biggs Posted April 10, 2004 Share Posted April 10, 2004 My JBJ Nanocube has been up for about 2.5 months. It is stocked with lots of cleaning crew and some soft corals (riccordia, zoos, xenia.) So far I haven't had any trouble at all with the corals. They are all growing and doing very well. About a month after I setup my tank I got a fish who had a fungal disease or something. He came that way from the store and later died. So I decided to take my tank fishless and let the fungus work itself out. I bumped the temp up to 88 degrees or so and let the tank sit for a month. I then lowered the temp back to about 80. Last week my wife talked me into adding a small false percula clown (3/4 inch long or so.) So I put him in and 4 days later I noticed some small white spots. Perhaps 6 or so in various spots on his body. I have not seen the spots in 4 days. However, the fish is very lazy and often just swims at the top back area of the tank and lets the intake for the filter hold him up there. He swims around sometimes and does eat well. But he is acting kinda odd. The only 'bad' thing in the tank right now is the nitrate level. We just had a baby last week so I haven't been staying on top of my water changes. But all of my corals and mobile inverts are doing great. I would think nitrates would hurt them before they would hurt a damn clownfish. FYI, the nitrate level according to my Salifert test kit is currently at least 10. It might be as high as 15 though as these tests are hard to do at night without true diffuse daylight. Any ideas would be great. Thanks. Link to comment
Tempest Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 Nitrate of 15 ppm isn't that bad. If the white spots come back on the fish he may have Crypto/"Ich." The best treatments are to put him in a hospital tank and either use cupramine or hyposalinity. If it is ick and you treat the fish I'd leave the display tank "fishless" for at least 30 days (the lifespan of the parasite without a host). Do NOT treat the tank. Most medications for tank treatments are either worthless or harmful to everything. Link to comment
biggs Posted April 13, 2004 Author Share Posted April 13, 2004 So far he's doing fine. Still acts odd. Loves to get sucked up against the filter intake. But it's like he enjoys it. Clownfish have been known to host with odd objects. Don't worry. I know better than to dose my tank. The only thing I ever add is occasional iodine. But I don't do that much anymore for risk of overdose. Plus, my stuff is growing like crazy. If it went any faster I'd have to throw it away. As it stands, a xenia pruning session is in my near future. I can however say that I have added MelaFix without incident in the past. If you follow the directions it's not too bad. Didn't hurt any of my inverts at all. You just have to be careful with dosage. I wouldn't go adding GreenX or any of the other LFS 'recommendations' though. Link to comment
Newbie527 Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 I was reading about your clown fish. I have a jbj nano too with a blue damsel and stubbie clown. at night when the clown is at rest he doesn't hide like the damsel under rock but he just hangs out up in the corner near the filter. I think they might just be wierd like that. (hopefully... I have had him for about 2 1/2 weeks now) In the future when the tank is fully established I might try getting an anenome for him. Maybe that will give him a place to rest. Link to comment
biggs Posted April 30, 2004 Author Share Posted April 30, 2004 The sickness was most likely stress induced ick. Since then, I did the dumbest possible thing but got lucky. I got him another false perc as a friend. They both ended up with spots for a while. But after the stress ended they are both doing well. And they seem very happy together. In fact, one of the clowns now sleeps/hosts in a big Hawaiian feather duster. I would not recommend getting an anemone for a JBJ Nano. Even if the light is sufficient, your tank will get nuked if that anemone dies and you are not there to get him out within a few hours. If you were gone for a weekend and he died, you would lose everything. Fortunately I am setting up my new tank right now, and soon I will get my anemone Link to comment
onthefly Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Try soaking his food in Garlic extract...worked really well for me! Link to comment
Quash Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 direct sunlight will kill off the ich Link to comment
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