Think Clownfish is dying, need advice

Hi,

We bought a Ocellaris (clwonfish) last Wednesday and he has not eaten for the last 4 days and is loosing his color and is not swimming normal. I have tested my water and it is fine as far as salinity, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. I have, Turbo Snails, Hermit Crabs, Blue Chromis, Duncans and Button Polyps and they are all doing fine. I even tried to get the food close to him like I do with the Duncans but he won't eat like he did the first couple days. Has anyone else had this problem? :-/

 

Please tell us your set up, how old is the tank? How big is the tank? What food are you feeding it? Have you tried differt types of food?

 

I have a 36 Gallon Bowfront
130 Watt Coralife Compact Lunar Aqualight
30 Whisperflo Power Filter
1 Hydor Koralia Turbo Pump
1 Marineland Maxi Jet Powerhead
1 Remora Aqua C Protein Skimmer

I have had the tank for about 4 weeks or so. I feed Mysis Shrimp and I also just use Flake food as well, my cat ripped off the label so I cant tell what type exactly. I usually siwtch between the 2 types of food. So I have tried to give the Clown both types of food and he won't eat either. Not having very good luck with my Clown's my last one jumped out of the tank and my cat ate it. We have since put an egg crate on the top to prevent that. Thanks

 

Has your tank completed its cycle? Do you have any water paramatrers? Have you checked for stray voltage?

 

IMO it seems that 4 weeks is a little too quick to have what you do have. I would check your water again, maybe have your LFS check it.

 

caseyds7ny -Yes 4 weeks is a little soon, but we added the bacteria to the water when we first bought it to help speed up the cycle. I have had my aquarium store check the water and it has been fine. I also check it every 3 days or so to make sure it is ok since the tank is so new and my water has never been off. I just checked my water a couple hours ago and all the levels are where the should be.

pjracer - yes I do believe that my tank has cycled. I am new to saltwater always done fresh water so excuse me if I seem a little dense on the salt tank. What do you mean by water parameters? If you are talking about, Ph, temp, salinity, calcium, Nitrates, Nitrites and ammonia, then yes they are all fine. I am not sure how to test for stray voltage, and what is that? Thanks

 

Hmm is your tank a Fish Only or do you have Live Rock in it?

It's possible to have a cycle completed in 4 weeks, as long as you had your Ammonia and Nitrite spike and have gotten Nitrate readings. If you had lots of Live Rock it can cycle much quicker than 4 weeks also.

Salt Water keepers test for extended params like Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, but if it's a Fish-only it may not be those params.

Can you let us know what your PH & Salinity are? If those are in check and your Ammonia & Nitrite at 0 then it could be a few things: how your clown was acclimated, how the LFS received it, it may be stressed from being in a new tank, there's a lot of possibilities. You do have a heater, I assume.

 

Stray Voltage can be introduced to your tank by pumps and power heads. It will cause stress on the fish if the V+ is too high. You can test it with a voltmeter by taking the black probe and sticking it in the ground portion of a nearby outlet and the red lead in the tank water.

 

Yes I do have about 50lbs of live rock in there.

We put the live rock in the tank when we first set it up, so the rock has been in there since day 1. I test only every few days and I have never had a high reading with Ammonia, Nitrites or Nitrates. The guy at the fish store said I may not since I added the bacteria to the water when we first set it up. I also did not test the water for the first week, so not sure if it ever spiked there but it has not since then.

I have test strips for Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, Hardness, Ph and calcium. I have never tested for alkalinity as I thought if you have a higher PH then you will also have higher Alkalinity (that is the way my pool is). I have also never tested for Magnesium either. I know as you add corals and invertibrates that you need to add or test for other stuff, but with the Polys and Duncan they really only require the Calcium, I thought. Like I said this is new to me, so I have went off what the store said and doing my own research over the internet.

My Ph is about 8.2 and my Salinity is at 1.024. Yes all those levels are in check and at 0. The clown seemed fine up until Saturday and at that point we had had him for 3 days. Those are some of the same assumptions that I came to as well as far as stress. The store had also gotten that fish in the same day that we brought him home. We had also bought a Black and White Cardinal and he died a day later. I tested the water after he died and it was ok, no problems. Lol, yes I do have a heater, I forgot to mention that, and it is about 78-80 per my strip on the side on the tank. Thanks so much.

 

Pjracer, are you talking about a regular volt meter that you would have in the garage, the little yellow box thing?