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
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