juvenile clown dying...

[anno]

hi there,

i am desperately seeking help from all of you and it would be much appreciated if you could share your experience or any advice to save my clowns.

i am keeping a small tank of juvenile clowns from their 18-day until their 46-day now. things have been smooth and i've switched from feeding them with newly hatched brine shrimps to cyclo-peeze around two weeks ago. they are being kept in a small tank of around 10L water and a live rock has been in it since day one. however, the juvenile clowns are dying since last week, there were in total 12 juvenile and 4 of them had gone already (around 1 per 2-day). initially i thought it could have been the occasional fight and the first one died was a relatively smaller one. however, the situation was getting worse afterwards as bigger ones were also dead without any significant sign of injuries.

it came to my attention after spending more time on observation that those dead clowns were showing peculiar behaviour as they struggled for their lives around 12 hours before their deaths, they kept their swimming positions in the same spot, head abit above their body, breathing rather vigorously and without any appetite for taking any live or freeze dried food.

my regular handling of the tank:
- since there isn't any filter setup, i keep changing around 50-80% of water every night
- feeding twice per day, 1/4 spoonful of dried food each time, morning and night
- there has been a live rock in the tank since day one

i looked up the book Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkeson and saw a chapter on postmetamorphasis hazards and found something about toxic tank syndrome, though i ain't sure if this is exactly my tank problem. i took the advice of removing any "biological filter" i.e. my Live Rock, and changed 80% water last night; i also used garlic extreme with brine baby mixed with cyclo-peeze to feed my clowns this morning but most of them are not interested in the food.

I am worrying that all the clowns are leaving me soon and please share any views or thoughts to save them.

thanks very much.

[FishGrrl]

Have you tested your water? I would check and make sure its not a problem with the water quality before anything else. I haven't raised clowns, its just usually the first and most likely thing to go wrong.

[anno]

thanks for your reply. do you mean NO2 NO3 and pH?
i didn't check water since i ain't running any effective filtration system and have been changing large amount of water as the alternative. i'll test the water later today as you suggested. thanks.

[Dman]

If your water checks out, try switching foods. Something other than Cyclop-eeze.
Dman

[FishGrrl]

Originally posted by anno
thanks for your reply. do you mean NO2 NO3 and pH?
i didn't check water since i ain't running any effective filtration system and have been changing large amount of water as the alternative. i'll test the water later today as you suggested. thanks.

Yeah, NH3 as well. Perhaps immediately before and after your regular scheduled water changes to see what the levels are in both cases. Even with large water changes, you could be leaving a lot of waste behind. If the ph is depressed, you do a 50% water change, the ph goes up but there is still a lot of remaining NH3, you could have trouble.

[anno]

Originally posted by FishGrrl
Yeah, NH3 as well. Perhaps immediately before and after your regular scheduled water changes to see what the levels are in both cases. Even with large water changes, you could be leaving a lot of waste behind. If the ph is depressed, you do a 50% water change, the ph goes up but there is still a lot of remaining NH3, you could have trouble.

hi Fishgrrl,

i actually only checked NO2 and NO3 and PH last night and everything was fine. didn't have NH3 tester but i believe the level couldn't be high since there isn't much to rot in the tank and since there're only 8 small juveniles in a 10L tank, the released waste shouldn't be significant as they've been living happily for over 3 weeks in the same environment.

thanks for the advice anyway.

p.s. i moved my remaining batch of clowns to a hanging breeder basket, hoping that the more stable enviroment with 170L water and chiller keeping between 26-28C would be good enough for their survival...

[Luis A M]

Sounds more like a disease. Check your fish for:

Very fast breathing.

Fading colour or whitish exudates or spots.

Sunken bellies.

If something shows,or if they keep dyeing,remove them to a hospital tank and begin appropriate treatment.

[anno]

Originally posted by Luis A M
Sounds more like a disease. Check your fish for:

Very fast breathing.

Fading colour or whitish exudates or spots.

Sunken bellies.

If something shows,or if they keep dyeing,remove them to a hospital tank and begin appropriate treatment.

thanks for the advice.
fast breathing > YES
Fading colors > YES (whitish spots not found, but some light white on body)
Sunken bellies > YES

what possible action i could take, would it be too exciting for juvenile clowns with freshwater bath?

thanks again.

[Luis A M]

I wouldn´t advocate treating without a diagnosis,but
I had a similar case recently and erythromycin worked well,250mg/10gal.Close circulation.
Mortalities should cease in 2 days.
Good luck