She/it Clown of Established Pair needs help

[fishywishy]

I am stumped. There is something wrong with my tank which my female clown is now starting to show signs of. She will not eat. She will not swim around her territory. She just sits on her rock below the finger coral and ignores her anemone (which she usually guards with her life. If I am just walking by the tank she usually is biting at me through the tank walls). Her eyes have a blue shimmer to them now also. Her mate is acting mostly normal but his color has paled but he is putting on bulk faster than usual and is darting around their territory.
They are either a sebae or a clarkii. The pair is the only fish in the tank. There is also a BC shrimp, a porcelain crab, a finger coral, and several other inverts like sponges, feathers, etc. The tank has been running for 2 1/2 years without a problem until last month. My finger coral colony started to 'shrink' more often instead of just at night. I attributed it to the cold as the temp had dropped a little and I had not done anything to the tank.
I increased the temp by 1/2 a degree and left the lights on 1 hr longer. I performed normal maintenance (5% monthly water change, parameter checks, and nutrient additives). The coralline along the tank walls increased in number, as well as the nuisance (but cute) small starfish. I’m now seeing tan filamentous-like creatures growing on one side of the tank wall and the rocks along the same side.
Then the clincher, my beautiful clown has stopped being a clown! I have read through the threads and my books and online but can find nothing that matches exactly what ails her. She appears in optimum health except for her behavior, eye coloration changes, and the general turn in the tank dynamics.
The tank water parameters appear fine. The ammonia was up a bit higher than usual so I performed an extra water change today of 10%. There appears to be an excess of calcium in the tank and the salinity has been higher this month than usual (due to the extra heat and evaporation), but not unduly so, and nothing that occurred suddenly.
Finally, the tank is a 45ish hexa acrylic tank with 2-4 inches of sand, a power head, a box filter for a 75 gallon tank, a bad skimmer, and adequate lighting. Is it possible that I have introduced bacteria into the tank? I have two other freshwater tanks and I do not wear gloves when I am doing water changes. Is it possible that my tank has reached the age of an upgrade for hardware or maintenance? Even with a varied diet of pellet, vitamin enhanced mysiid, and vitamin water supplements that I am missing a key nutrient? Could I be over dosing? And no, I will not reduce my sand bottom as I eventually would like to introduce an engineer goby or a dragon wrasse into the tank.

 

[beth]

The ammonia was up more than usual? Any ammonia will cause death in fish. Why do you have ammonia?
Are you saying the clown's eyes are whitish? Can you post a picture?

 

[fishywishy]

Normally I do not have any ammonia visible with my test kits. It showed up on my test kit, but below any readable level. The color change in the kit was not enough to register .25 ppm (the first level on the kit) but it was definitely not 0 any more.
I will try to get a photo of her but she is hiding still. There is no white, it is like a glassy blue film. There is another photo in another post that her eye looks like, I will try to find it too if my cell phone doesn't take an adequate photo.

 

[fishywishy]

Here is a really bad photo of her. She is hiding still so I can't get the light to shine just right. The spots are salt precipitation on the outside of the tank from the water change yesterday. With the cell I can't even get a good photo of her mate who is still bounding around his terriroty like a little clown.
I re-checked all parameters. there is no NO3, NO2. NH3 is still between 0 and 0.25. alkalinity is high, calcium is high, salinity is actually a little high 1.0305, and I just got a phosphate meter which shows 2ppms. It could be that I need to upgrade my protein skimmer? It has never really foamed as much as I thought it should. I am going to add some DI water by drip line as it looks like in my rush I increased salinity yesterday with my larger water change. Although, in the past it has been around 1.026 due to evaporation and the inverts.

 

[beth]

Why do you have ammonia?

 

[fishywishy]

I don't know, I was hoping you could figure that out.
Since she is not eating it could be a build up over the last two days of the food she did not eat. I have so many inverts in the tank I think any food she didn't eat would not be wasted. I only add pure, filtered di water so I don't think it entered that way. And I haven't noticed any deaths with the inverts. Could the phosphorous or other nutrient additives be broken down into ammonia (NH3/NH4+)?
After I started the di water drip line she started moving a little bit more but is still staying on the same rock. I saw her "yawn" a few times but she still refused to eat lunch. I have garlic pellets and she ignored those too.
Also, I've decided to get a better protein skimmer. The one I have came from ***** and cost ~30$...not high quality material. I don't think that will eliminate the source of the ammonia but it will increase water condition overall until I can determine what is occurring.

 

[krazekajin]

could it be teh high salinity? I know that they can be affected by salinity levels.
Also, look at popeye disease. I had a freshwater fish that got popeye, the eye turns a bluish gray and actually puffs up outside the head.

 

[beth]

What pumps do you have running in your tank? I suggest you do water changes to eliminate the ammonia. Also, the salinity is not that high. You can lower it slowly to 1.025. BTW, what are you using to measure salinity [hopefully not a swing arm hydromter]?

 

[fishywishy]

I'm almost done with the di water drip line. The salinity has gone down to 1.0295 but I am using a hydrometer with a swing arm. I have a floating temp/salinity monitor but it is even harder to read and less reliable because the seastars like to attach to it.
I have a filstar xp filter box and an unknown brand motion pump to adjust turbidity/flow.
I just did my regular change on wednesday and an additional 10 % yesterday. Plus the di water drip line of freshwater today to adjust salinity.
Her breating seems steady. I cannot look at her right side because of the way she is hiding but her left side and eye look normal.
I would not beable to QT her without some serious stress. She has blocked herself into a rock crevice that sits below another rock that my leather corals are attached to. To remove her I would have to take apart my rocks.
I just got a brief look at her left eye. it is glassy blue on 1/3 of the eye but I could not determine if it was larger than normal. She is continuing to hug the reef on her left and when she moves bumbs into the rocks with what would be our nose. Could she be having vision trouble? She see's me with the good eye but is also tracking me with it and will keep her right side towards me at all times, even when I scared her out of the rock crevice. Here is another photo. The spots are coraline on the tank walls. But it shows the smaller 'male' and her positioning on the rocks. She is sitting on them rather than hovering above them.

 

[beth]

Throw out the swing arm hydrometer immediately. It is worthless for even getting a "ball park" reading. Use the floating hydrometer and use a magnifying glass to read it, if necessary.
I don't know what to tell you. Sounds like she needs antibiotics, which you can not do in a display.