can't find clown fish

[tess&ellie]

I have a 25 gallon nano cube and put 2 clown fish in it after 6 weeks of cycling and they instantly got ick bought them on sunday afternoon and on tuesday hade a large amount of ick the store thought it was because my tempature and nitrate were way too high. So this morning i found one of the fish dead at the bottom of the tank and i can not find the other one at ALL !!!!! i have poked moved and generally searched every nook and cranny but no clown fish. I have a small bubble anemone for the clown fish could in any way the anemone have eaten the dead fish? I would appreciate any suggestion.

Thanks

[Sugar Magnolia]

Have you checked the floor behind the tank? IT's possible that your clean up crew polished off the dead fish. For future purchases, get yourself a QT set up.

[jenjen]

What are your parameters, and what all is in your tank at the moment?

Personally I think I would remove all the rock and give it a good rinse in a bucket of SW to try and find the fish.

Hi nitrates shouldn't harm a fish. High temp definitely could, but so could many other things. How did you acclimate?

The more info you're able to share about your system the better assistance you'll be able to get so you can make sure your next addition is more successful.

[tess&ellie]

Thanks for your help What is a QT set up I said i am new.

[DC_40gallon]

Quarantine Tank - QT. Sorry for the loss tess&ellie! Also sorry for our acronyms, we get used to it after a while of guessing along the way lol.

FYI - you might find some general interest in looking at the terms on the message board on the main page, I have to go to that every once in a while to find out what something means.

I'm with jenjen - let's start slow and begin with taking that live rock out and giving it a general rinse in ro/di water if anything just to get the junk off the surface.

Then do a substantial water change with RO/DI water and let that tank cycle for a bit longer and let that ick get out of your system. Continue to do weekly water changes at 10-15% with RO/DI water and this should keep your anemone happy and alive and give you something to watch while you wait a bit longer before acclimating another fish.

I personally don't have a quarantine tank (QT) either on my 40 breeder. I should, but that's just more expense that I don't have and I consider a QT more of a luxury than a necessity. Am I taking a huge risk...yes. But with using a trusted local fish store (LFS) and good eyes on the fish you pick, I find that I limit my risk that way for now.

[DC_40gallon]

Ah and temperature - 77-80 is perfect, keep it locked in that range 24/7. Some will say I am wrong, as we all have our views on temps. But generally no one will have a hearty tank with being 1-2 degrees plus or minus the 77-80 degrees I say.

Don't freak when you see it at 75 at night and 82 after a few hours of your lights on, it's normal and just means you need to tweek and play with your heater to stablize it in the 77-80 range.

[tess&ellie]

Again Thank you for taking the time to help me i now have the temp at a [ so far] steady 76 i was not totaly forthcoming about what is in my tank i also have about 10 small frags of soft coral so i don't think i can take the rock out and clean it ... can I ? i have some small hermet crabs a snails so I have made it all too complaceted before i really knew the problems i would come up with I am still adding ick medication Metronidazole at half the dose to kill any remaining ick eggs or what ever they have.
i have also got a test kit API saltwater master test kit if there is a better one please let me know thany you again
Chris

[tess&ellie]

i kept the clowns in the bag and over 1/2 an hour added tank water i had the light off as well too fast?

[tess&ellie]

I saw you are in langley I was just in Vancouver and Port Hardy how funny you should answer me Fate i think Ha Ha

[jenjen]

Wow, wondering what on earth would bring you out this way, especially this time of year! Hopefully you didn't get too rained on!

Ok, so your inverts are all alive? That's good news. I'd start by raising the temp a bit - get it up around 79-80 and keep it stable there. You can definitely take the rocks out and rinse them even if they have some frags attached. Just make sure you rinse in SW (some water from your tank would be ok) so you don't shock any crabs or snails who are hidden in the rocks.

Do you have a way to test SG? A refractometer is the best method, but a hydrometer will work if that's all you have.

The API kits will be fine. Can you test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate for starters.

Post the SG & the test results, and we'll go from there.

