Clownfish - Pale Lips and Constantly Keeping Mouth Open

[Yucai]

Hi, this is my first saltwater aquarium. It has been running with fish in it for a week now. The shop we purchased everything from sold us a "preran" "presetup" tank saying we wouldn't have to wait a month for everything to settle in. We had originally placed in 2 clownfish. On the third day, we noticed one of the clowns was seemingly "gasping" and otherwise having a hard time breathing. We called the shop and they said he must have induced issues in transit so they would replace him and we shouldn't need to worry about the other clown. Now with this new replacement clown on day 5, we are noticing that he is keeping his mouth open and his lips seem to be getting more pale. What would cause this? Is there a treatment we can give him to help? Do I have to worry about our other clown catching it?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Do you have any way to test your water quality parameters? We would need to know that first: temperature, pH, salinity and ammonia are the most important.
The rapid breathing is a serious symptom and can be due to water quality issues or gill diseases.
Your pet store should be able to test your water for you for perhaps a small fee.
Jay

 

[Yucai]

Our tank has 8 gal of water in it. Our heater is set to 77 but doesn't have a readout for current temperature. We are going to another pet store with some water to have them test it. The clownfish the post was about did pass away in our QT, but we are making sure everything is solid for our other clownfish. We see our nitrate looks like it could be spiking since the addition of our fish, but was at 0 prior to putting our fish in (the shop had us settle the tank for 48 hours prior). We had placed 2oz of TurboStart 900 when we first got the tank and another 2oz when we introduced the fish.
The previous pet store told us last afternoon that the two that we had gotten that passed away had came in less than 24 hours before we had gotten them, so they weren't quarantined. Our black storm that is thriving in our tank had been at the store for over a month, so I wonder if they got a bad set of clowns.

 

[lukefish]

I don’t think your tank has cycled properly yet. Your nitrates are showing as 20ppm.

I’d take fish back to the shop and wait for the cycle to complete. Your nitrates look a bit high

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Was the rock you were sold wet when you bought it? Either way the presence of nitrate indicates you have bacteria to convert ammonia but if the rock was dry when they sold it to you then you could be mid cycle and have ammonia issues. I do doubt this is an ammonia issue but nitrate readings on an uncycled tank are useless as nitrite can show up as nitrate in a test. Please test ammonia and post results in white light.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Our tank has 8 gal of water in it. Our heater is set to 77 but doesn't have a readout for current temperature. We are going to another pet store with some water to have them test it. The clownfish the post was about did pass away in our QT, but we are making sure everything is solid for our other clownfish. We see our nitrate looks like it could be spiking since the addition of our fish, but was at 0 prior to putting our fish in (the shop had us settle the tank for 48 hours prior). We had placed 2oz of TurboStart 900 when we first got the tank and another 2oz when we introduced the fish.
The previous pet store told us last afternoon that the two that we had gotten that passed away had came in less than 24 hours before we had gotten them, so they weren't quarantined. Our black storm that is thriving in our tank had been at the store for over a month, so I wonder if they got a bad set of clowns.

It could be a problem with the fish, but you also need to have your ammonia level checked. Nitrates are not very toxic to fish, more of an issue with invertebrates, but ammonia can kill a fish very fast.

Jay