velvetelvis
02/23/2012, 10:52 AM
Apologies for double-posting this topic here and in the disease forum, but I wanted to cover all my bases.
I have two maroon clownfish that I added to my tank this past weekend. After testing the water I realized that the salinity was high (1.030), so I brought it down over the course of several days through small water changes (replacing the SW with FW). The problems with the distressed clownfish began before the water changes. Parameters are as follows:
78 F
No detectable nitrates
No detectable phosphates
No detectable ammonia
Salinity 1.025-1.027
The tank finished cycling in late November. The only other inhabitants include two cleaner shrimp, a black brittle star, and other small inverts (stomatella and a couple of nassarius snails).
The female clownfish appears to be in perfect health. The male, however, is not doing well. He breathes hard, swims slowly and awkwardly, and spends most of his time resting on his belly at the bottom of the tank. The female hasn't been picking on him: she will actually swim over to him once in a while and nudge him gently.
He doesn't have any obvious symptoms that my inexpert eyes can see: no torn fins, wounds, sores, parasites hanging out of mouth or gills, stringy poop, slime coating--nothing. As far as I can tell, his gills look OK. He has one or two tiny white spots on him this morning, but that's it. His fins are losing color at the edges and his stripes are darkened (stress?). This has been going on for two or three days. He seemed to perk up a little after the most recent water change, but his condition looks worse this morning.
I don't know much about these fishes' history, since they were both trade-ins. The people I got them from are pretty sure they were captive-bred, but there's no way of knowing for sure. They were both thriving and in apparently perfect health when I got them just a few days ago.
Is it possible that this is osmotic shock, or maybe ich appearing due to the stress of osmotic shock? The salinity at the LFS was 1.025. Unfortunately I didn't think to test mine before even acclimating the fish, which goes to show you that you can make stupid, basic mistakes even when you've been in the hobby a few years. :(
I have two maroon clownfish that I added to my tank this past weekend. After testing the water I realized that the salinity was high (1.030), so I brought it down over the course of several days through small water changes (replacing the SW with FW). The problems with the distressed clownfish began before the water changes. Parameters are as follows:
78 F
No detectable nitrates
No detectable phosphates
No detectable ammonia
Salinity 1.025-1.027
The tank finished cycling in late November. The only other inhabitants include two cleaner shrimp, a black brittle star, and other small inverts (stomatella and a couple of nassarius snails).
The female clownfish appears to be in perfect health. The male, however, is not doing well. He breathes hard, swims slowly and awkwardly, and spends most of his time resting on his belly at the bottom of the tank. The female hasn't been picking on him: she will actually swim over to him once in a while and nudge him gently.
He doesn't have any obvious symptoms that my inexpert eyes can see: no torn fins, wounds, sores, parasites hanging out of mouth or gills, stringy poop, slime coating--nothing. As far as I can tell, his gills look OK. He has one or two tiny white spots on him this morning, but that's it. His fins are losing color at the edges and his stripes are darkened (stress?). This has been going on for two or three days. He seemed to perk up a little after the most recent water change, but his condition looks worse this morning.
I don't know much about these fishes' history, since they were both trade-ins. The people I got them from are pretty sure they were captive-bred, but there's no way of knowing for sure. They were both thriving and in apparently perfect health when I got them just a few days ago.
Is it possible that this is osmotic shock, or maybe ich appearing due to the stress of osmotic shock? The salinity at the LFS was 1.025. Unfortunately I didn't think to test mine before even acclimating the fish, which goes to show you that you can make stupid, basic mistakes even when you've been in the hobby a few years. :(