[tess&ellie]

Hi Jenjen

My brother lives in Port Hardy he has a wood lot and a sawmill Spike top Cedar and We were in Delta for a business meeting I was born in Vancouver my summers were spent at my grand parents in wilson creek lived there until i was 14 them used to go back with my daughter to visit my parents they lived in Horseshoe Bay. This was the first time i have been back in 14 years so very emotional for me and was nice to take my husband he never had the chance to come with us when our duaughter was young. I just did another partial water change the temp is at 78 with the light on 77 when it is off
Nitrate 5.0 or 10 hard to tell the color clost to both
nitrite 0ppm
ph 8.2
ammonia 0 ppm

so still have a bit of trouble with the nitrate it should 0ppm i would think

I was thinking of doing another 5 gallon change tomorrow maybe the is overkill.

I am going to take the water into my local store and have them test the water just to make sure I am reading the results right.
my SG is 1.023

Thanks

[tess&ellie]

excuse my typing errors :}

[romsoccer12]

sounds like good params to me, i would bet it was the ich that killed them. are you treating the main tank with the ich treatment?

[tess&ellie]

yes i am still using metronidazole and i turned of the protein skimmer do you think that is the right thing to do
Chris

[Blownsvt]

don't most ich treatments affect corals and such in an extremely negative way?

[olemiss reb]

Leave your tank fallow 6-8 weeks to kill the remaining ick. Read up on ick in the disease forum to understand its life cycle and how to properly eradicate it from your system. Qt all future purchases for 4 weeks. Imo ick treatments are nothing more than snake oil, copper and hypo are the only sure fire treatments.

[jenjen]

tess&ellie, where did you get the metronidazole? Was it at the direction of your LFS? It seems like an unusual first pick for treating ich. Exactly how have you been administering the doses, and how much/often?

I have done a bit of reading up on the drug you're using, and it doesn't look like something you want in your DT water long-term. I would suggest discontinuing it right away, and do some additional water changes to get it out of the system. I'll keep reading, but maybe someone with some specific knowledge of the drug can chime in to confirm whether having it saturate rocks & sand is a problem. My guess would be not, but I can't find anything to confirm that.

You will want to leave the tank without fish for 6 weeks, to make sure the ich dies and is gone. In the meantime, as long as your parameters are stable you should be fine to add corals and inverts.

Your parameters all look good, though good idea getting them double checked. Only thing I'd change is raise your SG a little - 1.026 is 'natural SW', so as close to that as you can get is best.

[tess&ellie]

Thank you everyone for helping me i will stop the treatment and I will not add the clown fish :{ i will wait for at least 6 weeks. I am sure i just went too fast and that never works with anythng. I did get the medicine from LFS[ i now understand that is local fish store] I think she felt bad for me and wanted to help. My bubble tip anemone just ate a little fish I will post picture of my tank as soon as i down load them. I am thankfull for any and all help i can get. the LFS actually suggested Reef central as a good place to go she said that people knew what were talking about so I am thankfull for that.
Thanks Chris

[jenjen]

Just fyi, here's an article I found on metranidazole:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/metranidazole.htm

Don't feel bad! We all make mistakes, especially when we're new to this hobby. It seems like either the fish already had ich or the acclimation was too quick. Or possibly a combination of both.

Here's a great article explaining acclimation:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1166124

Start planning out you fish list now, work on keeping the parameters stable for the guys you've got in there now, and the 6 weeks will fly by!

Glad you found RC!

[tess&ellie]

Originally Posted by jenjen

Just fyi, here's an article I found on metranidazole:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/metranidazole.htm

Don't feel bad! We all make mistakes, especially when we're new to this hobby. It seems like either the fish already had ich or the acclimation was too quick. Or possibly a combination of both.

Here's a great article explaining acclimation:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1166124

Start planning out you fish list now, work on keeping the parameters stable for the guys you've got in there now, and the 6 weeks will fly by!

Glad you found RC!

Both very informative I guess there is no end of information if you know where to look and whom to listen to. Feeling much better about the whole mess and the poor clownfish i wish the did not have to die while i learned. Next time i will do better.

Chris

[Caetano_Thiago]

+1 for jenjen.. she knows what shes talking about maybe u should check out ur local forum. the people there could give u some helpful info about where to make ur future purchases