Sick clowns

[ron s]

I have a pair of true Percs that I purchased last weekend in my qt tank. They have not eaten yet and don't show any interest. I have not seen any signs of external parasites but both have area's were it looked like there slime coat was peeling off. I did a fw dip and added some coppersafe to the qt because that is all that I had available. There has not been any excess slim on there bodies since but the female still has excess slim around her lips and I just noticed that she has a discolored spot at the base of one of her fins. There fins are kind of clamped and they just do not look healthy. Originally I thought it might be Brooklynella but there color is still pretty good. All the parameters were with in acceptable ranges when I checked them a couple day ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ron

 

[beth]

What are the water readings in your QT? Including pH? Are they breathing hard?
I would perform hyposalinity which is good for stressed fish and then see if you can get Maracyn Two for Saltwater Fish.
Take a look at the FAQ thread. There is a pic of a perc that has brook in there. Though, your twinss don't seem to have it.

 

[ron s]

Thank you for the reply. The water readings are
temp 76
sal 1.023
ph 8.4
no3 5.0
no2 .1
am .25
They do not seem to be breathing hard but the female has her mouth open all the time. I gave them another fw dip tonight and they seemed to be more active when I put them back in the tank. When they were in the fw dip they looked like they were trying to shake something loose from there gills and after I put them back in the qt tank they were rubbing agianst each other and twitching for a few minutes. I started lowering the salinity tonight so that should help out with the little amonia spike also (it was zero a couple days ago). Should I continue to give them fw dips even when treating with hypo? Also how long should you leave a fish in the fw dip and how often is it ok to dip them? Thanks again for the help.

 

[beth]

Ok, well your ammonia and nitrite is definately a big problem. You need to resolve that as that can certainly cause problems with the fish. I would suggest that you resolve that and begin the hypo process and see if the condition persists.
In the meantime, see if you can get MaracynTwo for saltwater fish.

 

[ron s]

I got some live brine last night and I put some in this mourning and the male ate a few. Then they both started chasing and eating little white specs about the size of a grain of sand. Maybe brine shrimp eggs? But they did not show much interest in the adults after the male ate a few. The guy at the lfs gave me a sample of a product he uses called Receiver 2 to try. I will have to find out if it is compatable with MaracynTwo. In the mean time I will continue to drop the salinity.

 

[beth]

Don't start mixing up meds.