Help, sick clown??

[watertight]

I got a pair of Occelaris clowns yesterday, I introduced them to the tank yesterday afternoon. I let them acclimatise in the bag for about an hour, slowly letting small amounts of tank water in until they swam out by themselves.
The tank is a fairly new 40 gal, been running for about 2-3 months, fully cycled. The only inhabitants were a yellowtail blue damsel, small bta, small piece of torchlight coral (All out of my nano tank which I upgraded), and about 30 lbs of liverock. I'm using 2 powerheads (1 is pre-filtered with a small sponge, 1 is not), a small hob filter and an air driven submersible type skimmer.
There was minor fighting at first, which died down. This morning one clown had these white blotches on his left side, and the other was sitting on the bottom with no visible damage. The one with the white blotches also had a couple of nipped fins. I've removed the damsel.
Water parameters are:
Amm 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
PH 8.0 (Using natural seawater, so is my LFS, 8.0 is stable)
SG 1.024
temp 78F
Here is a pic - is it an infection or battle damage from the damsel? I realise it's hard to see, sorry!

 

[zanoshanox]

I'm not sure what it is, the whote blotches, but i have seen a lot of the clowns at one of my LFS's looking lik that too...Why would you but then out fo the QT, and why would your LFS sell them toy ou out of the QT....? lol. I cannot give you a desease name..sorry

 

[watertight]

Here's a zoomed pic - btw, I have added "Bactonex", which is a mix of aminacrine hydrochloride and methylene blue, at 10 mils per 40 litres, which is the recommended dosage. I used this once before to combat ich in another tank with no probs. Fish both seem ok apart from being a bit skittish, both swimming in the current from a powerhead.

 

[watertight]

Originally Posted by zanoshanox
I'm not sure what it is, the whote blotches, but i have seen a lot of the clowns at one of my LFS's looking lik that too...Why would you but then out fo the QT, and why would your LFS sell them toy ou out of the QT....? lol. I cannot give you a desease name..sorry
I bought them out of one of their main display tanks, but the way he was talking I assumed they had been in quarantine for a while because they were new stock - but I may be mistaken lol. I asked about them early in the week and he said something along the lines of "We haven't got any for sale yet but there will be a pair out on friday" I edited out the quarantine bit on the original post, because it may be a bit misleading. Sorry!
They were healthy and happy looking when i got them. I still don't know if the fighting with the damsel and the white blotches are related or not.

 

[watertight]

 

[2563]

 

[blueangelc]

 

[watertight]

 

[criketnest]

 

[blueangelc]

 

[watertight]

 

[blueangelc]

 

[watertight]

The clicking sound seems to happen more at night, but happens occasionally through the day as well. I posted a thread on these boards a while ago, and I tried everything to try and catch it with no success. I eventually decided that it was a pistol, based on ppl's advice, but can't be sure, obviously. The clowns didn't have any visible marks on them, other than the one that did have the white "fuzz" over him.
I'll keep trying to find the shrimp - maybe I'll get myself a turkey baster and just hit all the little holes with fresh water and see what comes out. Thanks again for the help, appreciated

 

[fishmamma]

What exactly did you add to the tank? Does it contain any anti-biotic or copper? It is safe to assume you should not ever add medication to a main tank with inverts or live rock or all you may end up with is dead rock and dead inverts. If the med conatins ant-biotic you may go through another cycle. Do a large water change and run some filtration media to remove the meds like carbon and a polyfilter. Some lessons are learned the hard way as most of us in this hobby know, I hope your next clown purchase is a success.

 

[watertight]

The medication I added was Bactonex, which is supposedly safe for corals (Yeah, I know!), recommended to me by my LFS (Again, yeah, I know lol), the main ingredients are aminacrine hydrochloride and methylene blue. I added less than the bottle recommended (They recommend 10 ml per 40 litres, I added 30 ml for the tank, which is about 160 litres. The anemone seems to be doing well today, no more probs, just no fish!
I'm actually starting to suspect that maybe I have got a mantis, or perhaps a pistol shrimp could be doing damage? The clicking noise is mainly at night, but I can't seem to locate its source. I'll do a water change and run some carbon today, go fishing for shrimp tonight (Turkey basters with soda water, traps, whatever it takes), then try a small cheap fish later in the week. So far water parameters are still good.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
PH 8.2
Temp 79F (26C)
SG 1.024

 

[watertight]

Just an update - I did about a 20% water change and tank "tidy up", tested the water, which was good, then added 2 blue-green reef chromis. They have been in the tank for 2 days now, and doing well, and the bta is looking healthy again. Still trying to catch this pistol/mantis or whatever it is, but no luck so far. Spent half the night trying to get him last night, not even a sign of him. As soon as I went to bed, "CLICK CLICK CLICK!" Oh well, I'll find him one day

 

[indooreefs]

How would a mantis get in there?
Hitchicker from LR?.... I'm new and just wondering do we need to examine LR when we get it or is most hitchikers just a cool freebie.... And does everyone need a QT tank and if so how big should they be ,10 gallons? :help:
Sorry for all the questions maybe I should have made my screen name the student

 

[watertight]

I'm a newbie too, but I've already discovered some of the things that can be introduced on l/r - it's pretty cool really, sitting back watching all this "Free" wildlife that I've picked up along the way. I put red cellophane over one of my lights and turned off all the house lights, it was incredible how much life is actually in my tank!
As for the quarantine tank I can vouch, yes, everyone should have one. I'd have loved to have had mine up and running when I got my clowns, but I'm still trying to get my main tank set upatm. Only so many funds! I have an old 10 gal tank that I'm going to use, but I suppose the bigger the better, just depends on your resources and available room.

 

[merredeth]

Originally Posted by watertight
Just an update - I did about a 20% water change and tank "tidy up", tested the water, which was good, then added 2 blue-green reef chromis. They have been in the tank for 2 days now, and doing well, and the bta is looking healthy again. Still trying to catch this pistol/mantis or whatever it is, but no luck so far. Spent half the night trying to get him last night, not even a sign of him. As soon as I went to bed, "CLICK CLICK CLICK!" Oh well, I'll find him one day

I suggest you stay up one night and turn off your lights in the tank. When you hear the clicking sound hit the tank with a flashlight AFTER you can identify where the noise is exactly coming from in the tank.
Many people have tried this and found the source of their noise is an unwanted predator.
Denise M.