Fish getting sick??? Help!

Fish Dr · 09/24/2017, 03:10 PM

Hello I am new to saltwater fish tanks and I've had my tank for about a month and a half now. Everything was going perfectly until yesterday when I noticed my pink spotted goby acting very lethargic. I added him and two juvenile clowns about a week and a half ago. That's was after my green chromis had been in there for about two weeks.
Anyways, yesterday my goby was fine in the afternoon but when I looked in my tank later that night and he was laying on his side and breathing very rapidly. Occasionally he would swim very jerkily to the top of the water and bite at the water surface. He eventually perished soon after, maybe an hour after I first noticed him laying on his side. I was unable to do anything since my lfs was closed other than test the water and do a water change. My tank and water parameters are as follows:

Ammonia nitrates and nitrites were all zero/undetectable
KH was ~9-10
pH is ~8.3. temperature 78 degrees. Salinity 1.023.
It is a 20gal tall with a fluval hob filter, a hob protein skimmer, and a 264 gal/hr power head.

So my goby died last night while the rest of my fish were fine. Then this morning I check the tank and one of my clowns was showing the same behavior as the goby, laying on side with heavy breathing and discoloration. I rushed to the lfs and got stuff called paraguard that is sort of a cure all for fish diseases. But by the time I got back my small clown had died as well! My green chromis and other clown seem fine and are eating normally.

I don't know what's going on but I'm assuming it's a disease spreading around since my water parameters are fine and the remaining fish are fine. I saw no white spots or film or cuts on the sick fish, just discoloration

My question is should I use this paraguard on the other fish just in case they have caught it too. I don't have a qt tank but could set one up since I have an extra 10 gallon tank.

tl;dr two of my fish have died in my 1.5 month old tank while the other fish are fine. How do I save my other fish? Is it brooklynella?

SAT · 09/25/2017, 09:45 AM

Fish Dr,

To Reef Central

The good news is you came to the right place for help. The bad news is your situation may be hard to fix.

There are some dirty little secrets in the industry supporting this hobby. One is that many of the the fish at your local store are carrying diseases or parasites of various sorts, regardless of any grand claims made by a store employee. There may be some exceptions to that rule, but they are few and far between. That's why you need to quarantine all new arrivals before they go in your display tank.

Another dirty secret is that all "safe for your display tank" medications either don't work very well or aren't really safe for the tank. I never advise treating fish in a display tank.

Here's my advice...
Set up a bare 5-gallon tank for treatment. It doesn't have to be complicated... you just need a tank, a small powerhead to keep the water moving, a small heater, some flower pots or plastic pipes for shelter, and some way to keep the fish from jumping out. Initially fill the treatment tank with water from your display tank. You don't have time to establish a biological filter, so instead of filtering the water, you are going to mix up 2.5 gallons of new water every day and change 50% of the water in the treatment tank. Get an ammonia badge so you can tell if the water is safe.

Move all the fish into the treatment tank. Get some Seachem Cupramine and follow the directions. Be sure to refresh 1/2 the dose every time you change 1/2 the water.

Depending on the disease, it may take a while for your display tank to be free of the disease. I suggest waiting a month before putting fish back in in. However, if you determine the disease is Cryptocaryon (marine Ick, charaterized by small white dots on the fins and body), you should wait 3 months.

Finally, read the sticky thread at the top of this forum about quarantine tanks. Strict quarantine will allow you avoid this sort of problem in the future.

Good luck!

Fish Dr · 09/25/2017, 11:59 AM

Thank you for replying! I ended up dipping my remaining clown and chromis with the paraguard for 1 hour because they were showing the symptoms too. It definitely helped and bought me some time until I can set up a qt tank. They are back in the dt and the clown is acting normal and eating, the chromis is looking better than he was but not eating atm.

My question is do I need to remove all livestock (I have snails, a blue leg hermit, and a camel shrimp) from my DT during the fallow period, or just my 2 fish?

lagatbezan · 09/25/2017, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAT

Fish Dr,

To Reef Central

The good news is you came to the right place for help. The bad news is your situation may be hard to fix.

There are some dirty little secrets in the industry supporting this hobby. One is that many of the the fish at your local store are carrying diseases or parasites of various sorts, regardless of any grand claims made by a store employee. There may be some exceptions to that rule, but they are few and far between. That's why you need to quarantine all new arrivals before they go in your display tank.

