FinnyBusiness
New Member
Hey everyone,
I just made an account here but I follow the forum for a while now, since my fiancé and I have an aquarium since the beginning of May. He just posted our build on his thread (which I also linked on my profile here).
Anyways, while all seems to go quite well in our DT, in our recently set up QT we have 2 clownfish since last week, one of which unfortunately died yesterday. The other one is still alive but in very visible distress and I would like your help to (of course) try to save it if possible or (worst case scenario) learn the lessons that would avoid this in the future. Here goes the timeline of events with some pictures...
Quarantine Tank
5.28 gallons (20 L)
Heater: Tetra HT150
Filter: Fluval C3 Clip-On
Airstone/Airfilter - 3D printed with filter watting and an air pump
+ a couple of PVC pipes*
* they were floating which suggests we didn't buy the correct ones so we put one small stone inside it to weigh it down.
Day 1 (3rd of September):
Setting up of the quarantine tank: we filled it with water (osmose mixed with ProReef Salt).
Day 2:
We added food flakes (microbe-lift marine flakes) and a product for denitrification (Special Blend), and then also the starter bacteria (Nite-Out II) all from Arka Biotechnologie.
We were following the guide from Arka to set-up a tank (unfortunately only in German here).
Day 3:
Observation. Added Nite-Out, always following the abovementioned guide.
Got 2 small clownfish from the LFS, and added to the QT.
We kept them in the dark for 1.5 hours in a bowl floating in the QT to adjust the temperature while adding a bit of the QT water every 4-5 minutes, 6x before setting them free in the QT.
At the LFS they looked lively and were in a tank with several other clownfish that also looked fine.
In our QT they looked stressed out from the change but responsive and were swimming more calmly after a while.
Day 4:
Measured Ammonia (below 0.1 ppm). Added Nite-Out.
We offered them food, frozen* mysis with garlic - they did not seem interested and avoided the pieces of food in the water. Later on we offered some food flakes but they also did not want it.
* defrosted and washed
We noticed a white thread coming from one of the fish (the one who dies on day 6). I found a post here that listed a few possible causes and figured it was maybe the last thing they ate at the LFS (wishful thinking much?!
)
At night, the fish started to look more apathic: more specifically, both of them were swimming low close to the bottom of the tank always in the same spot (behind the airstone). We observed that sometimes they rested their bodies on the bottom of the tank but we did not think much of it.
Day 5:
In the morning the fish looked exactly like they had been the previous night - not so active but up till that point, we were not worried.
We offered food again (same things) and they did not eat. Added Nite-Out.
I took the airstone out for a couple of hours, because I felt the water might have been too "troubled" and that might have been stressing them out.
around 7pm:
At night things really went sour. I saw one fish upside down, I went to turn on the light to see better and when I came back it was looking normal (upright) so I thought I had probably seen it wrong.
around 10 pm:
one of them was now definitely in distress and having much trouble staying upright. It was often vertical or upside down, breathing heavily. Every now and then, it would swim really fast and jump up out the water a couple of times before sinking to the bottom again.
I panicked, did not know how to help. And we decided to do a water change.
around 11pm:
after mixing the salt water and letting it dissolve, I made a 5 L (1.3 gallons) water change. From this moment on, there were no lights in the room anymore - before there was low light only to allow me to see and work in the tank.
Half an hour later it was dead.
Day 6 (today):
In the morning, the remaining clownfish started showing signs of distress as well. Same signs shown by the other one but delayed by around 9 hours.
I panicked again. We were afraid that it might have been the water that was "wrong" somehow so we decided to take some water from our DT and put the fish inside. I did it (see in the pic below, the water in the bowl is from our DT). I don't know exactly what I was expecting with this, it was a desperate measure - I honestly just felt extremely helpless and wanted to do something to help the little guy.
We also measured Nitrate (below 0.025 ppm).
The fish is still alive, but this does not look promising at all. It is laying sideways on the bottom of the bowl, breathing heavily.
Urgent question:
Is there something that can be done?
Remaining questions:
Is there something we missed?
Did we make any huge mistakes?
