Sick clownfish. Dropsy?

[nikkifro8994]

I think my female false perc. has dropsy. She is staying on the bottom. She keeps trying to move but not going anywhere. Her head is on the ground and her back end keeps floating up. She was fine this morning when I fed her. I got home this afternoon and found her laying on he bottom struggling to move. No clamped fins, but she's breathing very heavily. The male clown and the hermit crab are fine. I check water stats. Ammonia .25, nitrite 0, nitrate over 80. I did a 20% water change. I'm mixing more water now and will do a 40% when it's done mixing. I'll post new test results after. I think she either has dropsy or nitrate poisoning. Most likely dropsy because the smaller clown isn't showing any signs of illness.

 

[beth]

Water conditions are not good. Why do you have ammonia and such high nitrites? How long have you had your clown? Also, it is a bad idea to mix up salt water quickly. It should be run vigorous using a pump for at least 24-48 hours before using it.

 

[nikkifro8994]

She died. I got home at 8:00 tonight and she was just sitting by the filter, breathing heavily. Her gills were swollen and she couldn't move. 10 minutes later she was gone and the snails were on her. When I left at 5:30 she looked ok, she was just swimming weird. I got home at 8 and she was trying to swim upside down. She was also covered in white mucus and lost almost all of her color.
The male clownfish seems perfectly fine. I will keep a close eye on him this week. Is there anything I should do to prevent the male from getting whatever the female had? I'll do a 100% water change tomorrow to get rid of the nitrate. I'll used pre-moixed water from my LFS. Should I be fine with just that?

 

[nikkifro8994]

I have no idea where the water levels came from. I've had them for about a month. Normally when I mix water I let it run for 2 days. This was an emergency and I didn't have enough already mixed, only enough for a 20% change.

 

[beth]

Don't do 100% water change. That is extremely stressful for everything you have in the tank. Is your tank new, did something else die? What size tank do you have? How long has it been set up? Do you have live rock, live sand? What filters do you use?
Also, were the clowns a mated pair?

 

[nikkifro8994]

Don't do 100% water change.  That is extremely stressful for everything you have in the tank.  Is your tank new, did something else die?  What size tank do you have?  How long has it been set up?  Do you have live rock, live sand?  What filters do you use?
Also, were the clowns a mated pair?
The tank has been set up for almost a year. It had a dwarf puffer for a while. I've only had the salt system for 2 months and the clownfish for 1 month. It has live rock but not live sand. It's 10 gallons with a 40 gallon AquaClear hob filter. I use store bought RO water and Instant Ocean salt in a 5 gallon bucket mixing with a power head for 2-3 days before a water change.
This female clown is my first casualty. They shouldn't be mated. I bought the 2 at different stores about a week apart. The female clown came from my saltwater lfs. They only had one clown. A week later I bought the male from another store that sells fresh and salt fish. He is pretty young, only an inch and a half.

 

[beth]

Are you saying your tank is 10 gals? I'm not sure I understood that. What kind of substrate do you use (since you don't use live sand)?

 

[nikkifro8994]

The tank is 10 gallons with a filter for a 40 gallon tank. I use carribsea sand for substrate. When I left for work this morning the male seemed to be doing fine. I'll check on him when I get home this afternoon.

 

[beth]

10 gal tank is too small for a marine fish tank. You certainly can not put a pufferfish in a 10 gal tank.
Since the clowns were not mated, it may be that the clown that died suffered aggression from the other clown.
The best advise I can give you is to upgrade your tank to larger system.

 

[dmanatee]

oh wait, was the dwarf puffer a fresh water set up, and then you switched to to a salt water system?

 

[nikkifro8994]

The dwarf puffer was freshwater. A 10 gallon tank is plenty big for them. And my clowns never fought.

 

[beth]

Look at your water conditions. The tiny 10 gal is a contributing factor to poor quality environment.
What kind of clowns were you keeping?

 

[nikkifro8994]

Occellaris clowns. The female was 2" and the male is 1"

 

[beth]

While the Occellaris can be kept in a 10 gal, I'd say such a small system would require such pristine, ideal conditions (at all times) that such a system leaves no room for error. Your 10 gal is experiencing significant problems with maintaining quality water levels.
Also, non-mated Occellaris are very likely to be incompatible, especially in such a small system.

 

[nikkifro8994]

They never fought once. And I won't be adding any fish until I am sure that the male clown will be ok. Then I'm thinkin of adding a yellow clown goby or a fire fish.

 

[nikkifro8994]

Edit: repeat post