Lost clownfish

[chimbo84]

I have started a new 30g lagoon tank with 1yo rock from my 120g. I tested for ammonia and nitrite before I stocked it to be sure it was all set and went to get a pair of clownfish to add to it. The clowns seemed happy for about two days and then began to decline. First they stopped eating and then began to breath very rapidly. There were no external signs of anything wrong but I decided to do a dip on the chance that they had brook.
I used 3ml of Paraguard in 1gal of fresh saltwater and aerated the container. I dipped both clowns for 60 minutes and when I returned to get them out, I notice the larger of the two was really freaking out and seemed to be gasping at the surface. I went to move it to the QT tank and that was the last straw. It sank to the bottom of the tank and died. The other smaller clown is still breathing rapidly but took the dip better and is now back in QT.
On close inspection, the fish that died appears to have lesions right behind both gill plates and I am not sure what to make of this. Any help would be appreciated. The tank has a watchman goby, pistol shrimp, and a couple snails all of which seem fine.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have started a new 30g lagoon tank with 1yo rock from my 120g. I tested for ammonia and nitrite before I stocked it to be sure it was all set and went to get a pair of clownfish to add to it. The clowns seemed happy for about two days and then began to decline. First they stopped eating and then began to breath very rapidly. There were no external signs of anything wrong but I decided to do a dip on the chance that they had brook.
I used 3ml of Paraguard in 1gal of fresh saltwater and aerated the container. I dipped both clowns for 60 minutes and when I returned to get them out, I notice the larger of the two was really freaking out and seemed to be gasping at the surface. I went to move it to the QT tank and that was the last straw. It sank to the bottom of the tank and died. The other smaller clown is still breathing rapidly but took the dip better and is now back in QT.
On close inspection, the fish that died appears to have lesions right behind both gill plates and I am not sure what to make of this. Any help would be appreciated. The tank has a watchman goby, pistol shrimp, and a couple snails all of which seem fine.

As paraguard is useless and a watered down formaldehyde solution, could be a contributor.
Other would be acclimation - How were they acclimated and for how long?
As for anything on fish, would be an educated guess as assessing a dead fish does not display much opposed to a fish still swimming

 

[chimbo84]

As paraguard is useless and a watered down formaldehyde solution, could be a contributor.
Other would be acclimation - How were they acclimated and for how long?
As for anything on fish, would be an educated guess as assessing a dead fish does not display much opposed to a fish still swimming

I’ll keep that in mind about Paraguard. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a worthwhile treatment.
As for acclimation, the trip home was short (maybe 20 minutes) and I temperature acclimated them and tossed 1/2cup of water into the bag every five minutes until I doubled the water. My LFS runs their tanks at 1.022. This is the same acclimation method I have used with all my fish and have never had an issue but maybe I am doing something wrong here.
Would a salinity imbalance take 2-3 days to manifest in symptoms?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ll keep that in mind about Paraguard. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a worthwhile treatment.
As for acclimation, the trip home was short (maybe 20 minutes) and I temperature acclimated them and tossed 1/2cup of water into the bag every five minutes until I doubled the water. My LFS runs their tanks at 1.022. This is the same acclimation method I have used with all my fish and have never had an issue but maybe I am doing something wrong here.
Would a salinity imbalance take 2-3 days to manifest in symptoms?

1.022 is quite low and you want to acclimate to your tanks salinity and not that of the LFS. You want to equalize the salinity with the bag water and use none of it

 

[chimbo84]

1.022 is quite low and you want to acclimate to your tanks salinity and not that of the LFS. You want to equalize the salinity with the bag water and use none of it

I understand that. I doubled the volume of the bag water with my own tank water over a period of about 30 minutes while the bags were floating in my tank to temperature acclimate. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t an acclimation issue.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have started a new 30g lagoon tank with 1yo rock from my 120g. I tested for ammonia and nitrite before I stocked it to be sure it was all set and went to get a pair of clownfish to add to it. The clowns seemed happy for about two days and then began to decline. First they stopped eating and then began to breath very rapidly. There were no external signs of anything wrong but I decided to do a dip on the chance that they had brook.
I used 3ml of Paraguard in 1gal of fresh saltwater and aerated the container. I dipped both clowns for 60 minutes and when I returned to get them out, I notice the larger of the two was really freaking out and seemed to be gasping at the surface. I went to move it to the QT tank and that was the last straw. It sank to the bottom of the tank and died. The other smaller clown is still breathing rapidly but took the dip better and is now back in QT.
On close inspection, the fish that died appears to have lesions right behind both gill plates and I am not sure what to make of this. Any help would be appreciated. The tank has a watchman goby, pistol shrimp, and a couple snails all of which seem fine.

Sorry to see.
Diagnosing fish after death is difficult.

Were you measuring the ammonia for the time you had them?
Are there any other fish and invertebrates in the tank now, how do they look?
It is unlikely to be an acclimation problem as that would show up the first day, not 3 days later.

As mentioned - Paraguard is not a very effective treatment, and dipping fish is rarely an effective treatment no matter what medication is used (because the fish goes right back into the infected tank).

Jay

 

[chimbo84]

Sorry to see.
Diagnosing fish after death is difficult.

Were you measuring the ammonia for the time you had them?
Are there any other fish and invertebrates in the tank now, how do they look?
It is unlikely to be an acclimation problem as that would show up the first day, not 3 days later.

As mentioned - Paraguard is not a very effective treatment, and dipping fish is rarely an effective treatment no matter what medication is used (because the fish goes right back into the infected tank).

Jay

Thanks Jay. I measured the ammonia before I put anything in the tank and again yesterday and got zero both times (I think… the Salifert kit is not great).

There is a yellow watchman, pistol shrimp, and a few small snails all of which are fine but I am wondering now if I stocked it too fast (yellow watchman went in on Thursday, the clown pair on Friday). I was under the assumption that with year old rock it could handle it but I’m thinking now I may have caused an ammonia spike. Would the snails and shrimp have been affected by an ammonia spike?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

With two consecutive zero ammonia readings, it is less likely that there was a spike between them high enough to kill a fish. Snails and shrimp are also affected by high ammonia, but more telling, the other clown would have been noticeably affected if the ammonia was high enough to kill this one. I’m not sure what happened, but I think it is centered/focused around the fish that died. Just watch the remaining fish for similar symptoms.
Jay