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This maybe a long post but I have no clue whats going on in my tank.
I have a 7 month old reef tank and early last Monday my clownfish died. Sunday she was gasping for air and had a very mottled appearance on her body with very cloudy eyes. Tiny spots but only noticed with a magnifying glass, not typical looking pin point ick spots that I saw on image search. The days prior I dint notice anything really odd but looking back maybe not as hungry and was trying to host or be hosted lol on a rough lobo coral. She had also recently been run out of her spot with her and her mate in the back of the tank by a flame hawk fish so maybe why she started doing that or was trying to scratch herself! I was very happy because they were out swimming that crazy loppy clownfish swim and I got to see much more of them. I got this pair about 8 or 9 months ago as babies.
Anyway, I was reading up and trying to figure out what was wrong. Kind of figured it was ick so I was deciding whether to try to quarantine the rest, which I knew was going to be very difficult to catch them. I saw a youtube that showed a fish dying with velvet and looked just like she did with the cloudy eyes and mottled appearance, so then I thought I was dealing with velvet.
Yesterday my flame hawkfish starts gasping as well. This has been a very peculiar fish my hubby bought me. He always hid and never acted like what I read these fish are like. I heard they hang out on rocks searching for food. It hid in the back and only came out at feeding time but would still hide under a rock and dart out real quick and grab a piece and swim back to hiding and 10 pieces would hit the sand in front of his hiding spot them maybe come out for another. Once my hubby brought him live shrimp so maybe that spoiled him but he was also purchased about 3 inches long so probably captured as an adult so I thought maybe that was why he was so scared. I only had 2 small clowns and a damsel so he had no reason to be so fearful. He also had bad coloring. Top half was red and not much color on bottom half. All big warning signals and lesson learned! Never buy adult fish and never accept a fish even if you ordered with bad coloration!
After the fish died I examined his body and he looks like he did before except dead! I could never get a good look at this fish because of the hiding even when dying. Its hard to tell if eyes are cloudy but I dont think so and he looks to be less colored but then again he is dead! I wish I could have got him out of hiding while he was dying to see his eyes ect...
I have a damsel remaining and a clown and i have no idea how to treat them since I have no idea what they died from. Makes me wonder if they died from different things.. Maybe stress from the hawk being he never adjusted well or maybe he was sick for the last 5 weeks and thats why he didint ea t much or had bad color. I wish I had taken a pic of the clown before I disposed of him. My hawk is refrigerated because I think I will take him to my vet when I take my dog today. I know that sounds crazy butt maybe he can tell. I will try to get hubby to add a pic because I dont know how! LOL
I dont know if I should treat the other two in quarantine with copper as my LFs sold me some today and said thats what I should do and I read it treats ich and velvet, but not even convinced its either of those! I read that when dying of velvet they will hang out by a powerhead, neither did that
Do fish with Ick get cloudy eyes? I never read that as a symptom for ich but did for velvet.
One other thing is I started dosing with no pox as I recently bought a lot of frags, way to many at once and uped my nitrates like crazy. I have heard stories of fish dying from that. I have stated dosing very slowly and gradual and its been weeks so not likely. I also got an alert from my new seneye my ph was low. Its 78 now and light still on. It was 76 earlier which is lowest I have seen it but rarely check ph. i have zero ammonia. Alk a little low at 7.6. Plan to up my ph and alk soon with 2 part dosing.
If anyone can help me diagnose this. I would be so grateful. I heard copper is poison and hate to subject my fish if not needed. Oh, and a big reason I thought it might not be velvet is a youtuber said the whole tank will die within 24 to 48 hours and first died on monday, so thats been more than that time frame. The other two ate well today and look fine and are swimming around!
Sorry this was so long. I probably wrote a lot of unnecessary stuff but like to be very clear!
Thanks again!
I have a 7 month old reef tank and early last Monday my clownfish died. Sunday she was gasping for air and had a very mottled appearance on her body with very cloudy eyes. Tiny spots but only noticed with a magnifying glass, not typical looking pin point ick spots that I saw on image search. The days prior I dint notice anything really odd but looking back maybe not as hungry and was trying to host or be hosted lol on a rough lobo coral. She had also recently been run out of her spot with her and her mate in the back of the tank by a flame hawk fish so maybe why she started doing that or was trying to scratch herself! I was very happy because they were out swimming that crazy loppy clownfish swim and I got to see much more of them. I got this pair about 8 or 9 months ago as babies.
Anyway, I was reading up and trying to figure out what was wrong. Kind of figured it was ick so I was deciding whether to try to quarantine the rest, which I knew was going to be very difficult to catch them. I saw a youtube that showed a fish dying with velvet and looked just like she did with the cloudy eyes and mottled appearance, so then I thought I was dealing with velvet.
Yesterday my flame hawkfish starts gasping as well. This has been a very peculiar fish my hubby bought me. He always hid and never acted like what I read these fish are like. I heard they hang out on rocks searching for food. It hid in the back and only came out at feeding time but would still hide under a rock and dart out real quick and grab a piece and swim back to hiding and 10 pieces would hit the sand in front of his hiding spot them maybe come out for another. Once my hubby brought him live shrimp so maybe that spoiled him but he was also purchased about 3 inches long so probably captured as an adult so I thought maybe that was why he was so scared. I only had 2 small clowns and a damsel so he had no reason to be so fearful. He also had bad coloring. Top half was red and not much color on bottom half. All big warning signals and lesson learned! Never buy adult fish and never accept a fish even if you ordered with bad coloration!
After the fish died I examined his body and he looks like he did before except dead! I could never get a good look at this fish because of the hiding even when dying. Its hard to tell if eyes are cloudy but I dont think so and he looks to be less colored but then again he is dead! I wish I could have got him out of hiding while he was dying to see his eyes ect...
I have a damsel remaining and a clown and i have no idea how to treat them since I have no idea what they died from. Makes me wonder if they died from different things.. Maybe stress from the hawk being he never adjusted well or maybe he was sick for the last 5 weeks and thats why he didint ea t much or had bad color. I wish I had taken a pic of the clown before I disposed of him. My hawk is refrigerated because I think I will take him to my vet when I take my dog today. I know that sounds crazy butt maybe he can tell. I will try to get hubby to add a pic because I dont know how! LOL
I dont know if I should treat the other two in quarantine with copper as my LFs sold me some today and said thats what I should do and I read it treats ich and velvet, but not even convinced its either of those! I read that when dying of velvet they will hang out by a powerhead, neither did that
Do fish with Ick get cloudy eyes? I never read that as a symptom for ich but did for velvet.
One other thing is I started dosing with no pox as I recently bought a lot of frags, way to many at once and uped my nitrates like crazy. I have heard stories of fish dying from that. I have stated dosing very slowly and gradual and its been weeks so not likely. I also got an alert from my new seneye my ph was low. Its 78 now and light still on. It was 76 earlier which is lowest I have seen it but rarely check ph. i have zero ammonia. Alk a little low at 7.6. Plan to up my ph and alk soon with 2 part dosing.
If anyone can help me diagnose this. I would be so grateful. I heard copper is poison and hate to subject my fish if not needed. Oh, and a big reason I thought it might not be velvet is a youtuber said the whole tank will die within 24 to 48 hours and first died on monday, so thats been more than that time frame. The other two ate well today and look fine and are swimming around!
Sorry this was so long. I probably wrote a lot of unnecessary stuff but like to be very clear!
Thanks again!