Clownfish in need of Help! **Desperate!**

[BerndtSea]

We have a 29g bio cube reef tank that is 7 months old, and seemingly only able to keep gobies alive. My parameters are stable and have been for a while. Tests today read-
Amon- 0 N02-0 N03-10 P04- 1.0
PH- 7.8 Sal- 1.026
It’s got a 75 gallon filter on it with a good media bad. We’ve got a healthy population of copepods and green algae growing. We feed myesis shrimp and pellets. Extremely healthy and beautiful corals that we give food and nutrition every other day.
(Zoas, 3 leather toadstool, hammer head)

So since our first clownfish we’ve had, two occelaris, after cycling, every single one of them have gotten sick and died no matter our treatment. We’ve had 8 clowns so far… the first four were treated with copper, FW dips, and general cure with only decline in their health leading to death. Our current clowns have been treated with general cure and FW dip with seemingly no relief to the symptoms. We’ve gotten all of them from different places, two separatelocal reef shops and Petco(we have a good local store).
Our watchman goby that was placed in the tank with the first pair of clowns(6mon ago) has thrived and is paired with a pistol shrimp. We added a green mandarin about 2 weeks ago, after our recent fallow period and he has been doing amazing! We’ve dosed copepods twice and he hasn’t stopped eating and growing. Now we’ve had a coral beauty in there for 8 days and she is doing the same. She shows no signs of being sick, has been eating algae off rocks and sand. She swims freely and seems to have fun.
We really want to figure this out to hopefully save the clowns we have in QT right now.
We’ve been giving them medicated food but haven’t been doing to the binder so we are going to try that starting today to see if it will help. Our Darwin’s clown is the worst off and he stopped eating about 2-3 days ago. The other are still eating but starting to show signs of lethargy. Please help!!
Also just to get it out of the way, we have a 75 gallon tank cycling right now to move the coral beauty and green mandarin into(all stock as well) they are both juveniles so their size is good for our current tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

We have a 29g bio cube reef tank that is 7 months old, and seemingly only able to keep gobies alive. My parameters are stable and have been for a while. Tests today read-
Amon- 0 N02-0 N03-10 P04- 1.0
PH- 7.8 Sal- 1.026
It’s got a 75 gallon filter on it with a good media bad. We’ve got a healthy population of copepods and green algae growing. We feed myesis shrimp and pellets. Extremely healthy and beautiful corals that we give food and nutrition every other day.
(Zoas, 3 leather toadstool, hammer head)

So since our first clownfish we’ve had, two occelaris, after cycling, every single one of them have gotten sick and died no matter our treatment. We’ve had 8 clowns so far… the first four were treated with copper, FW dips, and general cure with only decline in their health leading to death. Our current clowns have been treated with general cure and FW dip with seemingly no relief to the symptoms. We’ve gotten all of them from different places, two separatelocal reef shops and Petco(we have a good local store).
Our watchman goby that was placed in the tank with the first pair of clowns(6mon ago) has thrived and is paired with a pistol shrimp. We added a green mandarin about 2 weeks ago, after our recent fallow period and he has been doing amazing! We’ve dosed copepods twice and he hasn’t stopped eating and growing. Now we’ve had a coral beauty in there for 8 days and she is doing the same. She shows no signs of being sick, has been eating algae off rocks and sand. She swims freely and seems to have fun.
We really want to figure this out to hopefully save the clowns we have in QT right now.
We’ve been giving them medicated food but haven’t been doing to the binder so we are going to try that starting today to see if it will help. Our Darwin’s clown is the worst off and he stopped eating about 2-3 days ago. The other are still eating but starting to show signs of lethargy. Please help!!
Also just to get it out of the way, we have a 75 gallon tank cycling right now to move the coral beauty and green mandarin into(all stock as well) they are both juveniles so their size is good for our current tank.

Can you provide pics/videos of the clowns under white lighting ?
I assume they are wild caught clowns and how is their breathing (normal or labored)
Any lethargic behavior or swimming ?
Have the clowns lost color?

New tank - How are you cycling tank and when did cycle start ?