Another dirty secret is that all "safe for your display tank" medications either don't work very well or aren't really safe for the tank. I never advise treating fish in a display tank.

Here's my advice...
Set up a bare 5-gallon tank for treatment. It doesn't have to be complicated... you just need a tank, a small powerhead to keep the water moving, a small heater, some flower pots or plastic pipes for shelter, and some way to keep the fish from jumping out. Initially fill the treatment tank with water from your display tank. You don't have time to establish a biological filter, so instead of filtering the water, you are going to mix up 2.5 gallons of new water every day and change 50% of the water in the treatment tank. Get an ammonia badge so you can tell if the water is safe.

Move all the fish into the treatment tank. Get some Seachem Cupramine and follow the directions. Be sure to refresh 1/2 the dose every time you change 1/2 the water.

Depending on the disease, it may take a while for your display tank to be free of the disease. I suggest waiting a month before putting fish back in in. However, if you determine the disease is Cryptocaryon (marine Ick, charaterized by small white dots on the fins and body), you should wait 3 months.

Finally, read the sticky thread at the top of this forum about quarantine tanks. Strict quarantine will allow you avoid this sort of problem in the future.

Good luck!

^ some great advice. You should monitor the fish and see if you observe any other physical or behavioral issues like rapid breathing, scratching on rocks or substrate (flashing), head shaking, yawning or spots or discoloration on the fish. in addition to some kind of parasite you might also be dealing with flukes.
Here is a small list of items that I think its a must to have on hand in this hobby:
Refractometer
Test kit
ammonia badge
cupramine or any form of copper with the corresponding test kit
formalin
furan2
metroplex
kanaplex
prazipro
General cure
prime conditioner

get yourself into habit of qt everything wet.

Only fish need to come out of the display for the fallow period. all invertebrates; corals, snails can stay.

Jdub968 · 09/25/2017, 01:07 PM

We need pictures ! However ick generally don't kill that rapid velvet and brooklynella do my suggestion is get your 10 gallon up and running a paraguard bath like you done is great for brooklynella it may also help with velvet but it's not going to cure velvet. Set the qt up with a heater a sponge filter seeded with live nitrifying bacteria like stability bio spira dr Tims ect there's a lot available at you Lfs you will need an air stone just to help add O2 when medicating. the tank will be bare bottom with some pvc elbows for hiding you don't need a light and if it's velvet you don't want a light. Velvet has the ability to use light in a photosynthesis manner. Once you catch your fish give them a freshwater dip 5 min in Ro/Di or treated tap water if you don't have ro/Di with an airstone,followed by a paraguard bath then into the qt dose copper either cupramine or chelated.
You will need a cu test kit for cupramine use seachem or salifert for chelated use api this is a must because cu levels fluctuate.
Fallow periods for your DT are as follows ick 76 days velvet and brooklynella 6 weeks these are minimum times all inverts can stay in the DT during fallow period. Do not share items better tanks suck as nets ect and set your qt up at least 10' away from your DT to avoid aerosol cross contamination.

SAT · 09/25/2017, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Dr

My question is do I need to remove all livestock (I have snails, a blue leg hermit, and a camel shrimp) from my DT during the fallow period, or just my 2 fish?

Just the fish. The parasites won't use your inverts as hosts.

09/24/2017, 03:10 PM	#1
Fish Dr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Posts: 2	Fish getting sick??? Help! Hello I am new to saltwater fish tanks and I've had my tank for about a month and a half now. Everything was going perfectly until yesterday when I noticed my pink spotted goby acting very lethargic. I added him and two juvenile clowns about a week and a half ago. That's was after my green chromis had been in there for about two weeks. Anyways, yesterday my goby was fine in the afternoon but when I looked in my tank later that night and he was laying on his side and breathing very rapidly. Occasionally he would swim very jerkily to the top of the water and bite at the water surface. He eventually perished soon after, maybe an hour after I first noticed him laying on his side. I was unable to do anything since my lfs was closed other than test the water and do a water change. My tank and water parameters are as follows: Ammonia nitrates and nitrites were all zero/undetectable KH was ~9-10 pH is ~8.3. temperature 78 degrees. Salinity 1.023. It is a 20gal tall with a fluval hob filter, a hob protein skimmer, and a 264 gal/hr power head. So my goby died last night while the rest of my fish were fine. Then this morning I check the tank and one of my clowns was showing the same behavior as the goby, laying on side with heavy breathing and discoloration. I rushed to the lfs and got stuff called paraguard that is sort of a cure all for fish diseases. But by the time I got back my small clown had died as well! My green chromis and other clown seem fine and are eating normally. I don't know what's going on but I'm assuming it's a disease spreading around since my water parameters are fine and the remaining fish are fine. I saw no white spots or film or cuts on the sick fish, just discoloration My question is should I use this paraguard on the other fish just in case they have caught it too. I don't have a qt tank but could set one up since I have an extra 10 gallon tank. tl;dr two of my fish have died in my 1.5 month old tank while the other fish are fine. How do I save my other fish? Is it brooklynella?

