Clownfish Sick, HELP

[ntank20]

My clownfish is swimming around the tank all speratic like and looks like he is having some kind of seasure. He also has two white spots on his body, one on his tail and one on his mouth. If this is ick what do I do. Will my other fish get it. He is also being real aggressive towards my other clown. The other clown is affraid to go near him. HELP

 

[ntank20]

I forgot to mention that he is also breathing very rapidly. Also just incase this question is asked, all my levels are fine i just checked them last night.

 

[sepulatian]

How long have you had this clown. Do you have a picture of the spots, or can you describe this with more detail?

 

[uberlink]

Check in around on the disease forum for treatments and photos of sick fish. It sounds like either Brooklynella or Ick. If it's the former, he has very little time and you will need to treat with chemicals, probably Formalin (if memory serves). If it's ick, you have a little more time. You'll probably want to put both clowns in quarantine and treat with hyposalinity. It takes a few weeks and you must do it very carefully, but it's the best option. You can find complete instructions on the disease forum.
Do you have a quarantine tank you can move him (or them) into? If not, you should buy a cheap 10 gallon tank, a simple HOB filter, a heater, and a small powerhead and set one up. You may not be in time to save this clown, but is friend may well take ill before long and you will want it.
Good luck!

 

[ntank20]

He didn't really have that many white spots and when the daytime lights came on you couldn't even see them. I went to the lfs that I bought him from and the guy told me to do a freshwater dip. He said that it would kill any bacteria and or parasite if that is what it was. Should I do the same thing to my other clown or should I just wait to see if he was infected with the same thing. I hope that everything will be ok.

 

[ntank20]

I bought the 10 gallon tank but I haven't set it up yet. The guy told me to try the freshwater dip first. I hope I don't lose anything with this. If I do it is my fault anyway. I put too much in my tank too fast. I will feel horrible if something happens to either one of them. I hate it when stuff gets sick and all. The only trouble about setting up the quarintine is that I don't have enough RO salt water to put in the tank. I also don't have enough RO fresh water to make saltwater and the lfs that I buy my water from isn't even open today and nobody else sells any.

 

[sepulatian]

Take a look up above in the diseased fish thread. There are pictures of various diseases. Unfortunately alot of lfs's are out to make a buck. I seriously doubt that the freshwater dip did anything other than stress your clown out. It is always the aquarists responsibility to quarentine all new purchases before adding them to the display. Did he start swimming strange right after the fw dip?

 

[uberlink]

You know, I might consider setting up your qt without RO water if you have to. Others may disagree, but I'm thinking your fish's best chance is to qt him and give him some proper treatment--even if that means having him in slightly less than perfect water for a while. In my mind, the RO water is most important for corals and invertebrates, and it really has its payoff over time as you don't continually increase the amount of metals, etc in your display water through evaporation and top offs. If I were you, I think I'd just set that sucker up and get it going with a hyposalinity treatment.
The freshwater dip will do very little if it's ick. It may kill some of the little buggers, but only a prolonged course of hypo will get all of them and permanently. I would do hypo on both your clowns, assuming it's ick.
If its brook, you probably don't have any time left. Get the qt going!
Others disagree?

 

[ntank20]

I just looked at all the pics. None of my fish look like that, they all look normal. The only time I could see the white spots is when the blue lights were on. I can't see them anymore. Now he just looks normal but still acting like he gets spurts of energy and going crazy around the tank. I think he might just be stressed out by me adding so much so close together. Or he might have an internal parasite. To answer the question about him swimming funny, no, he acutally started swimming normal. I was also going to say that they only thing from the pics above that resembled anything on my fish was the black spots from getting stung by my anemone. They were also the first fish that i put in my tank. I put them into my tank on December 29, so they have been in there a week or so.

 

[uberlink]

He might have just gotten stung. And clowns can act pretty bizarre at times.
But you know? I'd set up the qt anyway. Set it up with regular tap water for now, and replace that with RO as soon as you have a chance. Use one of those tapwater conditioners, if you can. That way you'll be ready if it seems you need to pull them out.
Just my two cents...
Good luck!

