dead clown :(

Hi everyone

bought a new clown on da 21st june looked fine

been away 2 japan for 4 days, me sis looked after fish

cam bac and clown had white stuff on it im assurming ich? also discolour and when i feed them yest morning she wasn't eating.

then found her dead this eveing (other clown is fine healthy n happy)

my question is.....

is it best 2 medicate the tank?

been looking on the net and most say when the white stuff drops of the fish it then develops and incubates.

when i saw the fish swiming it still had the white stuff near its head, so im guessing as I bought the fish when it looked healthy that it only must of picked this up recently when i was away??

reason im asking is because i dont really wana medicate the tank as people on the net say the medication can cause the live rock 2 die, and also i wana get another clown soon as poss?? shall i wait?

what do u guys suggests? :-/:-/

 

Did u take a picture by any chance?
Ich looks like white sugar grain sized dots in the skin of the fish. If bigger it could be a fungal or bacterial disease.

Ich larvae does bury into the skin while feeding and growing, so it could have had it at the time of purchase and u would never know it. But in order to kill a clown, which is a pretty tough fish imo, it must have been bad.

Personally, I tried 3 ways of dealing with ich, I tried chemical treatments, fresh water dips and nothing at all. By nothing at all, I mean just keep feeding, add vitamins and garlic extract to the food to give him a boost to pull through it. As long as they eat, they should be fine.

I would wait a bit to add any other fish. And monitor the rest of the inhabitants for signs of ich, like scratching against the rock or sand.


Edit: I noticed I didn't explain the method I liked the most. I believe that the chemicals (in my case kick ich) did not do much. My tang kept scratching against the rocks and the water took this awful yellow/greenish color. After 1 week I stopped the kick ich and did major water changes.
Fresh water dips are effective, but brings a major amount of stress to the fish, making him more vulnerable to it, specially if he'll be in the same tank where he contracted it.
Good feeding with garlic extract and vitamins helped a lot and he got over it within a week. I also added at that moment a cleaner shrimp, also known as skunk shrimp, and my fish would go to him since he will grab the parasite from the skin and eat it. It is some sort of relief. Cleaner wrasses do the same.

Sent from my phone using my two opposable digits

 

I say qurantine the tank and get some cleaner wrasse or cleaner shrimp (prefarably a skunk cleaner shrimp) whihever you prefer I recommend cleaner wrasse or you cold get both

 

cool

thanks for info, defo cant afford a qurantine tank, is costing loads anyway

im hoping that it wont spread 2 my other fish!

 

4 days in japan? pft. just buy another fish when your done with this one!

 

Hey Newreef - I would recommend you take your time before replacing that clown. Watch your other fish for any signs of illness. What you described could of been ich or possibly brook.

Clowns can get ich pretty easily - often they come from fish stores with it or they can become more sensitive to it when stressed.

Ich has a life cycle of around 2 months without a host so if you replace it with another clown right away chances are that clown will get it as well. I would wait a couple of months and then be sure to give the new clown a good drip acclimation and introduction to a dark tank to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Good luck.

 

Ich is a fresh water thing, in marine tanks we get Crypto (cryptacaryon) sp?

Crypto is a common parasite that can not kill fish, the fish become susceptible to secondary infections and this is what kills them. The question is, why did your clown fish become stressed and susceptible to the Cyrpto? Common causes, fluctuations in water temp, decrease in dissolved oxygen, ph etc. new additions might not of acclimated well.

Since your other fish are fine I suspect this little guy did not acclimate well. Someone posted above the best advice for you – time, let the tank be and take a wait and see approach. Maintain your regular maintenance and you may want to order some general antibiotics to have on hand – I always have Maracyn II on hand. Good luck

 

This advice explains your signature I guess. Too bad.

The advice above is sound and really the way you want to think about fish husbandry.