 

[MnFish1]

We have a 29g bio cube reef tank that is 7 months old, and seemingly only able to keep gobies alive. My parameters are stable and have been for a while. Tests today read-
Amon- 0 N02-0 N03-10 P04- 1.0
PH- 7.8 Sal- 1.026
It’s got a 75 gallon filter on it with a good media bad. We’ve got a healthy population of copepods and green algae growing. We feed myesis shrimp and pellets. Extremely healthy and beautiful corals that we give food and nutrition every other day.
(Zoas, 3 leather toadstool, hammer head)

So since our first clownfish we’ve had, two occelaris, after cycling, every single one of them have gotten sick and died no matter our treatment. We’ve had 8 clowns so far… the first four were treated with copper, FW dips, and general cure with only decline in their health leading to death. Our current clowns have been treated with general cure and FW dip with seemingly no relief to the symptoms. We’ve gotten all of them from different places, two separatelocal reef shops and Petco(we have a good local store).
Our watchman goby that was placed in the tank with the first pair of clowns(6mon ago) has thrived and is paired with a pistol shrimp. We added a green mandarin about 2 weeks ago, after our recent fallow period and he has been doing amazing! We’ve dosed copepods twice and he hasn’t stopped eating and growing. Now we’ve had a coral beauty in there for 8 days and she is doing the same. She shows no signs of being sick, has been eating algae off rocks and sand. She swims freely and seems to have fun.
We really want to figure this out to hopefully save the clowns we have in QT right now.
We’ve been giving them medicated food but haven’t been doing to the binder so we are going to try that starting today to see if it will help. Our Darwin’s clown is the worst off and he stopped eating about 2-3 days ago. The other are still eating but starting to show signs of lethargy. Please help!!
Also just to get it out of the way, we have a 75 gallon tank cycling right now to move the coral beauty and green mandarin into(all stock as well) they are both juveniles so their size is good for our current tank.

It could be a disease more associated with clowns - such as brooklynella - which is not treated with copper normally.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

We have a 29g bio cube reef tank that is 7 months old, and seemingly only able to keep gobies alive. My parameters are stable and have been for a while. Tests today read-
Amon- 0 N02-0 N03-10 P04- 1.0
PH- 7.8 Sal- 1.026
It’s got a 75 gallon filter on it with a good media bad. We’ve got a healthy population of copepods and green algae growing. We feed myesis shrimp and pellets. Extremely healthy and beautiful corals that we give food and nutrition every other day.
(Zoas, 3 leather toadstool, hammer head)

So since our first clownfish we’ve had, two occelaris, after cycling, every single one of them have gotten sick and died no matter our treatment. We’ve had 8 clowns so far… the first four were treated with copper, FW dips, and general cure with only decline in their health leading to death. Our current clowns have been treated with general cure and FW dip with seemingly no relief to the symptoms. We’ve gotten all of them from different places, two separatelocal reef shops and Petco(we have a good local store).
Our watchman goby that was placed in the tank with the first pair of clowns(6mon ago) has thrived and is paired with a pistol shrimp. We added a green mandarin about 2 weeks ago, after our recent fallow period and he has been doing amazing! We’ve dosed copepods twice and he hasn’t stopped eating and growing. Now we’ve had a coral beauty in there for 8 days and she is doing the same. She shows no signs of being sick, has been eating algae off rocks and sand. She swims freely and seems to have fun.
We really want to figure this out to hopefully save the clowns we have in QT right now.
We’ve been giving them medicated food but haven’t been doing to the binder so we are going to try that starting today to see if it will help. Our Darwin’s clown is the worst off and he stopped eating about 2-3 days ago. The other are still eating but starting to show signs of lethargy. Please help!!
Also just to get it out of the way, we have a 75 gallon tank cycling right now to move the coral beauty and green mandarin into(all stock as well) they are both juveniles so their size is good for our current tank.

With 8 clowns dying, there probably is not a single cause, but the underlying issue may be the quality of clowns you are getting. I’ve seen some really poor quality clowns in the supply chain and it just seems to be getting worse. Another common issue is people buying pairs of clowns that don’t want to be pairs, and mortality can result from that.
I don’t have a single solution for you, but buying larger paired clowns direct from a breeder would be one option.
Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

With 8 clowns dying, there probably is not a single cause, but the underlying issue may be the quality of clowns you are getting. I’ve seen some really poor quality clowns in the supply chain and it just seems to be getting worse. Another common issue is people buying pairs of clowns that don’t want to be pairs, and mortality can result from that.
I don’t have a single solution for you, but buying larger paired clowns direct from a breeder would be one option.
Jay

Agree and suspect wild caught, low quality especially after what I saw at recent MACNA- did not look appealing

 

[BerndtSea]

Can you provide pics/videos of the clowns under white lighting ?
I assume they are wild caught clowns and how is their breathing (normal or labored)
Any lethargic behavior or swimming ?
Have the clowns lost color?

New tank - How are you cycling tank and when did cycle start ?

Can you provide pics/videos of the clowns under white lighting ?
I assume they are wild caught clowns and how is their breathing (normal or labored)
Any lethargic behavior or swimming ?
Have the clowns lost color?

New tank - How are you cycling tank and when did cycle start ?

