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Clownfish Plague (1 Viewer)

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Scott C.

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I'm hoping someone can help!

I recently set up a Red Sea Max Nano 20 gallon tank as a quarantine tank. I put in some rock and sand, got the tank stabilized, then introduced 4 oscellaris clownfish.

In the first few hours we saw a clear string of "poop" coming out of one of the fish, but they ate voraciously. Then a little while later it started staying in a low flow portion of the tank, but it still ate well. Then it did not move its tail fin much. Finally, it's tail fin started looking ragged and it began looking off white from its tail to midway up its body. It then died 24 hours after being introduced to the tank. Then the exact same process started with a second fish. It too died 48 hours after entering the tank. After googling the symptoms, I concluded it was an internal parasite and we blasted the tank with prazi-pro. That seemed to do the trick and the remaining two fish lived.

That is until one morning we came in the room a week later and found one of the clowns had jumped out of the tank overnight. We then fashioned a screen and put it over the top to prevent it from happening again. I was down to one fish.

I then bought three more clownfish and put them in the tank. As a precaution, we dosed the tank with copper to ensure they didn't introduce anything new into the tank. All was fine, then about a week in we saw one of the fish with the "clear poop" again. After ensuring there was no more copper in the tank, we quickly blasted the water with prazi-pro again. The fish started swimming in a low flow area of the tank, but otherwise we thought it was fine. One morning I left for work and all was fine, then a couple of hours later it was dead. I was back down to three clown fish.

Yesterday I noticed the remaining three fish were not eating well. I went to the fish store and related my story. I was concerned that maybe since the fish were wild caught, they were all coming in sick with parasites. The owner assured me the fish were bought tank raised. He told me prazi-pro was too tough on their system and not to do it too much. He recommended I do a fresh water dip of the fish. I went home and fresh water dipped the three fish for 5 minutes each. Two hours after the fresh water dip one of the fish was dead (this was actually the sole survivor of the first batch of four fish).

I now have two remaining fish and they are not eating. They are also generally hanging out in low flow areas, but I have not seen the "clear poop" indicating an internal parasite. As a precaution, we went ahead and dosed the tank with copper one more time.

Has anyone seen anything like this before?
What am I doing wrong?
Is there some medicine I should be using that I'm not aware of?
Is whatever that killed the fish in my first round lingering in the tank?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Scott
 
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Scott C.

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I forgot to add that I have tested chemicals and salinity through this whole ordeal and everything is within normal ranges. I also did partial water changes through this process.

I'll also add I do have a lawnmower blenny in the tank to manage algae growth since I can't have a regular cleanup crew in a quarantine tank. He's happily chowing down on algae and has had no problems yet.
 

reeftopia

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You may try a freshwater dip at this point you have nothing to loose, How to fresh water dip.
Step A put a gallon of fresh rodi water in clean bucket, allow to adjust temp to room temp of tank.
Step B put in airater make sure there is plenty of oxygen.
Step C Add fish. He will not be happy even rollover like dead. Have done this dozens of times and never
had one die in 5 minutes.
Step D return to tank. If you return to tank and fish is good but still dies later on have your water checked.
 
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I would not introduce multiple clowns into the same tank. Two at the most and hope they are both not females. Multiple clowns will fight and induce stress.

I have experienced the same symptoms you describe in my clowns. Usually happens when I try to pair two clowns and they both end of being females. I think when their stress levels are high the immune system goes down and they succumb to disease.

As as for the stringy poop you can use seachem metro and sea hem focus and mix it into their food at a 1:1 ratio. They will rid their intestines of my internal parasites.
 
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Scott C.

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I kind of suspect the fish was already going downhill and the fresh water dip stressed it enough to push it over the edge. Dunno for sure.
 
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Scott C.

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I had not thought about stress accelerating disease. The fish did not attack each other when I put them in and they came from the store in a tank with a dozen clowns.

I had not heard of Seachem, so I'll look into it. Thanks!
 

Bigfishy

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Does the Fish have like a light dust look to it? Take a flashlight and shine on its side. If it does then Brooknylla probabilities as marine velvet would have killed the lawnmower blenny. If no signs of dust then parasites.


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