Help with sick clownfish

[KatyKat]

For saltwater fish, the following are relevant questions that will help us, to help you with any problems you may be having. Please provide as much of this info as you can in your post.

1. How long have you had the fish? Do you know if it was wild caught, or tank raised? ABOUT A MONTH


2. How long has the fish been in the tank? What are the tank mates? Any aggression? THE FISH HAS BEEN IN THE TANK FOR A WEEK AND A HALF, ONLY A EXTREMLY NON AGGRESSIVE BANGGAI CARDINAL FISH SHARES THE TANK.


3. Is the fish eating? If so what does it eat? SHE DOES EAT, A MIXTURE OF SHRIMP SOME DAYS AND DRY FLAKES OTHER DAYS.

4. What are the water parameters? pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SPG?
IM USING EASY STRIPS TO TEST THE WATER. NITRATES ARE BOTH AT ZERO, ALKALINITY IS ABOUT 180 MAYBE A LITTLE HIGHER. PH IS 7.9

5. Is the fish showing any physical signs of disease, grain of salt size spots, discoloration, ragged fins, misting or spots on the fins, cuts, cloudy eyes, etc? SHES SHOWING SOME SIGNS OF SICKNESS, COLOR FADING, RAGGED FINS, DISCOLORATION.

6. Is the fish "flashing" (scratching or rubbing on rocks, decorations or substrate)? SHES BEEN DOING THIS SINCE THE DAY IVE HAD HER, SHES A MAROON CLOWN FISH SO SHES CONSTANLTLY RUBBING AROUND IN THE SAND,
7. How is the fish acting? Is it swimming around, or just hovering in one spot or corner of the tank? SHE IS SWIMMING AROUND WHEN FOOD IS OUT BUT MOSTLY IS HANGING AROUND ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK

8. Did you use quarantine? If so for how long and did you have a need to treat for any ailments? Is it in qt now? Are you currently treating with any medication(s)? HAVE NOT TREATED WITH ANYTHING AND HAVE NOT QUARANTINED
9. Describe in detail how the fish was acclimated.

10. What size system? What type of filtration do you use? Do you have any live rock or sand? I HAVE SAND AND LIVE ROCK, GREEN STAR POLYPS AND A PULSATING XENIA. SHES IN A FLUVAL 10GALLON WITH A NEW SET OF LED LIGHTING,
11. Do you use any additives? Have you used any sort of meds in the main tank? I HAVENT USED ANY MEDICINE IN THE TANK YET. BUT HAVE ADDED REEF ACCELERATOR TWICE IN THIS TANK.

 

[KatyKat]

just fed for this morning and shes not even budging from the ground, help please!

 

[Ingy]

I'm looking on my phone so its hard to see, but it looks like ich to me. But the fins show some raggedness I think, which may also be caused by poor water. Test strips are very inaccurate/useless, buy a test kit.

If it is ich, you can either treat with a copper/cupramine medication in a different tank (copper based meds will infuse with everything in the tank killing the bacteria you need to process poop waste). I would suggest Hyposalinity in that tank, or using a seperate hospital tank for hyposalinity (preferred). But first a significant water change.

If you are going to use a seperate hospital tank, nitrogenous waste will become an issue and likely 25% water changes may be needed (depending on ammonia/nitrite levels). The goal is to lower salinity by 0.003 per day until you get to 1.009. Hold it there for 2-3 weeks AFTER the last signs of ich on any fish. Then raise it back up at the same rate to 1.025. Leave the fish in there until the total time in the hospital tank is 8 weeks, then you can return them to the main tank.

All (both) fish have been exposed to ich and therefore need to be treated. Leaving the display tank fallow (no fish) for 8 weeks will ensure any ich in the cyst stage have died due to a lack of a fish host. Shrimp and other clean up crew cannot host ich, so they can stay in the DT during the treeatment process (DO NOT put them in the hospital tank as both hyposalinity treatment or copper medication will kill the CUC).

 

[KatyKat]

if i have no quarentine tank or host tank what do i do? will ich treatment kill my xenia and polyps??

 

[KatyKat]

also, hyposalinty? is that just raising the ammount of salt? should i just perform a water change and then refill with new more salted water?

 

[Ingy]

Lowering salinity is Hyposalinity (you're referring to Hypersalinity). Yes, it will kill the corals, CUC and all the benificial bacteria (BB) along with the ich. Sadely, using a medication is even worse as it contaminates the tank for ever.

People have use many things for hospital tanks, including 5 gal buckets and totes, as long as you can put a heater in there. The only filtration you can use is carbon (for hyposalinity, but not for medication) and mechanical filtration (filter floss). An old style air bubble corner filter used in freshwater tanks with carbon and filter floss is cheap and can sit in a 5 gal bucket or tote (where a hob filter wont go).