New tank was started yesterday and we are using turbo 900 and bio seed for a week. That’ll sit for another month or so.
The clownfish start breathing heavy and become lethargic about 2-3 days after we see the first white stringy poop and die about 3-4 days later. Sometimes they will be up and swimming around (looking for food) and sometimes laid over in the corner not moving. Our newest ones are just a day or two into this so we are hoping to save them but we think the Darwin is too far in. This is them right now in thier QT tank. We are about to feed medicated with general cure and binder on it for 30 minutes. The FW dip we did seemed to make some translucent strings coming off of him. This happened to our other clowns but the treatment is not curing them. The only other relief they seem to get is with this herb expellant. They do have an air stone in there we just turn it off for feeding.

 

[BerndtSea]

New tank was started yesterday and we are using turbo 900 and bio seed for a week. That’ll sit for another month or so.
The clownfish start breathing heavy and become lethargic about 2-3 days after we see the first white stringy poop and die about 3-4 days later. Sometimes they will be up and swimming around (looking for food) and sometimes laid over in the corner not moving. Our newest ones are just a day or two into this so we are hoping to save them but we think the Darwin is too far in. This is them right now in thier QT tank. We are about to feed medicated with general cure and binder on it for 30 minutes. The FW dip we did seemed to make some translucent strings coming off of him. This happened to our other clowns but the treatment is not curing them. The only other relief they seem to get is with this herb expellant. They do have an air stone in there we just turn it off for feeding.

 

[BerndtSea]

Is there have any suggestions on good breeders for clowns? We are really wanting to actually keep a pair but getting extremely discouraged.

 

[jabberwock]

There are experts here. I am not one of them, but maybe stop buying clownfish? They are not that great anyhow. Mine were very aggressive to each other and all other fish in my 32 biocube.

 

[MnFish1]

There is too much conflicting information here(not your fault) - to make an educated opinion - to a degree. IMHO- When you buy a fish - follow a QT PROTOCOl - that you follow religiously. Your Clowns - likely have died of an illness - probably Brooklynella - which you are not treating for - and or a poor source - as others hav said. Judging by the information posted - you're doing too much too fast. Make sure you have some kind of ammonia test constantly - if you're going to add fish on day 1. Just my advice - sorry you're having so many problems.

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

Is that video showing 4 separate clowns that are all coming from the same 29g bio-cube tank? If so, then there could be aggression issues that are contributing to their declines, especially if they are always stressed from shipping and/or sick.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is there have any suggestions on good breeders for clowns? We are really wanting to actually keep a pair but getting extremely discouraged.

Request tank raised otherwise ORA sels good quality tank raised species- you will have to add $30 for shipping to your door.
The one clown breathing heavy. I see nothing suggesting brooklynella but may be a gill irritation such as flukes causing the rapid breathing. If no air stone in tank- add one which will help.
What is current ammonia and nitrate?
If unsure of water readings, you can take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and compare readings- then you'll know what your levels are at. A water change and addition of air stone should relax the fishs' breathing a little

 

[BerndtSea]

Is that video showing 4 separate clowns that are all coming from the same 29g bio-cube tank? If so, then there could be aggression issues that are contributing to their declines, especially if they are always stressed from shipping and/or sick.

No they 3 haven’t been in our main tank only our Darwin. He is the only one breathing heavy and consistently lethargic the others are just in the first day or two of it so they are being medicated together. We think it is not brook and we have treated our past clowns for it with no relief. They are having no excess mucus or missing scales. We had our tank cycling for about 5-6 months before the Darwin clown was in it. We cycled our bio cube before it had clowns in it from the start. We are testing ammonia about 2x a day in our QT and once daily in our bio cube. We have not seen aggression once with any of the clowns we had, not saying there wasn’t, we just didn’t see it. I am worried about it being the breeder giving bad fish as they have been all brought from separate stores, and we know they have separate breeders. One Arkansas, one Maine and Petco’s.

 

[vetteguy53081]

No they 3 haven’t been in our main tank only our Darwin. He is the only one breathing heavy and consistently lethargic the others are just in the first day or two of it so they are being medicated together. We think it is not brook and we have treated our past clowns for it with no relief. They are having no excess mucus or missing scales. We had our tank cycling for about 5-6 months before the Darwin clown was in it. We cycled our bio cube before it had clowns in it from the start. We are testing ammonia about 2x a day in our QT and once daily in our bio cube. We have not seen aggression once with any of the clowns we had, not saying there wasn’t, we just didn’t see it. I am worried about it being the breeder giving bad fish as they have been all brought from separate stores, and we know they have separate breeders. One Arkansas, one Maine and Petco’s.

I saw same observations and the darwin distressed. I would normally suggest a 5 min freshwater dip for temporary relief if gill irritation but with its heavy breathing rate, FW dip would further stress the fish and result in fish moribund which is a risk.