Ich, bacteria or something else?

[lostboy95]

Hey guys, my first post here and a novice to saltwater tanks. I've been wanting a saltwater tank for probably the last 8 years and finally convinced the wifey and got one up and running! Did tons of fourm searching on here and others about set up, after talking with my LFS and searching the forums (as well as watching Mr. Saltwater Tank and others on youtube) I decided to go with bottled bacteria (bio-spira and seachem stability) along with arag-alive sand to start the cycle and have clowns in for the ammonia source. (I know cycling with fish is a hot topic and it seems there are strong arguments on both sides so I deduced it as more of a preference than a rule.) Anyways, Got my two clowns yesterday and they looked great but now one of them has a milky white smudge on his tail and I'm worried hoping not to lose my expensive designer clown already. After tons of research on the topic I read up on clownfish disease, ich, flukes, bacterial infections, ammonia poisoning and an assortment of others. A lot of them have overlapping symptoms so I hope some of y'all can help me out before I do any drastic medicating. I'm leaning towards possibly a bacteria infection. Both fish don't really like the pellets and flakes I've tied but they love frozen mysis shrimp, so they aren't showing signs of not eating. Tested water today ammonia is .25 ppm and almost no nitrites or nitrates. Please take a look at the TOP BACK FIN in the PICTURES and diagnose for me as I can't seem to tell what exactly it could be. Also what treatment you would recommend, I'm leaning towards doing a freshwater dip along with a bacteria medication and a small water change, only thing is I didn't want to do a water change this early so as to not disrupt the tank cycling. Any help (preferably ASAP as some diseases kill quite quickly) would be immensely appreciated!! 

[DreC80]

Man 40 views and no one has responded.  My guess is it's because you used fish to cycle your tank.  Most people consider this an outdated, unnecessary and cruel approach as it stresses the fish out and some don't make it through the cycling process alive.  Hopefully in the future, you'll buy a $5 bottle of ammonia or a dead shrimp to cycle instead.  Does a cycle take a little while, yes...but nothing good happens fast in this hobby.  It appears you are trying to rush things a little bit and there is a very real possibility you could lose your clownfish.

 

The fact that you are reading .25 ppm ammonia is concerning since a normal cycled reef tank should never have an ammonia reading unless there is mass die off or something.  If you aren't getting any nitrate reading than the tank is not cycled.  The next step in the process after ammonia is nitrite and that is more than likely what could kill your fish.

 

If your fish are behaving normally and eating, I wouldn't start dosing medications or doing dips.  It's definitely not ich from the pics.  Just keep the environment as stress free as possible, feed them a high quality diet and do an immediate water change to get your ammonia levels down to zero.  I would also continue to add stability and or bio-spira to help out.  You'll need to monitor ammonia and nitrite and keep a water change ready for the foreseeable future until the tank is fully cycled.  

 

 

[Tamberav]

It is not ich from the looks of it but it is honestly hard to tell in the photos. Cycling with fish can cause stress and stress causes a lower immune system and can make disease of bacterial infections have the upper hand.

 

If the fins are ragged, that is a sign of ammonia burns... but ofc other diseases too such as flukes.

 

I would do water changes to keep ammonia low. Soak some pellets in selcon for them (since dry soaks up selcon easy). 

 

 

[lostboy95]

@DreC80

Thanks for your reply despite your disapproval of my approach! I also read on some forums and from publications that nitrites aren't nearly as deadly to marine fish as they are freshwater? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php#5 I hope thats the case. anyways I've been doing 10-25% water changes every other day and dosing with seachem stability as well to keep decent parameters. They have been acting pretty normal (for clowns) and eating mysis shrimp for sure. They don't seem to like the pellets although maybe its because my flow blows them around too much. Any thoughts on how to handle that? 

 

@Tamberav

Yea its hard to get good photos of these guys staying still lol. Thanks for the advice, definitely just keeping up on water changes during the remaining of the cycle. 

[DreC80]

Glad to hear all is working out.  I think most fish prefer frozen over pellets or flakes.  Could always lower your flow while feeding the pellets.

[sadie]

I unplug my pump and jet thing when I feed.  I feed a mix of foods.  One day pellet, then mysis shrimp or flake food and sometimes blood worms.  They like a variety.  Hope that helps.

[mcarroll]

On 4/22/2020 at 7:22 PM, lostboy95 said:

Did tons of fourm searching on here and others about set up, after talking with my LFS and searching the forums (as well as watching Mr. Saltwater Tank and others on youtube)

Any books, or good resources?? 

 

The LFS is the best resource in your list, and even they aren't the best resource you could use.  All of those can be "OK" secondary resources, but aren't good primary resources if you're new.

 

Get a paper (new or used) or electronic copy of Marine Aquarium Handbook Beginner to Breeder as a great starter book.  Use those secondary resources to get answers for all the questions you'll have from reading.   But you'll have a much better base of knowledge to ask questions and to interpret answers from.  Trying to ask questions or interpret answers when all you know is from a forum or YouTube video is difficult, to put it mildly.

 

IMO use books and reefkeeping.com and as much of the advancedaquarist.com archive on reefs.com as you can.  (Very hard to browse since reefs.com took over their content.....very sad since AA.com had some of the best articles around.  Still great if you can find the article you're looking for.)