Help Clownfish is ????

playful1 · #1 09/28/2003, 11:24 AM

Help, my juvenile orange ocellaris is losing color in it's white band...The band is turning black, however my black juv. ocellaris is not experiencing the same problem, what could this be??? What should I test for??

MarinaP · #2 09/28/2003, 03:17 PM

That sounds strange. Can you post a pic? Is he breathing hard/scratching/getting more black spots all over? Any open wounds? Fighting? Tell us more.

playful1 · #3 09/28/2003, 04:08 PM

Not breathing different, not scratching, just seems to be fading from white to black in its bands, I will try to post a pics but my digital cam might not show the color change...No open wounds, isn't fighting, just sitting in the bta hanging out...

oama · #4 09/28/2003, 06:17 PM

What about the orange sides? Any changes to that? What is your pH? Is the darkening limited to one stripe or all three? Have you changed or need to change your light bulbs lately? NH4, NO2, NO3 levels?

Added a new anemone lately? Or other fish? Is it being picked on?

As Number 5 said "Input. I need Input!"

Likely you fish is just stressed and will recover, if you can find what is stressing it.

playful1 · #5 09/28/2003, 06:33 PM

Darkening is spreading from the rear most stripe to the middle one, the orange seems unaffected, haven't recently added an anemone, it did however just recently start hosting in a green bubble tip. It isn't being picked on. Bulbs are less than 2 months old.
Nitrate 80
Nitrite 0
Ph 8.4
Ammonia .5

I just want to make sure that something isn't happening in my tank that I need to react to...Thanks

liv4speed1 · #6 09/28/2003, 06:36 PM

The way you describe it, make it sound like it might be a A. Percula, but if its located in the stripes I dunno :-\.

If its in the stripes, do y'all think it could possibly be an infection of somesort?

oama · #7 09/28/2003, 06:45 PM

I doubt it's an infection (but don't hold me to this!). Some clowns will change coloring when they are adopted by new/different anemonies.

Any other Clownies here have any input?

JHardman · #8 09/28/2003, 10:49 PM

You should look at getting your water quality under control first, then see what happens. You should never have detectable ammonia in a cycled tank unless you have a mass die off. Your nitrate is WAY TOO HIGH to keep an anemone too. You should shot for <5ppm to keep an anemone.

As far as the darkening bar(s)... Like I said get your water under control and see what happens. I have had juvenile A. ocellaris with dark grey silver'ish tale bars before, but that developed as soon as the bar did, it did not happen over time.

oama · #9 09/28/2003, 10:57 PM

damn missed the NH3 levels....

Good catch, John!

I concur!

playful1 · #10 09/28/2003, 11:00 PM

I've been fighting them, coming down from 160...thought I was doing good (well better) they were @40ppm which means them would be close to that, hard to tell, but skimming, doing regular water changes, added 2 more inches to the sand bed, adding more live rock, anything else???

oama · #11 09/28/2003, 11:08 PM

Wait for the cycle to complete...More LR may help, but could add to the load from die-offs.

Have you ever registered NO2 at all? At any point? With NH3/NH4 so high (and 0.5ppm is very high!) and no nitrites (NO2), your system is lacking the first set of bacteria to reduce the ammonia to nitrite.

JHardman · #12 09/28/2003, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by playful1
I've been fighting them, coming down from 160...thought I was doing good (well better) they were @40ppm which means them would be close to that, hard to tell, but skimming, doing regular water changes, added 2 more inches to the sand bed, adding more live rock, anything else???

Lots and lots of water changes. If you have ammonia you need to figure out why. Did you have something "big" die? If that is just "normal" then you need much more filtration or a much lower bioload, i.e. LR or less life.

The water changes will help the nitrates too. You might look at some fast growing marco algae too.

playful1 · #13 09/29/2003, 12:09 AM

This tank is old, it has cycled, I had my flame angel die from an infection a couple of weeks ago, and i removed my 2 damsels, but it haas been that high for awhile, i have 2 juv. oc. clowns, a bar goby, a sissortail goby, a dragon goby, regal blue tang, kole tang, and a puffer....All are healthy, I have an emporer 400 hang on filter and a aquamedic 1000 hang on skimmer....Do I need more filtration???

boot_smart · #14 12/25/2003, 03:39 PM

I belive you need more tank with the 2 tangs and puffer from what Ive been told about 1 inch of fish for every 10 gallons. Just a thought.