tank go fallow really works. Some other members know more than me but you may run in to the same problems again. Good luck!

[jamesnmandy]

*snip

 

so saturday i do my weekly water change of 10% and check the ammonia level first. its at .25. so i do the water change and everything seems fine.

 

 

ammonia <.25

 

nitrites 0

 

nitrates 0

 

ph 8.4

 

salinity 1.025

 

 

 

so i do a 20% water change and check it an hour later. the ammonia is at 0 now. but the fish are still spotted. what do i need to do to make sure these fish dont die and spread ich around my tank, if its not already too late?

 

i know with my Ammonia test kit it came with a small booklet, if you read the booklet you may find out that you have to do a little math to get an accurate reading on Ammonia

 

for instance, if i simply follow the directions on the back of the color chart card, i come up with .25....okay, not horrible

 

but when i read the pamphlet it says to take note of the water temp and do a Ph test as well, so according to mine, if water temp is about 79*F and Ph is 8.4 and you get a reading of .25 on the color chart, you take .25 and multiply by a factor of 14 = 3.5 then divide that by 100 and you get 0.035ppm

[Qwank]

i'm going to run it fallow not only to see if its true the ich will die without a host but also as a tank re-cycle. to see if i do actually have something causing an ammonia spike. or any other problems. so i'll just start over again. i'm also planning on doing a MH conversion so i guess now is the time to do it since i wont have to worry about frying the fish while i acclimate it. i think i will invest in a protien skimmer also.

[kismetsh]

I'm really sorry about your fish! I think you have the right attitude though, ie using it as a learning experience and trying again.

 

Good luck!

[Qwank]

thanks. like i said earlier i think i know what went wrong so it wont happen again. if it does then i'm a dumbass and shouldnt keep a reef.

[Qwank]

quick question for everyone again. while keeping my tank fallow for 2 months can i still add coral since the ich does not affect them? or is this a bad idea?

 

asking because my MH retro should be done in a few weeks.