Stocking a 55 gallon fowlr

[KSum89]

I need ideas and input on what i should get for my 55 gallon with about 70 pds of LR. Right now i have one o clown, 1 perc clown (been through alot of downs, now we are on the up), 1 pep. shrimp and 1 six line wrasse. I also have 1 royal gramma but i doubt he will survive, i tried everything. It has been hiding all day, it has had long trasparent spots on his side last few days. But anyway, what should i add to the tank.. I need compatible fish/snails/crabs to add in. Any suggestions?

- side note: i plan on adding some anemone for my clowns when my tank ages more on down the line.

-im gonna add one of those orange dotted gobies as soon as i figure out if my tank is well covered enough.

 

[Mr. Crabs]

Some specifics on the tank:

How long has it been set up?
Filtration/Protein Skimmer?
Water Parameters- SG, Temp, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph?
What do you mean by "Downs"?

If the fish that you have been adding have been dying or are strickened with disease, I am not sure adding anything is a good idea at this point.

 

[KSum89]

Some specifics on the tank:

How long has it been set up?
Filtration/Protein Skimmer?
Water Parameters- SG, Temp, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph?
What do you mean by "Downs"?

If the fish that you have been adding have been dying or are strickened with disease, I am not sure adding anything is a good idea at this point.

I had a huge thread on here about my perc. No one knew exactly what my perc had but after a week of nothing but water changes he looks better all this week and he/she is eating. But i have no idea what my royal gramma has and my water has been perfect, tested by my api test kit and lfs. Making sure no other fish shows symptoms before i add in anything of course, the fish arent cheap and theres a no guarantee on them dead.

It has been running for about 3 months and i went with a fishless cycle then added damsels to see if they lived and they did before introducing my clowns. Of course i returned the damsels first.

Ph is at a stable 8.3, using tap water but i tested it and no nitrates are present. Ammonia 0, highest i have ever let it get was .25 then i change water. Everything else is perfect and temp is at 82 and i slowly dropped my salinity down to about .22 to try to help my gramma.

Looking to get a skimmer soon but i have a marinelane penguin bio wheel 350 as my filtering system for now. With a hydor 1050 powerhead.

Havent added anything lately, i had the 2 clowns first, peppermint shrimp then the gramma, next was a cleaner shrimp and last six line wrasse. My cleaner died due to nitrates possibly. They were up at 5ppm but my lfs told me not to worry about it so i guess that caused the death.

 

[Mr. Crabs]

I know this is kind of cliche, but quarantine. Any time I add a fish to my display tank, it has been quarantined for 2 weeks, more if there appears to be problems or the fish is in distress for some reason.

Qt helps in a lot of ways:

1. You can catch a pathogen on the fish that may not be visible at the time of purchase, but shows itself a few days later.....then treat accordingly.

2. You don't compromise the rest of your healthy stock with the potential of introducing a disease that can, possiby never be removed, only to lay dormant until a stressed host presents itself--slime reduction.

3. You can monitor the fish up close and target feed making sure he gets nice and fat and used to the food you feed the rest.

A QT Tank need not be a large investment. It can be as simple as a 10 gallon tank, with a 50 watt heater and air stone near a window (for lighting) in a secluded part of the house. Make sure TO NEVER CROSS CONTAMINATE THE DISPLAY TANK with any items used on the QT--ie siphon or fish net.

Now, after 3 months, unfortunatly, you are left with a pathogen in your tank and want to go back to the lfs to put some more dough in their pocket---not trying to sound negative, but it's the reality of the situation. Your temperature is a bit on the highside. I like 78-79 degrees for a lot of reasons, most important being that O2 is depleted faster in sea water the higher the temp is raised. Less O2, the more a fish has to labor, and the more stress is endured, and the lower the immunity to the pathogen.

I would absolutely hold off adding anything to the tank, until you are certain that ALL inhabitants are thriving and the new arrival has been quarantined for a period of 3 weeks. Step back from the situation before wading deeper into the darkness, if you know what I mean. In my personal experience, I have NEVER trusted the advice of any LFS worker or owner. I read as much as I can and try to learn from experience in simple trial and error over the years.

