HELP!!! Maroon Clown Stressed!

[kestrel]

Help Please!

I have a 4+ year old Gold Stripe Maroon Clown that suddenly showed signs of stress a little while ago. Here is the set-up:

FOWL + 3 new, small (<1") mushrooms, added 2 on Friday, 1 10-days ago.
55 gal tank w/ approx 12 gal in two sumps
ETSS Super Reef Devil Skimmer, working well

2 NO 40 w bulbs, 1 actinic, 1 10,000K
Temp ~84 deg.
S.G. ~1.022

Other occupants:
1 Hippo tang ~2.5"
1 Flame Angel ~3"
1 Randalli Goby
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Pistol Shrimp
1 Pencil Urchin
~20 snails
4 hermits
3" stalk of bubble caulerpa, new friday


Just after I fed with frozen Formula 1 and Pygmy Angel Formula, the clown which lives in an abandoned barnicle shell popped out of her hole and went belly-up. Her breathing was erratic, and she seemed to be paralyzed. I grabbed her and dropped her into the sump, where she seemed to make a rapid recovery.

I did a 20% water change and checked everyone else for stress, with no other visible indications. After about 30 min in the sump, during the water change, she seemed OK, so I tried putting her back in the main tank. She swam around like normal, showing only a little rapid breathing for about 10 minutes. Then she went back into her barnicle. Within 2 minutes, she was going into spasms, and I washed her out with the turkey baster. Once again, she was belly-up and paralyzed. She is now recovering in the sump again.

I then removed and rinsed the barnicles. I got a lot of sludge out of the shells, but no more than I have gotten from previous washes, and less than many times. I know these two frozen foods create a cloud of dissolved/very fine particulate when added to the tank. I don't really like that, but it drives the tang and angel nuts going for all the food.

Due to high temp, and sudden organic loading, could this have been a localized DO problem in the barnicle? Any other thoughts? What else should I look for?

I'm off to do water chemistry now...

Thanks
Daryl

[kestrel]

Update:

All water chemistry looked good. A sample from before the water change showed:

0 NH3
0 NO2
12 NO3
375 Ca
2.4 meq/L Alk
ph 8.3

She's doing fair in the sump, but one pectoral fin looks paralyzed straight out - all others seem fine.

[Alice]

How strange

I doubt it was any kind of localized event and if it was a problem with the food, the other fish would have shown symptoms as well.

As she been injured in anyway? Fighting with the tang maybe?

The only other thing I can think of is some kind of internal parasite but really, I just don't know.

I hope someone can shed some light on this for you and that the clown pulls through.

Alice

[Doug1]

Wow thats bizarre, my first thought is to ditch the barnacle shells, perhaps there is something hiding in there that can cause that sort of reaction. Other than that I have no clue.

[hesaias]

Could she have been stung by something?

[kestrel]

Noon Update:

Well, it's not looking good. After looking a little better this morning, she has now deteriorated rapidly. Both pectoral fins are clamped out perpendicular and not moving. Her front stripe has gone almost black and she is having trouble swimming. My wife is going to watch her for another couple hours, but if there's no improvement, she's coming out of the sump so that whatever it is doesn't contaminate the system any more.

To answer questions, she could have been stung, but by what I'm clueless. The barnicles have been in the tank as long as the clown, and that's 4+ years. The only new additions lately have been small mushrooms and caulerpa, with no water from the bags getting into my system.

It may just be her time, She's been a good one for 4+ years, including the only survivor of the crash of January 2001.



Anyone know where I can order a pair of gold stripe maroon clowns?

Daryl

[Emprr_Angl]

Very Interesting! Last Night my maroon clown showed the same symptoms! I grabbed her out of the tank and put her into a hostpital tank. I fed her food with garlic last night and tonight, i'm gonna get some medicine. She has white specks near her dorsal and little pimples between her eyes and dorsal. I dont know what the hell is up, I've had her about 3yrs.

I bought a Kole Tang last week that had a little speck on one of his pectorals. **** thing died on me saturday morning and now the entire tank is prolly infected. pisses me the hell off. this new LFS is suppesed to be one of the best in the detroit area. after this, i'll never buy another animal from htere again.

-Chris

[JennM]

Old age could have something to do with it. If you've had her 4 years and she didn't come with a "birth certificate", you don't know how old she was when you got her.

If it's any comfort (and I realize this is comparing apples & oranges to an extent), I recently lost a seahorse I'd had for just over a year. He'd been sick and treated, and his symptoms got better but about 4 weeks post-treatment he had a huge seizure and died. In speaking with other keepers, we believe age had something to do with this (the horse was 9 1/4 inches long, the specie usually grows to 8" in the wild). Others had lost horses after many years (captive bred, so they knew the ages) so we concluded that this type of seizure/stress/death can be attributed to old age.

I don't know if the same activity can be attributed to clownfish, but if nothing is wrong in your tank, it's a distinct possibility.

Chris, if you bought a Kole with a speck, please don't blame the LFS. Respectfully, I would have asked them to hold it for you until it was clean, OR if that was not an option, a home quarantine....

Jenn

[kestrel]

Well, she is still hanging in there. She looked a little better this evening, but is still having trouble swimming. She wants to nose-down into the bottom. She wouldn't take any food though - her favorite, freeze-dried brine shrimp.

Just a little while ago, I checked on her and saw her go into spasms, and then stop swimming and float belly-up to the surface. After 5 minutes, she seems to have regained her control and returned to her corner hideout, still nose-down into the corner...

Daryl

[Emprr_Angl]

JennM, um, perhaps i exaggerated my upsetness a bit, tee hee what got me me was the Oh Well attitude the LFS had saying Theres no way it could be their fault. i did a real close inspection of their stock last night and everyone one of their fish is infected by some kind of disease or another.

crap does happen and i have to admit...i didnt notice the blemish till i got him home and was reckless again in not isolating him before putting him into the main tank. i went back to teh same LFS and consulted with their head guy and got a good recommendation on some medicine for the clown and shes doing great. so all is good

-Chris

[kestrel]

Wednesday AM Update:

Well, she was moved to a hospital tank last night. There are still no signs of any parasites or any external ailments. She is swimming a little better, but still tending to stay at about 45 degrees nose-down. She is still not eating. I haven't done any type of treatment, because I don't know what to treat

Still she's a trooper and still hanging in there

Daryl

[JennM]

Kestrel, on the chance that it's something treatable, symptoms indicate something bacterial in origin (ie: swim bladder infection) by my best semi-edumcacated guess.

What *I* would do since she's tough and hanging in there, is try treating with a broad-spectrum antibiotic, such as Kanamycin, Neomycin or Spectrogram. Any or all of these should be available at your LFS. At this stage, since she's in a hospital tank, it won't hurt, and it could help. Kanamycin absorbs into the skin so if she's not eating, that might be a good choice (I think the others do too, but I'm sure that Kanamycin does).

If you try this, you may with to put another airstone or other aeration into the hospital tank as these meds can reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen. A good perky bubble can help. Also, since these take out gram negative bacteria, they can affect your biological filtration so keep a close eye on water quality.

Hope this helps.

Chris...bummer that all the fish have blemishes at that LFS. I know all about dealing with "outbreaks"...our procedure is not to sell anything out of a system undergoing an unusual outbreak. Sometimes it takes a day or three to become apparent though.

Jenn