I think I'm going to lose my saddleback pair :(

[ACBlinky]

I'm SO sad tonight, I think my little guys are doomed. Two weeks ago the female developed popeye out of nowhere (I understand saddles are very suceptible), and I've been treating the tank with Maracyn Two, then Maracyn & Maracyn Two together to no avail. She rallied for a while, but looked much worse this morning, and the male is starting to look ill - he's got some redness around his nose and mouth, and they're both breathing harder than normal.

Throughout, water conditions have been fine - NH3 & NO2 never over 0, NO3 was 5 at the start, but constant water changes and Caulerpa in the tank have brought it down to 0. I'm at a complete loss. Because the directions say to medicate for no longer than 10 days and the antibiotics are obviously no longer helping, I discontinued treatment, did a huge water change tonight and put some carbon in the filter. I've tried to find other meds but it seems none of the stores in this city have anything strong enough to be worth trying.

For now, they're on their own. I'll keep the water pristine and continue offering nutritious foods, but I don't think they're going to make it - they refused to eat dinner tonight, and IME that's the kiss of death for most fish. I hate seeing them like this, but they're not far gone enough to euthanize yet. I'm afraid if they keep going downhill I won't be saying the same tomorrow. :(

[TOURKID]

just a thought, but when i had to use maracyn two for my maroon, i was told to double the dose. and i did.

I had her in a ten gal. QT tank, so 2 tablets the first day, then 1 every day the rest of the time. how much were u using? is it in quarentine?

[TOURKID]

oh... my clown dident eat for 5 days. i hear 2 weeks can go by without food before is crisis. try to feed em, but try to find the sickness and fix that and they'll eat.

Mine had bacterial infection, first her mouth looked weird, then she was listless, eventually breathing hard and hanging at the top of the tank. then fin and tail rot and red streaks on her yellow stripes.

the maracyn 2, doubled up had her eating within 2 days and she was sooo much better after 4 or 5

[Azurel]

I have read over on Wetwebmedia.com that Epsom salts can be used to relieve pressure in the eye. In the FAQ article I read stated that when used it can help with medications to heal the sick fish's eye... I believe it was Bob Fenner that was answering and writing the article. I have heard of it being used and it has a good success rate. It might be worth a try.....At this point anything is better then losing them.

[bluerug]

I am a big fan of pimafix and melafix, you should give it a try you have nothing to loose.

[TOURKID]

hmmm... i read a thread the other day regards epsom salts.. it said that its worthless in salt water and will only act as doseing magnesium whitch causes an algea bloom

also JUST read a good bit about melafix and premafix. it is extramly interesting. I think you need to check out the disease forum. ive spent the day there unfortunatly. wild caught baby maroon with stringy poop. hard to get meds for my issue
but i found em :D
link for the fixes -
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=843901

cant remember where i read about the salt

[Azurel]

Here is a link to some questions and answers, you might want to look at it might give you some ideas....

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/popeyefaqs.htm

[ACBlinky]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I was horribly down last night and really appreciate the support :)
I did post in the disease forum, and got some help on which direction to go from here. The pair look like they're sloughing their slime coat this morning and they're breathing harder than normal, but they're eating again. The female's eye actually looks less swollen today, so maybe there's hope yet.
TOURKID - I was treating in the display tank. These meds are supposed to be relatively safe for the bio filter, and I have sponges in other tank filters that I can switch to this tank if needed. There's a pile of macro in the tank soaking up nutrients which helps. Between the Caulerpa and frequent large water changes, everything's at zero.
Tonight I'm crossing my fingers, we'll see how they are in the morning. If they look like they're improving I think I'm just going to keep the water quality as perfect as I can and let them get better on their own. If they look the same or worse, I'm going to try the suggestion I got in the disease forum and treat with antifungal meds.

[stykthyn]

water changes can cure a host of problems, keep the water quality up and if they look like they are improving then you have a good chance they will pull through

[ACBlinky]

I lost both of them overnight. I'm heartbroken, I have no idea what happened. I think that I mistook what was really a bacterial/fungal/parasitic infection for sloughing slime coat. Last night they were breathing rapidly and looked very uncomfortable. I was up first thing this morning ready to go to the LFS to ask for advice and pick up meds, but when I went to turn the tank light on I found they'd died sometime in the night :(

[TOURKID]

sorry to hear about your loss. it really did sound like a maracyn 2 situation

do yourself a favor and set up that qt tank. Even if you arent planning on getting anymore fish right now, it'll be primed and ready when you are. I used 5 gal. of my tank water and 5 gal of fresh salted r/o water, have a lil hang on filter with a sponge in it (preferably a used one from your tank) and a heater (heater will cost more than the tank!! oh, and a thermometer...

I got my ten gal tank for about 25.00 and it included heater, filter and a few other due dads...

[Azurel]

Sorry to hear about your loss, m8.

[stykthyn]

ditto, I hope that this wont discourage you from trying clowns again.

[ACBlinky]

Thanks guys, it's nice to know other people understand how sad it is to lose a clown :)
I can't believe how attached I was to the little guys. Their tank is right beside my desk, and the female used to hang out in the corner closest to me any time I sat here typing. I keep looking into the tank, expecting to see her there. I've lost fish before, but there was just something about this pair. They terrorized the other fish in my 65g, but even though we couldn't really afford it at the time, we went out and bought them their own tank rather than trading them in - I just couldn't part with them.
I keep looking at the empty tank wondering what to do with it. Every other fish I think about just doesn't seem right, I think it's going to have to be another pair of clowns. I'm definitely not soured on them, heck, I have a pair in the other room (perc/ocellaris)! I think once you love clowns, you're hooked for life :)

[stykthyn]

get a pair of onyx clowns from Rod,they keep me enthralled for hours. I dont think I could get any work done if they were next to me. :)