09/25/2017, 09:45 AM	#2
SAT Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Berwyn, PA Posts: 4,073 Blog Entries: 1	Fish Dr, *To Reef Central* The good news is you came to the right place for help. The bad news is your situation may be hard to fix. There are some dirty little secrets in the industry supporting this hobby. One is that many of the the fish at your local store are carrying diseases or parasites of various sorts, regardless of any grand claims made by a store employee. There may be some exceptions to that rule, but they are few and far between. That's why you need to quarantine all new arrivals before they go in your display tank. Another dirty secret is that all "safe for your display tank" medications either don't work very well or aren't really safe for the tank. I never advise treating fish in a display tank. Here's my advice... Set up a bare 5-gallon tank for treatment. It doesn't have to be complicated... you just need a tank, a small powerhead to keep the water moving, a small heater, some flower pots or plastic pipes for shelter, and some way to keep the fish from jumping out. Initially fill the treatment tank with water from your display tank. You don't have time to establish a biological filter, so instead of filtering the water, you are going to mix up 2.5 gallons of new water every day and change 50% of the water in the treatment tank. Get an ammonia badge so you can tell if the water is safe. Move all the fish into the treatment tank. Get some Seachem Cupramine and follow the directions. Be sure to refresh 1/2 the dose every time you change 1/2 the water. Depending on the disease, it may take a while for your display tank to be free of the disease. I suggest waiting a month before putting fish back in in. However, if you determine the disease is Cryptocaryon (marine Ick, charaterized by small white dots on the fins and body), you should wait 3 months. Finally, read the sticky thread at the top of this forum about quarantine tanks. Strict quarantine will allow you avoid this sort of problem in the future. Good luck! __________________ Stuart Current Tank Info: 300G Caribbean biotype reef set up in 2003.

09/25/2017, 11:59 AM	#3
Fish Dr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Posts: 2	Thank you for replying! I ended up dipping my remaining clown and chromis with the paraguard for 1 hour because they were showing the symptoms too. It definitely helped and bought me some time until I can set up a qt tank. They are back in the dt and the clown is acting normal and eating, the chromis is looking better than he was but not eating atm. My question is do I need to remove all livestock (I have snails, a blue leg hermit, and a camel shrimp) from my DT during the fallow period, or just my 2 fish?

09/25/2017, 01:07 PM	#5
Jdub968 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 401	We need pictures ! However ick generally don't kill that rapid velvet and brooklynella do my suggestion is get your 10 gallon up and running a paraguard bath like you done is great for brooklynella it may also help with velvet but it's not going to cure velvet. Set the qt up with a heater a sponge filter seeded with live nitrifying bacteria like stability bio spira dr Tims ect there's a lot available at you Lfs you will need an air stone just to help add O2 when medicating. the tank will be bare bottom with some pvc elbows for hiding you don't need a light and if it's velvet you don't want a light. Velvet has the ability to use light in a photosynthesis manner. Once you catch your fish give them a freshwater dip 5 min in Ro/Di or treated tap water if you don't have ro/Di with an airstone,followed by a paraguard bath then into the qt dose copper either cupramine or chelated. You will need a cu test kit for cupramine use seachem or salifert for chelated use api this is a must because cu levels fluctuate. Fallow periods for your DT are as follows ick 76 days velvet and brooklynella 6 weeks these are minimum times all inverts can stay in the DT during fallow period. Do not share items better tanks suck as nets ect and set your qt up at least 10' away from your DT to avoid aerosol cross contamination.