hmfaysal
Community Member
I hope everyone is having a better day than me. I have a red sea reefer nano and a custom 120 gallon tank with no QT setup. In fact the nano acts as a quasi-qt tank for the larger 120 gallon. I had two snowstorm clowns which I received 2 weeks ago, 2 saltwater acclimated mollies (2 months in the tank), 1 yellow coris wrasse which I had for 5 months, 1 prawn goby and 1 pistol shrimp pair added 1 week ago, 1 cleaner wrasse, 1 old cleaner skunk shrimp and 1 fire red shrimp in the nano. I have few lps and soft frags growing in the nano as well.
The symptoms started 1 week ago, very mildly with one of the clowns hovering over the sandbed, eating and everything, just slightly lethargic, no visible signs of anything. I thought its just clowns being clowns, or maybe stress related as the prawn goby and pistol had been added at that time. From then, things started going south very quickly. Next day, that clown was sitting on the sandbed with visible lack of strength, breathing rate was higher than usual, but not rapid, other fishes doing just fine, at night, the clown was on its side constantly trying to stay up. I thought of putting it in an isolation box, or even giving it a freshwater dip, but decided against it as it may increase stress even further, as at that time I thought it was stress related. 3rd day, clown was rapidly breathing, on its side, and the other clown was sitting on the sandbed, looking exactly like the first clown on the first day of symptoms. I checked the parameters, 1.024 salinilty, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate, 0.85 elevated phosphate from chaeto die off in the reactor, 11.5 elevated alkalinity, 425 calcium, 1350 magnesium, 8.7 ph. Little messed up due to the recent chaeto die off and use of red sea coral pro salt, but still within range. The sand looked dirty, and it had looked dirty for a while now, and with this kind of phosphate in the water, I did not expect a clean sand bed anyways. I was running minimum amount of gfo in a reactor to bring it down slowly. I was at my wits end, I did not know what disease it was, it did not look like velvet to me, and I still don't know what brooklynella looks like. The first clown passed away early midnight, with the other clown hovering or sitting beside it.
4th day, the yellow coris wrasse was stuck with the wavemaker breathing heavily. I helped it get away, but it looked like the wrasse wanted to be stuck with the wavemaker. I missed the symptoms on the yellow wrasse as its spends most of its time under the sand, and is only out for 4-5 hours everyday. The prawn goby did not look well either, it just sat infront of its burrow looking sad, slightly elevated breathing. The 2nd clown was on its side, breathing rapidly, almost no fin movement. I went to my LFS to buy the mildest form of medication available, specifically API general cure, they didn't have it at the moment, instead I got safety stop rapid quarantine and one bottle of tropical science fishkeeper.
The yellow wrasse passed away almost instantly after being added to the first solution of safety stop. 1 and half hours of quarantine baths later, I added the fishes back to the display tank, and in the meantime, I changed 60% water, also washed the sand killing almost all microfauna. Added prime, added a bit of microbacter 7, and ts fishkeeper. The goby passed away after a few hours right on its burrow.
Miraculously, the 2nd clown started showing improvement on the 5th day, it started eating. Currently its swimming all over the tiny aquarium, looks a little weak, but regaining strength everyday.
The most interesting part of this whole ordeal was the saltwater acclimated mollies did not show any signs of symptoms. Those fishes are happily roaming about as nothing has happened. The disease, the rapid qt, the water change, the addition of ts fishkeeper, nothing has any affect on these fishes. The inverts and corals also seem unaffected by all these.
Can someone kindly help diagnose this disease? I will add photos of the 1st clown fish right after it passed away.
The symptoms started 1 week ago, very mildly with one of the clowns hovering over the sandbed, eating and everything, just slightly lethargic, no visible signs of anything. I thought its just clowns being clowns, or maybe stress related as the prawn goby and pistol had been added at that time. From then, things started going south very quickly. Next day, that clown was sitting on the sandbed with visible lack of strength, breathing rate was higher than usual, but not rapid, other fishes doing just fine, at night, the clown was on its side constantly trying to stay up. I thought of putting it in an isolation box, or even giving it a freshwater dip, but decided against it as it may increase stress even further, as at that time I thought it was stress related. 3rd day, clown was rapidly breathing, on its side, and the other clown was sitting on the sandbed, looking exactly like the first clown on the first day of symptoms. I checked the parameters, 1.024 salinilty, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate, 0.85 elevated phosphate from chaeto die off in the reactor, 11.5 elevated alkalinity, 425 calcium, 1350 magnesium, 8.7 ph. Little messed up due to the recent chaeto die off and use of red sea coral pro salt, but still within range. The sand looked dirty, and it had looked dirty for a while now, and with this kind of phosphate in the water, I did not expect a clean sand bed anyways. I was running minimum amount of gfo in a reactor to bring it down slowly. I was at my wits end, I did not know what disease it was, it did not look like velvet to me, and I still don't know what brooklynella looks like. The first clown passed away early midnight, with the other clown hovering or sitting beside it.
4th day, the yellow coris wrasse was stuck with the wavemaker breathing heavily. I helped it get away, but it looked like the wrasse wanted to be stuck with the wavemaker. I missed the symptoms on the yellow wrasse as its spends most of its time under the sand, and is only out for 4-5 hours everyday. The prawn goby did not look well either, it just sat infront of its burrow looking sad, slightly elevated breathing. The 2nd clown was on its side, breathing rapidly, almost no fin movement. I went to my LFS to buy the mildest form of medication available, specifically API general cure, they didn't have it at the moment, instead I got safety stop rapid quarantine and one bottle of tropical science fishkeeper.
The yellow wrasse passed away almost instantly after being added to the first solution of safety stop. 1 and half hours of quarantine baths later, I added the fishes back to the display tank, and in the meantime, I changed 60% water, also washed the sand killing almost all microfauna. Added prime, added a bit of microbacter 7, and ts fishkeeper. The goby passed away after a few hours right on its burrow.
Miraculously, the 2nd clown started showing improvement on the 5th day, it started eating. Currently its swimming all over the tiny aquarium, looks a little weak, but regaining strength everyday.
The most interesting part of this whole ordeal was the saltwater acclimated mollies did not show any signs of symptoms. Those fishes are happily roaming about as nothing has happened. The disease, the rapid qt, the water change, the addition of ts fishkeeper, nothing has any affect on these fishes. The inverts and corals also seem unaffected by all these.
Can someone kindly help diagnose this disease? I will add photos of the 1st clown fish right after it passed away.
I'm going to disagree. I had a total fish tank wipe out - except for 1 clown lol
