New tank. Clown fish maybe sick?

[Jarhead-CO]

So I have a new tank setup first salt water tank ever but I'm experienced with all sorts of animals so I do research and did quite a bit before I dove in (pun intended). So I cycled my tank for a month I know I'll probably get flamed for it but I bought all live substrate and good pest free live rock. I'm running a 29 gallon tank with a fluval 106 and 20 pounds of rock 13 of which is live. I added the clown fish and 5 margarita snails at the month mark. I also ran seachem stability for the whole month to help establish the bio filter. After 3 days I added a cleaner shrimp and 5 red leg hermits no 2 days later my clown got a growth on it's gil I have a 10 gallon tank I'm cycling now for a quarantine tank. So any advice on what this is on the fish is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Please anyone?

 

[Hyde2406]

If it's the only fish in the tank quarantine isn't necessary, but I wouldn't add any more disk until you know what's going on. What are your parameters? Did you fully cycle, did your ammonia spike then drop, you may not have finished your cycle if you were dosing chemicals to reduce nitrates and ammonia etc etc

 

[melypr1985]

quarantine is always necessary especially with the first fish to go in the tank. In this case though, it looks like a bacterial infection possibly setting in there. Clowns are pretty tuff and he might be able to get over it on his own with just the addition of vitamins to his food. He looks healthy otherwise. Can you tell me if you have seen any white stringy poop from him at all?

 

[Jarhead-CO]

I didn't dose ammonia I used raw shrimp and I never had an ammonia spike but all of the stuff I bought like the live sand and live coral gravel said it would prevent ammonia spikes. As of last night my parameters were.
Ph 7.8 (I'm slowly raising it dipped on my last WC)
Ammonia 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Salinity 1.025
I brought my water to my local fish store for a test and they said it was good to add a fish. Yes he is the only fish in the tank and then all the invertebrates I stated.
Also no white stringy poop just brown and what I would call regular from fish I've owned I the past.

 

[Humblefish]

Ammonia 0.25 ppm

^^ This is a problem. Ammonia, even at low concentrations, can be harmful to fish and corals/inverts. It should be 0 at all times.

You need to use an ammonia reducer (like Seachem Prime) ASAP and then do another water change.

The presence of ammonia in a young tank typically indicates that tank is not fully cycled.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

quarantine is always necessary especially with the first fish to go in the tank. In this case though, it looks like a bacterial infection possibly setting in there. Clowns are pretty tuff and he might be able to get over it on his own with just the addition of vitamins to his food. He looks healthy otherwise. Can you tell me if you have seen any white stringy poop from him at all?

The reason I didn't quarantine is I didn't have one setup yet I know I should have waited but my son kept asking for nemo.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

^^ This is a problem. Ammonia, even at low concentrations, can be harmful to fish and corals/inverts. It should be 0 at all times.

You need to use an ammonia reducer (like Seachem Prime) ASAP and then do another water change.

The presence of ammonia in a young tank typically indicates that tank is not fully cycled.

Ok I get home at midnight so I'll do that then.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

^^ This is a problem. Ammonia, even at low concentrations, can be harmful to fish and corals/inverts. It should be 0 at all times.

You need to use an ammonia reducer (like Seachem Prime) ASAP and then do another water change.

The presence of ammonia in a young tank typically indicates that tank is not fully cycled.

Should my wife dose the prime now and I'll do the water change at midnight?

 

[Humblefish]

Should my wife dose the prime now and I'll do the water change at midnight?

Yes

 

[glb]

Agree that the tank isn't totally cycled. Bind the ammonia that's in there with Prime. You'll still test positive for ammonia but the Prime will protect the fish. I'd also add some beneficial bacteria, like Biospira, right away. That will help the cycle complete faster. Dose the Prime right away. Good luck!

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Agree that the tank isn't totally cycled. Bind the ammonia that's in there with Prime. You'll still test positive for ammonia but the Prime will protect the fish. I'd also add some beneficial bacteria, like Biospira, right away. That will help the cycle complete faster. Dose the Prime right away. Good luck!

Is seachem stability the same as biospira? Also I have a friend that has a 3+ year healthy established tank would getting one of his filter sponges or some of his bio media and placing it in my filter help.

 

[Humblefish]

Is seachem stability the same as biospira? Also I have a friend that has a 3+ year healthy established tank would getting one of his filter sponges or some of his bio media and placing it in my filter help.

Yes to both questions. However, you will also get any fish diseases your friend may have in his tank.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Yes to both questions. However, you will also get any fish diseases your friend may have in his tank.

So I may have made a silly mistake. I was testing both my QT and DT (starting to pick up on lingo) and didn't rinse the dropper I was using and I tested my QT first which is now at 4ppm ammonia so I pulled the shrimp out. So when I tested my DT I'm pretty sure I was reading the residual ammonia my DT is now reading 0 ppm ammonia. Still added the prime just incase. I also added melafix to try to help my clown fish out if it is bacterial.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Also here's some pics of the tank in it's entirety, don't mind the mess I'm in the process of fixing the cabinet up to store everything in an orderly fasion.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Also here's some pics of the tank in it's entirety, don't mind the mess I'm in the process of fixing the cabinet up to store everything in an orderly fasion.

 

[Jarhead-CO]

Closer

 

[glb]

Nice tank! You may be right about the residue in the dropper. Did you retest yet?

 

[Jguido1987]

I'm no expert but from the picture it looks very similar to a brooklynella. When my clowns had it I wasn't able to find any reef safe treatments. I tried to transfer them to a bucket and treated them each day for an hr or so w an air stone keeping the water moving. Unfortunately for me it didn't work I may have stressed out the fish too much trying to move them each day or every other day. It also took me a while to ID the problem. Again no expert here but it looks similar.

 

[Jguido1987]

Brooklynella???