davidb Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Hey I have a pink skunk clown which I have had for 2 weeks now... She is breathing rapidly and is hanging out near the bottom of the tank rareley moving around. I can see no evidence of any damage and all the other fish in the tank are fine- including my male pink skunk clown... Will I need to set up a hospital tank or will she be fine? The other fish at the moment are three chromis, a banded goby , a cleaner shrimp and a bta.... thanks for yur help. I have melafix and copramine but am hesitant using them in my main tank. particularly the copramine as it will likeley kill my shrimp and damage my mushrooms... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted February 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 I just checked my water and everything seems fine. I checked absolutley everything I have a test for and its all good... dKH - 11.5 pH - 8.4 Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, Phosphates, Copper - all 0 ppm Ca - 400 temp - 26.5 degrees C Anyone got any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhindry Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Have you changed anything lately, specifily lighting? My clown fish sat at the bottom of the tank for about a week after I upgraded my lighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted February 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 no same lighting. I think he may be getting white-spot but I haven't seen any spots on her yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted February 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 ther is pretty much no way to get her out of the tank. i have been thinking about doing a fw dunk for 5 mins after steve suggested it if she gets any spots or anything but I don't know how I will catch her.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneo Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 You'll only stress it more if you take it out of it current enviroment. Unfortunately new changes to rules mean you might not get much feedback from the pros. Probably on less restrictive forums at the mo' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneo Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Reef might post though, pretty sure he's happy at the mo' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raeh1 Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 DO NOT use copper based treatments with live invertibrates in your tank. Kills them dead. That means dead anemone = everything dead... If you use copper based treatments put it in a completely seperate tank. Your anemone (as long as clowns live in it) should kill all parasites that would try to live on your fish. Cheers ru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Your anemone (as long as clowns live in it) should kill all parasites that would try to live on your fish. No it does not stop them. If you are not sure what is wrong with it then I would do nothing and hope for the best. Whitespot is very obvious once you have seen it. Keep the stress to a minimum for the fish. Copper is super toxic to the non-fish (and even them if the dose is high) things in your tank. I would skip it. I am a UV convert but that may not help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 If it was white spot you would have seen the spots well before the fish was in trouble. It's possible the fishes gill were damaged while the tank was still cycling and its showing up now that the heat has gone up a bit? Higher temp=less O2 in the water, you could try putting a fan or two on your tank to get the temp down a little, although it's not really very hot. Also stress is the biggest killer, try and keep it to a minimum, your could reduce your lighting and stay away from the tank. BTW the last thing you want to do is try remove the fish the stress will almost kill it for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 Very possible it will be either Oodinium, or Brooklynella. These are different to the more common form of ich ( irritans ), and unfortunately more deadly. If it is either of these your clowns chances of survival by now are low, however I would suggest doing a google on them and see if you can diagnose. Problem is treat, or not treat, you may save, or may lose, the fish. Treatments are harsh and sometimes it is the treatment that kills the fish. As others have said DO NOT copper treat the tank, hard as it may sound you are better off losing the clown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 wasp sums that up perfectly IMO. if it was me, i would do as has been said, do nothing in a way, may be its best shot. i hope she pulls through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alf Posted February 2, 2007 Report Share Posted February 2, 2007 I recently had a fish with whitespot, and I'm almost convinced that if the cleaner shrimp didn't clean the fish every day, I would have lost it. It was also very exciting to watch the butterfly "stand still" for the shrimp to work on him.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 Nitrite converts the hemaglobian in the blood so it cannot transport oxygen. Don't know if the effects are long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 All the hemoglobin in a human, and I assume similar for fish, would be replaced in less than a month, probably around a week. So it wouldn't be long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feelers Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 I was reading an article in Marine World the other day about darkness and how it helps fishes immune systems. The guy who discovered the importance of darkness was trying different treatments on fish and measureing responses, but as all the fish were continually stressed there was no way to tell if his treatments had any affect. From what I read it was a very very impressive change, he said it was also a much sorter recovery than would be expected. For kio karp it was 4 days darkenss before the immune system came back to normal after heavy stress events. Now perhaps some of you guys have thoughts on a "darkness treatment", say a week with a cover all around the tank? (I dont know what this would do to corals etc) If the fish has a weak immune system something like this might help tip the scales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted February 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 I was out last night and arrived home this morning to find her dead There were no signs of external damage- no whitespot- nothing... All my other fish are happy and none of them show any of the symptoms. Thanks everyone for their help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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