 

[sepulatian]

I agree that you should have the QT running just in case. If he has only been in for a week and the spots don't look anything like in the pics I would just leave him be for now. What all do you have in your tank? It is a 20 gallon? Can you post your exact water levels? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, kh, salinity, and temp?

 

[ntank20]

Ok, thanks. Like I said walla go. He doesn't show any sign of ick or any of the other illneses above. The only thing that concerned my was his wild spurts of energy where he would turn circles, I mean round and round he would go. Then he would stop. Then he woud do it again. It was just weird. I will go ahead and try to get everthing set up. I don't know if I will be able to get to it today. I just found out I have a viral infection and I only went to the lfs on my way home from the doc. So I am going to try to stay in for the rest of the evening. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[ntank20]

My tank is a 45 gallon. I have about 60 lbs of ls and 80lbs of lr. I have the two clowns, an anemone, 9 hermits, 2 turbo snails, 10 nassarius snails, 1 coral banded shrimp and that is it.

 

[ntank20]

Oh, and a serpant star fish. I never see him that much, so i forgot about him. Another thing that concerned me is that he wouldn't eat yesterday. Today will be the 3rd day he hasn't eaten. I am feeding them every other day with mysis and brine shrimp. He won't eat the other food I have for him. Should I be concerned about that?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by NTank20
My tank is a 45 gallon. I have about 60 lbs of ls and 80lbs of lr. I have the two clowns, an anemone, 9 hermits, 2 turbo snails, 10 nassarius snails, 1 coral banded shrimp and that is it.
That is not overstocked IMO. I was asking about the water quality because that is often a key factor in fish stress and abnormal behavior. The clown may just need some time to settle in. Keep a close eye on both of them.

 

[ntank20]

My water quality, according to the lfs is great. Everything is the way it is supposed to be. I tested everything last night and all the levels were good.
Amonia- 0
ph- 8.4
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0
salinity- 1.025-1.026
Its not that I have too much in there. It is just I added everything too fast. I should have took my time with all that, even if my tank has been set up since July with nothing in there but rock, sand and algae.

 

[ntank20]

Just in case you were wondering, I used RO water to set up my tank and I always top off with RO water. I have another question I would like to ask someone besides my lfs. I have a filstar 350, a protein skimmer for a 75 or bigger tank, and to powerheads in my tank. Do you think I have to much flow? One power head points towards my rock and the other towards the top of the tank.

 

[ntank20]

Sorry for asking so many questions but let me get something strait. I should always qt a new fish before putting it in to keep it from giving my other fish some kind of disease. I was just told to drip acclimate them and then put them into the tank. Well, that is what the lfs said. If this is true, I can't believe the lfs would leave something like that out. You would think they would tell you everything you need to know and try to give you all the info so that your tank will stay healthy.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by NTank20
Sorry for asking so many questions but let me get something strait. I should always qt a new fish before putting it in to keep it from giving my other fish some kind of disease. I was just told to drip acclimate them and then put them into the tank. Well, that is what the lfs said. If this is true, I can't believe the lfs would leave something like that out. You would think they would tell you everything you need to know and try to give you all the info so that your tank will stay healthy.
Most lfs's are out to make a buck. A responsible lfs owner cares about your fish and your tank and goes for loyalty rather than fast cash, but unfortunately alot of them do not. It is also possible that your lfs owner is not aware of proper health precautions. Yes, you should qt all new arivals for at least 3 weeks to be certain that they are not carying a disease. Fish do not have to be infested with disease to introduce it into your tank. You would never even notice things such as ich on your corals or inverts. Ich will not host them, but can be resting on their surface in the dormant stage.
As far as your water flow, that is not too much. It sounds good

Don't ever worry about asking too many questions. That is how we learn.

 

[uberlink]

Actually, everything sounds like it's in very good shape. And I don't think you moved too fast, except maybe with respect to the anemone, and you're not overstocked. Given that your levels are all good, even the anemone should be fine.
I might chalk this up to clowns being, well, clowny...except for the fact that he's not eating. That's never a good sign. He may well have gotten some stings from the anemone, which I suppose could affect his appetite. You might want to consider soaking your food in a little fresh garlic juice for ten minutes or so before feeding. That is supposed to help their immune systems, and it may help the appetite. Just keep an eye on him and hope for the best!