please help~

[rpg528]

I'm new to saltwater.
I have 2 clown, two cleaner shrimp, and 2 hermit in 29G tank.

my clowns are not eating anything(2 days).
open-mouth gasping.. lying on the bottom.

water temp - 78
ph - 8.2
sallnity - 28
ammonia - none
nitrite/nitrate - none

I have two power filters, a skimmer, 30lb of crushed coral and 10 lb of white sand. I recently added a wooden air stone about three days ago.

Why is this happening?
Any help will be appreciated..
thanks

 

[reefrunner69]

my clowns are not eating anything(2 days).

How long have you had them? If they are new...this is not uncommon. Are they wild caught or tank raised?

open-mouth gasping.. lying on the bottom.

This is not good, could be ich, velvet or brooklynella, hard to say without a pic or a better description of their physical appearance.

water temp - 78

A little cool, I would bring it up to 80-82 over the course of a few days.

sallnity - 28

How are you measuring your salinity? If your useing a test lit or a refractometer and measuring in ppt, then your salinity is a little low, natural reef salinitis are around 35ppt @ 82-84*F. If your using a floater or a swing arm hydrometer are you using the ppt reading (worthless on this type of unit) or are you measuring the specific gravity and you mean 1.028, 1.028 would be a little high as 35ppt roughly corresponds with 1.025 @82-84*F.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think your dealing with brooklynella hostilis, do the clowns appear as if they have a slimey film coming off their bodies? does it look like their skin is coming off?

 

[rpg528]

There is nothing unusual with their skin.
They are tank raised and I've had them for about a month.

Small one is still not eating anything and is breathing with it's mouth open.
Larger one has started to eat.. and both of them are no longer lying on the bottom.

The only thing I can think of is stree caused by a SUDDEN temperture change.
It was very hot last week here in CT.. water temp was going up to near 86. I had to relocate the tank to a room where A/C is available. The temp dropped to about 76 in 4-5 hours.

And that's when I added the wooden air stone.
I've had it running for 2 days at pretty high flow.
I placed the stone inside a large sea shell so it looked as if the shell was making the bubbles. anyways..when I noticed that my two clowns are open-mouth gasping, I stopped the air pump and saw my plants were covered with lots of tiny little debries. I think it's either from the wood or the sea shell.

 

[stresco]

That was a huge temp change for your fish. You shouldnt submit fish to changes like that. 1 degree per day is usually an acceptable rate. I would try getting the tank temp back up to 82F, and remove the airstone and shell from the tank for now. Too many changes too soon can equel disaster.

 

[Hara]

You may want to do some ich prevention by means of soaking thier food
in garlic oil. Also, the tank was not in any high danger at 86 degrees. Placing
a fan aimed at the water would most likely have dropped it a couple of degrees
and that would have been in the normal heat range.

 

[rpg528]

OMG
just found out that the small clownfish has a burging eye.
only one eye is effected.
Is this a sign of Ich??

My book(clownfishes by Joyce D Wilkerson) tells me that if it's only one eye, "..the cause is likely external physical damage that will clear itself within a week."