mry Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 [well tried this in the disease section with no luck and not sure if a disease]had three percula clowns in my tank. got one first and he was bigger and then got a small pair a few weeks later....one was a normal orange and the other was more maroon...the lfs said they were both perculas. I put them in the tank and the 3 all got a long from the start....then the two normal colored ones started to hang to gether and the maroon one started hanging by himself and always hung out in the back of the tank.....today I saw him and he was pale and had almost no color and was between two rocks on the bottom of the tank....I put him in a seperate tank to keep him away from the others and he died a couple hours later. what happend?? was it a disease or something else? should I treat my tank? the two other perculas seem ok and are always eating, swimming and exploring the tank. I have noticed that some days they have some small white spots on them and other days they do not...the one that died never had any white spots. My water specs are perfect and every thing else is doing great...I have pods all over, my two shrimp have been molting, all seems ok...I am just scared that what happend to the fish that died could spread....any ideas as to what makes fish pale and die? thanks all Link to comment
Simbo18 Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 Fish always have a pale color to them when the wake up...... it helps them hide at night with the moon and all. So, it could be that moving him stressed him and he died from that. I have never herd of a disease that makes a fish turn white. My clown is always very white when he wakes up. It's a type of defense. So, I'm guessing he had just woken up. Luke Link to comment
maroonclown Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Those white spots on the percs are definently Ich. If you have any inverts, never treat the tank. It sounds like you have a big problem with your tank, if you are getting constant attacks of ich. Just because your shrimp are doing fine and you have pods running everywhere doesn't mean your tank is "fine." I have never seen a pod in my tank, but my system is "healthy". What exactly are your water parameters? How big is the tank? I can't help much more until I have this information. REMEMBER, DON"T TREAT THE TANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WILL KILL THE SHRIMP Link to comment
Simbo18 Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Thanks for backing me up on the ich situation maroonclown. Completely forgot to say something about that......??? Where was I?? LOL Anyway, you can treat your tank, just not with copper. There are ways of treating your tank with a feeding of garlic which I can explain if you like. But maroonclown, mry said that he didn't see any ich on the clown the day that he pulled him out. So, I wouldn't look only to the fact of diseas in the previous tank but also that the clown was put into a completely different tank. Maroonclown, if you have live rock you HAVE pods. No doubt about it. Luke Link to comment
Xavier Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Occationally I'll see some white spots on my fish, but on closer inspection, they are micro bubbles from the skimmer that have escaped... just a thought Link to comment
maroonclown Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Come to think of it, the same thing happens to my clown. I noticed it only affects fish with scales, however. Link to comment
Xavier Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 I've also noticed some fish turn pale when not receiving enough oxygen... either due to low oxygen content (such as late at night when no photosynthesis is occurring) or from stress... Link to comment
maroonclown Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 I think Simbo18 is right about turning white for defense. Yellow tangs are almost completly white at night. Link to comment
mry Posted July 3, 2003 Author Share Posted July 3, 2003 Hello, and thanks all...well the tank is a 30gal cube and the water specs are amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 2.5-12.5ppm... (that changed as last week was 0) specific gravityis at 1.023, temp 80f...I am guessing time to change the hob filter pad (I have a viaaqua multi skimmer with filter pad) as that brought up the nitrates....I feed twice a day small amounts (one day formula one frozen the next day pellets with garlic) I have two pepermint shrimp, two tiny cucumbers, one yellow headed sleeper goby, and the two perculas....?amount of blue leg hermits and various snails....? pounds of live rock and about 60lbs of sand (3" fine sand and 1" #5 coral sand)...lights on for 12 hours...I dose with reefvital and kent marine calcium/iodine/strontium&molybdenum.....when the clown that died was in the tank he was wedging himself into two rocks....If he had ich spots I would not have seen them as he was as pale in color every place exept is bottom fin as the spots on the other fish. I feel horible if I killed the fish just cause it was sleeping and I stressed it out..but I don't think he just woke up...he looked really bad and was breathing fast wedged in the corner rocks. If my fish seam happy and not stressed (exept for the one that died that looked sad and lonley) I looked and the post don't look like air bubbles...since I feed garlic should I try like "rid ich" or Greenex" that is supposed to be "reef safe" thanks much and I have been doing the "search" for ich and such thanks again...daniel Link to comment
Simbo18 Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 Ok, heavy breathing. That sounds a bit like stress. I'm sure you didn't kill it. I bet it would have died a little slower even if you hadn't move it. It's a good thing you moved him for your peps would have pulled him behind the rocks right after his death. Clowns do better in pairs, so he might just have been lonely and being picked on by the "dominant" pair. Of course he could have had ich at the same time considering ich is cause by stress. Now that the "lonely" clown is gone :*( your other fish might not get ich any longer. So, try and think of this as a good thing. Try. I'd stick with maroonclowns advice of not treating your tank with any type of formula other than natural things around the house. Try and stop feeding garlic too. You will need to keep us posted for a few days just in case this ich episode returns. I'd keep an eye on your pepermints too. Make sure they they are not pesturing your clowns because they can cause unwanted stress too. Just a question?? Do yours come out at night?? Have they always come out or did you train them?? and if you did train them how?? Sorry, I just want mine to come out too. Also, can we get a pic of your tank Hope I helped in any way. Luke Link to comment
mry Posted July 4, 2003 Author Share Posted July 4, 2003 thanks all....well I will stop feeding garlic too...just wondering why though as I thought it was suposed to help....My pep shrimps did hang around the fish that died quite a bit so maybe they were stressing him. My shrimp are all over the tank...the two come out quite a bit but are mostly upside down under a rock....the 3 fish seem ok together now and swim together....atached is a photo of the tank well my girlfriend picked out that fake thing in the back of the tank...it looks ok though.....and I tried to get a close up of the bigger perk so you can see the spots every once and a while the big perk will flick the sand with his body and stir up the tank...is he iching or kicking up food?(he looks like he is trying to eat stuff in the stired up sand..) thanks all and I well keep a very close watch on my tank....and hope things get better.. Link to comment
mry Posted July 7, 2003 Author Share Posted July 7, 2003 well the large clown in the photo now has white fuzzy patches all over...he is still eating but not sure what is wrong.....is this ich or some kinda of other thing. there are some large fuzzy white patchas hanging off the front of the fish and on the fins.....not sure what can be stressing him out....or causing this.......any ideas? Link to comment
maroonclown Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 It is highly likely that it is an infection around anopen wound. How "friendly" are your pempermint shrimps? They could be attacking it in it's sleep. If you don't have aiptasia anemones at the moment, why do you have them? Link to comment
mry Posted July 8, 2003 Author Share Posted July 8, 2003 did not know that pepermint shrimp were that bad and will bother fish (thanks LFS) well now the fish just has salt like spots and that is it but he is sitting at the bottom corner of the tank all day so far.....he does eat when I tried to feed him so I guess that is good...but I am worred that he is just sitting in the same spot and every once and a while he like freaks out and does a little spin and then goes back to just sitting there. I just set up a tank (2.5 gal mini bow) with the same water specs and temp and a hob filter...should I move him and medicate for ich? or would that cause to much stress???? I did a water change and took out the sponge filters and the nitrates are down to 0 again in the main tank. any ideas??? thanks all Link to comment
mry Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 so far...put the two clowns in the hospital tank and treated with rid-ich...but I think they may have Brooklynella too as the large clown eats food and spits it out and eats it again..plus they say the fish get pale before they die....I just got a new tank so I will be transfering all the rock and stuff to a new tank that will not have fish in it for over a month....I am putting the other fish in smaller hospital tanks two....I will keep all posted...thanks much Link to comment
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