Is there something we could have done before?
I just made an account here but I follow the forum for a while now, since my fiancé and I have an aquarium since the beginning of May. He just posted our build on his thread (which I also linked on my profile here).
Anyways, while all seems to go quite well in our DT, in our recently set up QT we have 2 clownfish since last week, one of which unfortunately died yesterday. The other one is still alive but in very visible distress and I would like your help to (of course) try to save it if possible or (worst case scenario) learn the lessons that would avoid this in the future. Here goes the timeline of events with some pictures...
Quarantine Tank
5.28 gallons (20 L)
Heater: Tetra HT150
Filter: Fluval C3 Clip-On
Airstone/Airfilter - 3D printed with filter watting and an air pump
+ a couple of PVC pipes*
* they were floating which suggests we didn't buy the correct ones so we put one small stone inside it to weigh it down.
Day 1 (3rd of September):
Setting up of the quarantine tank: we filled it with water (osmose mixed with ProReef Salt).
Day 2:
We added food flakes (microbe-lift marine flakes) and a product for denitrification (Special Blend), and then also the starter bacteria (Nite-Out II) all from Arka Biotechnologie.
We were following the guide from Arka to set-up a tank (unfortunately only in German here).
Day 3:
Observation. Added Nite-Out, always following the abovementioned guide.
Got 2 small clownfish from the LFS, and added to the QT.
We kept them in the dark for 1.5 hours in a bowl floating in the QT to adjust the temperature while adding a bit of the QT water every 4-5 minutes, 6x before setting them free in the QT.
At the LFS they looked lively and were in a tank with several other clownfish that also looked fine.
In our QT they looked stressed out from the change but responsive and were swimming more calmly after a while.
Day 4:
Measured Ammonia (below 0.1 ppm). Added Nite-Out.
We offered them food, frozen* mysis with garlic - they did not seem interested and avoided the pieces of food in the water. Later on we offered some food flakes but they also did not want it.
* defrosted and washed
We noticed a white thread coming from one of the fish (the one who dies on day 6). I found a post here that listed a few possible causes and figured it was maybe the last thing they ate at the LFS (wishful thinking much?!
)At night, the fish started to look more apathic: more specifically, both of them were swimming low close to the bottom of the tank always in the same spot (behind the airstone). We observed that sometimes they rested their bodies on the bottom of the tank but we did not think much of it.
Day 5:
In the morning the fish looked exactly like they had been the previous night - not so active but up till that point, we were not worried.
We offered food again (same things) and they did not eat. Added Nite-Out.
I took the airstone out for a couple of hours, because I felt the water might have been too "troubled" and that might have been stressing them out.
around 7pm:
At night things really went sour. I saw one fish upside down, I went to turn on the light to see better and when I came back it was looking normal (upright) so I thought I had probably seen it wrong.
around 10 pm:
one of them was now definitely in distress and having much trouble staying upright. It was often vertical or upside down, breathing heavily. Every now and then, it would swim really fast and jump up out the water a couple of times before sinking to the bottom again.
I panicked, did not know how to help. And we decided to do a water change.
around 11pm:
after mixing the salt water and letting it dissolve, I made a 5 L (1.3 gallons) water change. From this moment on, there were no lights in the room anymore - before there was low light only to allow me to see and work in the tank.
Half an hour later it was dead.
Day 6 (today):
In the morning, the remaining clownfish started showing signs of distress as well. Same signs shown by the other one but delayed by around 9 hours.
I panicked again. We were afraid that it might have been the water that was "wrong" somehow so we decided to take some water from our DT and put the fish inside. I did it (see in the pic below, the water in the bowl is from our DT). I don't know exactly what I was expecting with this, it was a desperate measure - I honestly just felt extremely helpless and wanted to do something to help the little guy.
We also measured Nitrate (below 0.025 ppm).
The fish is still alive, but this does not look promising at all. It is laying sideways on the bottom of the bowl, breathing heavily.
Urgent question:
Is there something that can be done?
Remaining questions:
Is there something we missed?
Did we make any huge mistakes?
Is there something we could have done before?