The LFS loves to sell you fish, under most any circumstance

If I were you, this is what I would do:

1. Lower the temp.
2. Make sure I had proper O2 exchange at the surface of the tank directing the power head up
3. Set up a small QT tank for 30 dollars
4. Use the tank water to fill the QT tank
5. Replace the water from the DT tank with fresh mix that has been aerated for 24 hours--there's your water change
6. Remove the Royal Gramma and place him in the QT....give him a piece of PVC to hide in. He will appreciate it---no rock, sand or gravel in the QT
7. Monitor all fish for the next 4 weeks, adding NOTHING
8. If symptoms appear on the Royal Gramma, treat with proper meds to erradicate the pathogen
9. After the last visible sign of sickness on the Royal Gramma, give him another 4 weeks of QT
10. Assuming all other inhabitants in the DT are doing well at this time, add the Royal Gramma back to the DT
11. Go buy another fish and QT for 2-3 weeks

I know none of this is what you want to hear, but it would be my strategy to turn things around.

 

[KSum89]

So all i need is a 10 gallon tank and a cheap 50 watt heater and a airstone? I have a piece of 9 pound chuck of rock i can throw in there. I havent seen the gramma all day, it was hiding in his usual sleep spot breathing fast but it has moved. I hope theres nothing in the water.. The other fish are acting and look normal.

 

[KSum89]

Im pretty sure my perc passed on his brooklynella disease, i just googled brookylnella and went to google pictures and it looks exactly like what my gramma has. Looks nothing like the deadly ich disease, i've seen that first hand anyway but im sure thats what my little gramma has or had. I havent seen him since this morning. So is there a different approach i need to take?! Will it spread, the guy at lfs (imma call the lfs tommorow n blame this perc.. Because it did mess up my tank chemistry)

 

[Maya]

Brooklynella is highly contagious. I wouldn't add another fish to your tank until the fish have been treated and the tank has been cleared as a previous poster advised. Possibly 6 weeks.

 

[KSum89]

Then again im NOT sure once again, brooklynella looks like powder. I dont think the disease my gramma has looks like that.. For example, imagine grabbing a boiling hot curling iron with all five fingers. It burns you and you will have transparent bubbly growth on your scars. That right there is the best example of what it looked like to me.. I did that when i was a little kid so that thought will never leave me haha. But Heres a pic of something that looks REAL close to it. My clown had it to but it has went away along with fast breathing and no eating.

I attached a pic from google, my own perc clown with a small spot of whatever it was and a pic of my gramma i took yesterday, maybe you, crabs, can help me  or maya 

 

[Mr. Crabs]

This is tough. I once attended a hobbyist meeting where they had a guest speaker from Brazil giving a lecture. His main focus was fish disease and parasites. The take away for me was that, unless you are certain WHAT it is that your fish has, it is never a good idea to randomly treat. Fish are often misdiagnosed and the medication to treat can be more harmful than doing nothing at all. Unfortunatley, I could not give you any advice from a handful of pics. If you know a good LFS that has a microscope and is willing, I would say take the deceased fish to them (Freeze it). Have them take a sample of the growth from the scales and a sample from the gills and put it on a slide to get an idea of what you are dealing with.

Unfortunatly, that is really the only way you would know and could treat accordingly. Ich, is a bit easier to spot visually. This could be a handful of pathogens.

Little story for you: I once had a 10 inch Queen Angel. I had it for 4 years in a 180--I know, kind of on the small side for this fish. I introduced some new rock, and a few days later I noticed white flecks on the pectoral fins. I pulled him out, and put him in QT to treat with Copper, thinking that it was ich. The copper nearly killed the fish after 2 weeks of treating him. I pulled him out and put him back in the DT, with a hope and a prayer. They were just flukes, something that is common on an angel--they come and go. He recovered from the Copper--may never have been the same though. I ended up donating him to an aquarium after 6 years total. He is probably still there, happily.

Get a 10 gallon quarantine tank. Move the fish to it and change the water every 2-3 days with fresh salt mix (50%). Tank, heater, and air stone. Start the tank with 5 gallons of tank water and 5 gallons of fresh saltwater mix.

 

[KSum89]

My fish infections arent brooklynella or ich, my lfs diagnosed my illness with marime velvet. Even though all my fish but my royal gramma are doing well i was advised to get some 10 day HERBTANA treatment med. as the parasite may still be present.

-my lil royal gramma died 

After 10-15, ill prolly wait 15-16 days to make sure everything goes ok before adding ANYTHING.