Fish shedding?

[Mini_GBR]

Hi all,

 

Well I'm in mourning today. My male clownfish died this morning, and I haven't the faintest idea why. I added a pair of percula's last week and last night the male started to look funny after I had cleaned the glass. First it started to turna bit whit in color or cloudy. and then started to shed the white stuff off. This was not ich by any means, it seemed more like it was shedding a layer of skin or something. So as soon as I noticed this, I checked the parameters:

 

Amonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 2 ppm

ph: 8.3

 

and temp is stable from 79.5 - 80.0

 

Any thoughts, I can't figure out this kunundrum (sp) and can't remember from my readings what this could be. I want to figure it out too before anything else dies. Thanks

 

-Mike

[debbeach13]

Sorry for your loss. I do not know what happened but some times it is not any thing you did or did not do. If it was a captured fish thats tramatic along with transport to the wholesaler tank, transport again now the retailers tank, transport again to our tanks its a wonder most of them do not die. I hope if there is some thing wrong that you find it and do not lose any thing else but may be nothing is wrong. Good luck

[Mini_GBR]

I guess the stress of it all could be the simplest anser, but still, not knowing if I did something wrong and that I could do it again is what I'm worried about the most. I hate to kill things. Has anyone ever seen this shedding before and is there a name for it and way to fix it so if this happens again I can fix it, or is the fish a gonner if it happens again.

[Six]

usually slime-coat shedding as you describe is a water quality issue. many times it is high ammonia or nitrite that stresses the fish's skin and the fish alliviates the pain by producing more protective slime.

 

this could also happen when a fish is not acclimated slowly enough, bought online and had a rough trip, or has some other sort of skin irritation or ailment. unfortunately, you cant get any for sure answers now since the fish is dead. just be careful when you acclimate and buy local (but healthy, well acclimated and eating) fish when possible.

 

if your fish were tank raised, you could have gotten fish froma bad batch (lets just say when you're breeding clownfish, you don't breed them genetically sound, you breed them to get numbers. sometimes, well most of the time, this means youre interbreeding. that means a poor immune system and other genetic ailments.)

[juulke]

Hi,

 

I presume that this fish wasn't in good condition at all when you bought it.

I am sorry about this. But you never ever could have seen this (because this never shows up at first site). Moving and introducing it to your tank directly (with own values on water conditions) caused an extra boost to this bad condition. Before introducing a new inhabitant to your tank (already with life-stock fish contained) it might be wise to put it in an safty-tank wich is only kept to introduce and check new inhabitans (for a period of at least four weeks). Fill this safty-tank with the water that comes from your main tank (b.e. refresh of the water). Keep this QUARANTINE-tank simply (no or few rocks because of easy maintenance). It must also be very easy to catch the inhabitans if treatment (against any occuring decease) is necessary. It might be a lot of extra work but it will benefit you and your main tank for preventing further problems.

 

Greetings,

 

juulke

[Mini_GBR]

The fish was looking fine when I bought it, and it didn't show any signs of stress until a week after I got him, which was the day that it keeled over. It all appened so fast, and the parameters were fine and all in balance. I also drip acclimated the fish for 2 hours.

 

I figured the fish was stressed by something and that the shedding was due to the slime that clownfish secrete, but since the parameters were fine, I had no clue what was going on.

 

That's interesting about the interbreeding, makes sense, but screws all of us.

 

As for the quarantine tank, as much as I'd love to have one, it is ind of out of the question at the moment. I live in a small apartment with 2 others and there is simply no room to put another tank, as small as it may be. I may try to build a small enclosed shelf and system inside my stand, but that might not even be big enough.

[ACBlinky]

Try doing a search for Brooklynella, that's my guess. Wild caught clowns are very susceptible, but captive bred can get it as well and IME it's a NASTY condition. I lost my saddles to brook; their symptoms were rapid breathing, sloughing chunks of slime coat, and death within a few days. I had no idea what was going on until it was way too late, poor little guys. Sorry you lost yours too, it's horrible to lose a clown, they're such sweet fish.

 

Edit --> mispelled brooklynella, corrected spelling above

Edited May 29, 2006 by ACBlinky

[Mini_GBR]

Yeah ACBlinky, that is exactly the conditions I had, but hae not found how to correct this sickness or what caused it. It is sad, I hate killing things.

[Unicorn]

My goldfish has it too, so it's not just clownfish...