red spots on clown

[theJ]

Hey Lee, hoping you can help out here, our clown has a red mark behind his right fin, and a small red dot on one of his lower fins. I have a pic but it really makes the redness look like a huge axe wound, due to the flash, I will try to get a better one tonight. Also, about a week ago, he had a small translucent spot on his top fin that has been slowly going away.

I know you are going to want my water params, here is all I know off the top of my head:

sg 1.025
no2/no3 0/15
alk 11 and change
ca 390 (trying to formulate a plan to keep this closer to 400)
ph: ?

currently not dosing ANYTHING, but feeding formula1 and mysis every other day, and he eats well. He even feeds his host (frogspawn) the large chunks that he doesn't want.

weekly water changes, about 21% (15g on 70g water volume)
I run chemiclean for carbon, changed about every other WC.

tank mates: snails, 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 tiger pistol shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, snails, hermits, etc. NO other fish at all.




I will double check on the above when I get home, but do you have any ideas ?

Also, I have a short vid of his behavior, he looks all excited but it was -right- before I fed the tank and he kinda gets like that when he sees me standing there with a turkey baster.

*** ahh crap, its too large for filehost, I'll have to put it up somewhere else, standby for that

 

[blind1993]

maybe it is a one of a kind clown and will become very expensive if u get it to breed. lolll

 

[theJ]

the 'axe wound J-clown' His name is Crusty by the way

 

[leebca]

I've reviewed your image gallery. A lot of fine photos.

In general I have seen a few fishes you've had that you no longer list. I assume they have died? I see a few invertebrates and corals you no longer have, also. I think you are going too fast. Putting fish and corals into the aquarium after 2 months is pushing it quite a bit. The aquarium right now is about 5 months old and still a few months from maturing. If you look through this post, you'll know where I'm coming from: Starting up a Marine Aquarium.

Your Calcium and Alkalinity are seriously out of balance. They are not in the correct ratio. You may be missing some information on what they should be, and/or you are not keeping control of the water quality. You should be checking pH every few days at this stage of the aquarium's development. You should also have numbers for Magnesium. The aquarium may likely have other water quality issues. See: What is Water Quality

Regarding this fish, the photo isn't very clear, as you pointed out. The fish may have sustained an injury from something in the aquarium (e.g., a coral, invert, rock, etc.). The fact that the aquarium hasn't matured could also contribute to a minor infection and the immune response the area may reflect.

Is this fish being fed properly? This is how the fish should be fed: Fish Health Through Proper Nutrition.

In the meantime review your plan, slow down, stop adding marine life to the aquarium until you stop loosing life (or the marine life you have recently added lives for more than 4 months without losses), review the foods you're feeding the fish, include at this time some immune boosters along with vitamin and fat supplements to the fish. For immune boosters, see: Immune Boosters.

I would need a very clear closeup of the area on the fish; need to see all areas you think are affected; and a clear photo where the fish fills the frame, for me to say much more.

If you have any questions, please ask.

 

[theJ]

yes lee things have changed a lot, one fish died in the QT, never hit the DT, the other went carpet surfing

I am on my way home, I will review and answer your post with gusto in few!

 

[blind1993]

i think u should wait at least 1 month before any more load is added to ur tank.

 

[theJ]

Allright Lee.

We needed someone to tell us that. We have been going nuts lately, the tank has been up for 6 months, and I guess we have been going crazy lately. We got the clown pretty early, about 4 months ago. The orange spot about 3 months ago. He jumped out of the tank about 3 weeks ago. The tang.. man that really hit us hard. We got the orange sholder tang on the 6th, and he was put in a 29 QT that we had running 'stable' with about 20lbs of LR and a hang on filter. it was running for about a month and a half before we put the tang in. When we got him he looked great, he as even eating calupra harvested from the DT while he was acclimating (about 3 hrs, watching sg/temp/ph) he looked great all the way up until friday the 13th, eating calupra and cheato from our tank every day. on that friday he started displaying stress colors, so I did a %50 wc right away, but sunday he had passed.

wow I am going off on the tang when this thread is about the clown, i just needed to get that out in the open

I was off on the alk numbers, -my- test read 7.4, I dont know why I said 11

Regardless, I took a sample into the LFS and had it tested, here are the numbers (everything is off I know):

alk 5.8
ca 340
ph 8.2
ammonia 0

yea I know.. I got some really good advice I am going to put to use on bringing everything up gradually, and am starting that tonight. I read through your nutrition and water quality links, very informative, and has changed our views on a few things. I am just starting the Immune boosters link, but I need a reading break, so I thought I would reply real quick and save the questions for when I have finished your material.

Thanks again for the sobering outlook, Casey and I are pretty damn humbled.

 

[leebca]

I'm glad you're taking things seriously. I'm also glad you are now using a quarantine process (although I don't think it is a good one -- see below).

I was hoping you were not in the hobby just to run through marine life. You'd be surprised how many people are interested in having a marine aquarium like a piece of furniture and just keep it stocked. Those people for the most part don't bother getting on the the Internet and joining Forums, however.

The quarantine process is one that involves no live rock. You need to rethink the process you are using. Please consider reading this recommendation, too: A Quarantine Procedure.

You need to choose your marine life carefully with a lot of forethought. The Tang, for instance, needs an aquarium no less than 6 feet long. During the quarantine of a Tang, it needs to be trained to eat the proper foods. So providing it 'natural foods' on the LR is detracting from this effort, I hope you now understand it is a negative thing, not a positive thing. Maybe having a list to think about when you are interested in buying a fish is a good thing to have. There is a post for that, too: Should I buy that fish?

I think you'll be fine. If you're willing to read and follow good recommendations, things will right themselves with time. Hang in there!