DieselTanker Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I have a 12g nano that has finished cycling and last night I added a cleaner shrimp and a percula clown. The shrimp has been exploring his new home just fine, the clown is another matter. He swam around a little when first added but since last night he has hovered near the bottom swimming in cicles sometimes but mostly just hovering. His mouth is moving kindof fast but I don't think he is gulping for air, I read up on possible problems and I've seen some people having problems with lack of O2 in the nano cubes so since it was too late to buy an air stone, I lowered the water level a bit so the outlet would break the surface and make some bubbles. He perked up a bit when I did that, but he is still in pretty much the same spot hovering. He seems to have a couple tiny white spots too. not sure if it is ick or a parasite though. I'm a bit worried since this is my first attempt at a reef. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Link to comment
Tempest Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Did you acclimate the clown before putting him in the tank or did you just put him in right away? Improper acclimation can stress fish and other marine creatures. He may have ich which does attack the gills causing breathing problems. Do a search and look at the pics to help you with the diagnosis. If the white spots look like grains of salt, disappear in a few days and then reappear with friends he probably has ich. The best treatments for ich are hyposalinity and copper based medications like Cupramine. Both treatments MUST be done in a hospital tank or they will kill the shrimp and ruin the live rock. However, he may just have some sand stuck in his slime coating from hovering at the bottom of the tank. Percs often act funny when first introduced to a new tank. He may relax in a day or so and start swimming around or pick a new spot. My perc has been in his 20 long for over 4 months and he still spends most of his day bouncing up and down in one corner of the tank. Link to comment
DieselTanker Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 Thanks for the info. I did acclimate him. I guess I will have to keep an eye on him for a few days, his color isn't bad, I don't know if that makes a difference. Unfortunatly I don't have a hospital tank and I don't want to harm the shrimp or the two small frags I have in the tank. Hopefully his condition will improve. The local fish store I bought him from had the fish there for a long time, at least a couple months and they looked good in the tank so hopefully he is just stressed. Link to comment
DieselTanker Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 One other quick question in regard to the O2 shortage in the nano cube, would a microbubble airstone hooked up to a dual outlet pump made for 40 gallon tanks supply enough oxygen for the tank by itself? not including the minute amount of surface agitation and biomedia? Link to comment
twkenny Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 WHat are your water params and how did you acclimate him? How was he acting at the LFS? I doubt its an 02 problem.... Link to comment
embryoguy Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 how was teh clown when you bought it? did you make them feed it ? i alwasy make the store test feed the fish to see if its ok. an airstone will make no difference. its not the problem. somethign in your water is not making the clown unhappy. for ex. i dont even acclimate my fish /corals and i NEVER have lsot a fish or coral from not doing that. is that the right way to do it. definetly not the best. but it shows you that its more about your water quality than how well you accclimated. check your levels and consider bringing a sample to lfs to get tested.. Link to comment
twkenny Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 I agree with everything listed by embryoguy...with the exception of the importance of acclimating any livestock. Did it have spots on when you bought it? Link to comment
DieselTanker Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 No, the fish looked god in the store and I had been checking them out for a few weeks. The spots come and go and I've read the it is not uncommon for perculas to hang out at the bottom when they are stressed and that the white spots that come and go may be from stirred up substrate. I checked all levels before I put the fish in and they were fine, pH ~8.1, Amm. 0.0, Nitrite 0.0 and Nitrate ~15ppm. I am going to check the levels again today. He does swim up once in awhile, especially when I put some brine in the tank so I think it is just a matter of stress, if it were more than a couple of days then I would definitly say there is something more serious. I will keep you posted. Also, would a nano cube make a good hospital tank? I was considering buying a DX nano and making the old one a hospital tank. Link to comment
DieselTanker Posted December 3, 2004 Author Share Posted December 3, 2004 um, that was, the fish looked good, not god...... Link to comment
twkenny Posted December 3, 2004 Share Posted December 3, 2004 Well...he's in there now. If it's ick it's in there too, so I suppose I'd let it ride. Others will probably suggest taking him out and treating him. Unless I was 100% sure it was ick (I don't think it is) I'd leave him alone. Was he tank raised? I assume so because you said you were watching "them" which indicates to me several of them in one tank. Don't feed him too much...the last thing you need is to get your levels up...which can happen easily and quickly in a small tank. A hospital tank/q-tank should be very simple. Needs to be maintained like your display...remember the better the water quality the better chance the fish has. Good luck...hope he's okay. Link to comment
DieselTanker Posted December 5, 2004 Author Share Posted December 5, 2004 Unfortunatly, while the corals and shrimp thrived, the Perc died, when I went back to the store with a water sample everything still checked out fine. When I brought it to the owners attention he saw the the other clowns still in the tank were also acting like him and didn't look so good so he moved them to a tank treated with copper. Maybe the death of one saved a dozen or more. The stress from the move must have brought on the sickness quicker. I now have a blue damsel in the tank from a different store where I also had the water checked. He was doing great 5 minutes after putting him in. He eats every last bit of brine that goes in the tank so now I'm just worried that the shrimp will have enough to eat! -On a side note, I picked up a 12g nano deluxe since I have been having problems with my older nano's fans and I also see the benefits in the long run of a much better tank and hood design. Haven’t opened the box yet. Looking for suggestions on what to do. I don't necessarily want to just flat out transfer the tank over, although it is a possibility and it would be a lot cheaper, I'm just worried about killing off the good bacteria and having it recycle. Should I buy a lot of new stuff and cycle this tank out too before transferring the inhabitants or just work fast and transfer everything over or a little of both (slowly transfer live substrate, rock and water to the new one from the old one while filling the new one entirely with store bought live water and maybe transfer the biomedia from the old one too (since I haven’t removed it yet). Sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure I don't harm the current livestock. Thanks again for all your help. Link to comment
dragon79 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 I own the deluxe for one, second advise for you, I'd say to be on the safe side, start that one up as if it was your first. Keep your existing nano running and keep monitoring how everything is in there and how the damsel does. You wouldn't want to introduce something bad from your old tank to your new tank, you know what I mean? When things check out real cool and your confident, you can slowly transfer everything over to the new tank. Learn more on additives and see how healthy you can make your existing tank, that way it'll make things easier for you. I'd run things different as ways of how the 3 stage filtration works....you can gain a big insight from member: "larnie" His is off to a great start. In short, you can upgrade the stock pump to something that puts out 153GPH or 159GPH like mine. You can also add chemi-pure in chamber 1 and put in one of the three sponges in there. 2nd chamber you should fill it up with live rock, and you can add the digital thermometer guage in there. Last chamber of course is the upgraded pump and submerisble heater. Start off that way, and I think you'd be off to a great start. (realize in this setup, you would not be using the stock carbon, ceramic rings, or bio balls, and two sponges) Good luck and let us know how it all goes!! PS Sorry to hear about your clownfish. I got a tank raised Ocellaris, and dropped him in my nano on day 1 after dropping in some benefical bacteria called bio-spira. Killer stuff, I recommend it. That was back in Thanksgiving. We are in January now and he's very healthy, active, and very friendly.... Link to comment
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