False perc

[Deceit101]

I have a Bubble tip, and a ocelleris clown.. today I had to take the clown out of the tank because he has some kind of bacterial infection causing him to turn black and not eat. (if anyone has any experience or seen this, please tell me what you recommend) and I put the clown in hospital tank for treatments. Its been 4 hours and the bubblt tip just shrunk up, hes looking pretty pathetic now. What I'm wondering is, should i worry about it? or will this anenome be fine when the clown comes out of treatment? I have never seen this behaviour before so I am not sure of what kind of actions I should take, or even if this is totally cooincidence that it happened as soon as i took the clown out. No contact was made to the anenome.
By the way, only the orange on the clown is turning black, starting from the top and moving down. it was like that for awhile about a month ago, then it stopped moving and i thought it looked pretty cool, but now it just took over its body, its almost totally black accept for his white stripes.

Thanks

-Deceit101


[Edited by Deceit101 on 04-17-2001 at 09:09 PM]

[billsreef]

Have you done any water tests lately? If so please post your parameters for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity, temperature and salinity.

What have you been feeding the clown and when did it last eat?

It is quite possible that the black coloring is just normal color change as the clown matures. The bubble tip is most likely just reacting the disturbance of removing the clown. However the answers to the above questions will help us determine wether or not there is a problem.

[Deceit101]

temp- ranges from 78-80
sg- 1.025
PH- 8.4
Alk- 3.6
amm-0
nitrite-0
nitrate liquid test- 0
nitrate powder test- 10-15

i have no idea which test of nitrate to trust, they both give false info.. I have almost no bio load and have a 3 1/2 inch dsb, and 35 pounds of live rock in a 29 gallon tank.. I dont run any kind of mechanical filter, just 2 power heads.about 1/4 of my DSB is from south padre island, just went there recently on vaction, so i threw it in there.

I only have 1 clown, one sand sifting (gray) starfish (they wont eat life in the sand bed right?), one flower anenome, and one bubblt tipped anenome.
my sand bed and live rock are full of life.. the rock already had tons of life, then i added wondermud from ipsf, and copepods, to boost my sand and diversity, now i added the stuff from padre island and everything is COVERED in life. also brought different types of algae that i'm hoping will take over the other problematic algea.. different red algeas, and lots of different green algeas.. then a few snails so if it gets out of control i would have natural predators of it.
i have a 55watt PC and a perfecto hood light with actinic, and i tore it apart and threw the guts in my DIY hood.

I am not really big on the fish thing in this mini reef tank, i just wanted that one clown to host up with the anenome. So they naturally turn dark at maturity? I wish i had known that before.. I am prolly stressing him out pretty bad now..
he ate yesterday and the day before but the difference was that he almost totally ignored it and just took like, one bite.. then today ate nothing at all.. his skin looks really bad tho, not just the color change but, seened to have a weird clearish coat over the top of his head.. its gone now, but he did look really bad when i transfered him. and i feed, formula one, formula 2, brine shrimp plus, and mysis shrimp, on a random rotation kinda thing, just what i feel like feeding them..
and just to mention, one of my power heads was buzzing really loud and i just recently noticed yesterday and fixed it.. could that have stressed the fish out to slow down eating and give him a minor infection that oculd be cleared up already? thanks dude!


-Deceit101

[billsreef]

Sounds like a good set up ;)

My ocellaris are now a burnt looking dark orange in color, no longer the bright orange they were as juvenilles last year.

Being off feeding for one day is not enough cause for concern by itself. The coating on the skin does raise some concern however. Was this a clear covering or did it have some coloring to it, ie gray or white? It is probably a good idea to keep the fish in Quarantine for the time being, assuming you have good filtration on that tank. The things to watch for are rapid breathing, lethargy, slow and labored breathing, any blood streaking in fins or body, gray or white looking areas of slime coat, or raised trasparent looking flaps (flukes) on the fish that can move. And basically anything else you observe out of the ordinary.

Diagnosing fish problems over the net is basically a process of 20 questions. If you can photogragh the fish and either post it to the forum or email me with them it will be even better ;)

BTW use that search button at the top of this page and plug in quarantine tank and you will come up with a wealth of ideas on proper set up and use of quarantine tanks. IMO it is allways a good idea to Q any new fish for 4-6 weeks just to be sure no parasites are hitchiking.

BTW I forgot earlier :eek:

[welcome]

[Deceit101]

Lol, thanks for the welcome!

The mucus type stuff was like.. opague... whitish i think. and by the way, I dont really think my Q tank is very healthy at all, its been set up for awhile and the ph and all the stuff is showing good, it just dosent look healthy... I have fish gravel, and a little whisper, for a 10 gallon tank on it... I'm gunna see about getting it set up.. i havent yet looked at what you told me to, i wanted to post first, but i'm sure i'll have another question after i get done reading that, heheh. talk to ya later bud!

-Deceit101

[billsreef]

The whisper kind of sucks for biological filtration. I would suggest a sponge filter or penguin biowheel type. Read some of those threads on Q tanks and you'll get some good ideas.

BTW you might want to post a really good description of that starfish to Dr. Ron's Forum and see what he has to say about it. Some are safe for your sand bed and some not ;)

Later, much later as I'll be out till late tonight :eek:

[Deceit101]

Well I busted out a ol' aquaclear 300 for the 10 gallon Q-tank and buddy its doing good now, the water dosent smell anymore, lol. I had designated that aquaclear as the 29 gallons 'once a month carbon doser' and other than that its brand new. the waters getting turned over like 30 times an hour, lots of carbon, and a spounge filter. Also trying to do alot of water changes to increase the water quality and drop the SG down to 1.019, Possibly even lower. I have heard that if you drop it down to around 1.012 that the fish has a easier time regulating the bodys salt content and they live healthier.. have any ideas on that? If I did that and helped the littl bugger out I bet he would come out like a champ though the problems. By the way, I'm giving him 1 Maracyn tablet a day.. He dosent show any signs the the problem anymore accept hes still blackish (which i dont consider part of the problem anymore but I wanted to make that point) Should I keep it up?

Thanks man, you have been a big help.. Later!

-Deceit101

[billsreef]

Sounding good.

Reducing the salinity can help relieve some osmotic stress on the fish allowing it spend more energy on it's immune system. This however is only good for short term treatment. Fish actually will tolerate down to 1.009 very well for treatment of some parasites such as ick. Long term however this leads to other complications invovling the compisition of body fats, so only use for treatment purposes.

Base on the earlier observation of a whitish covering I would continue with the maracyn for a total treatment time of 10 days.

Let me know how your fish makes out.