clown trouble

[martianarts]

I have two clowns and last night, they were all fine up and about vibrant as ever. The next morning i notice one of them is just laying on the sand, wiggling. it had a whitish film on it. looked rather pale and the fins looked damaged a bit. the other clown was also pale and swimming rather awkwardly. later i come home for lunch and the clown was dead. the other clown was now doing the same as the first. i have a yellow tang and a blue damsel. they are doing fine, no discoloration or problems. my cleaner shrimp was ok too. i tested the water. everything is fine, except the nitrate was a tad bit higher than usual. but it could have been the lighting that i was looking at the results. were their days just numbered? or is this something serious that could affect the well being of my tank.
tank setup:
20 gal
live sand
22 lbs live rock.
had two clowns
have yellow tang
cleaner shrimp
blue damsel

 

[bdhough]

Did the clowns have any cuts or tears on them? You can't keep a yellow tang in a 20 and expect him to be civil in the least, let alone healthy. The tang can live in there for a time. If he is small enough but like i said. The blue damsels can be mean too but i would look to your tang...... I don't know though. Did you just add them? It sounds like you've had them in there a while. If you did just add them then it sounds like they were severely attacked. If you didn't then i don't really know.

 

[martianarts]

the clowns have been in there for about 2 or 3 weeks. my tang is timid but comes out every so often. it likes to hide behind the live rock. its about 3 inchs long. the damsel was being a

[hr]
to the clowns at first but after 2 days it layed off, but i assume it was still territorial. the clowns last night did not have any fin damage, nice and round. but this morning it was tattered looking. could it be brooklynella or just an over crowded tank? i'm starting up a nother 20 gal. maybe relocate the tang to its own tank for the time being or sell my tang off. but back on topic, would the clowns death affect my fish? disease wise?

 

[bdhough]

well if there is a parasite in the tank that killed them then yes it could affect your other fish. It may never manifest itself but it could... It is possible you overstocked but i've seen 4 fish in a 20 before so i don't know. I've heard of an anemone fish disease but i don't think i've ever seen it. I would ask around or do a search. It usually kicks in 2-4 weeks after someone gets a clown....

 

[martianarts]

good information. is there anything i can do to treat a clown of a potential parasite before intorducing it to my tank? quarentining it before? how does one go about making a quarentine/hospital tank. i really want to get anohter two clowns, but maybe get rid of the damsel and go for maybe another cleaner shrimp.
i just hope my tank will last and it wont kill the current inhabitants.
also off topic. i just found two tiny feather dusters growing on the live rock. i dont know how they got int here but they look neat

 

[beth]

Did the clowns have like a white film over their bodies that may have looked like a layer of skin was pealing off?

 

[martianarts]

i dont know about a film. but their 'skin' was pale and discolored looking. it may have been a film but i definately didnt see any spots on the fish.

 

[beth]

I would wait a month before adding any new fish. In the meantime, you can set up a QT.

 

[martianarts]

i was planning on doing a water change tomorrow, would that help any? also when should i perform regular water changes? monthly? bi-monthly?

 

[beth]

You can certainly do a water change, but you still need to wait a month
Weekly is actaully a good timeframe. Even daily. If you do a gal water change every day, it certainly makes it very easy to do water changes, and you are always getting fresh water the tank.

 

[doodle1800]

Odd - I have the exact same situation except I have a 55 gal. 3 clowns, a yellow tang, and a velvet damsel. All 3 clowns croaked this weekend, the same exact way. Clowns were in my tank more than 3 months though.

 

[bdhough]

Try looking for anemone fish disease. I don't think its detectable and i've HEARD, not seen, that it kills silently. Its some sort of internal parasite ocean caught percs get. Esentially they need to be dewormed. Thus why there are tank raised percs and why they are so much more expensive, because they don't ever see the disease.....