Hi, I am new to Nano Tank.com and am looking for some opinions of something that is happening with my fish.
I have had previous SW tanks until we had to sell everything with the arrival of twins.
Now we have a 24 g jbj and are enjoying our friends again. Unfortunately we had an accident with equip, where I knocked the return off enough that circulation was interrupted and in the morning our fish were gone. All except our TR clown false perc, well this guy was so very lonely and his survival was a miracle to us as he spent the better part of almost 2 days gasping, but amazingly he pulled through.
Anyway I went to get a new cleaner fish and there were 2 very small fish that were in the LFS but skinny. The owners know me and offered them to me. I never should have taken them home they are a hippo tang and sailfin, both skinny, blue was a bit ragged. BUt I did take em home and amazingingly they plumped up it took close to 2 weeks to see improvement. These guys are small too, bodies the size of a mans thumb. Anyway these 3 fish (clown, blue, sally (sailfin)) all hung out picking at the rocks: even the clown fish and were very active.
Then 2 days ago the sailfin started attacking blue who ended up hiding in the rocks then swimminig crazily around the tank. This sailfin also attacked itself in the reflection of the tank. Blue was still swimming erratically, darting around, hitting the ground but not flashing or rubbing. I know how these fish are crazy swimmers but this is way above and beyond. She kept laying down and twitching; so I netted her and put her into an isolation hang on tank as the sailfin was attacking while she was down. I put a small rock in there and in the morning she was still ok, not great but not failing. The sailfin was still attacking itself in the reflection and I made the decision to net it and take it back especially now that it was physically healthy, as these were not to be long term occupants anyway.
The sailfin actually tried to attack the net so it was easy to catch. Blue is still with us, eating picking at rocks but still swimming CRAZY. she stays in the current swimming very fast. There are no marks on her, she is eating but still no improvement. I netted her and looked her over very closely but still cannt see ANY obvious issues. The only last thing I can mention is that both her stomach and the sailfins seemed extremely "bumpy" nothing I could catch on camera, but like rocks under her skin. That has passed but it seems they both got a little nuts, or a lot nuts. I was so proud to get them plumped up, yet no idea what else happened
I was hoping that someone would have an idea, she has made it this far and I would love to keep her healthy until we get a bigger tank in August. Is it that she is simply too small? Some sort of disease, or any ideas?
I am not an expert but havent yet seen a fish act like this. Of course I never saw a fish come back from gasping on its side like our clown did so who knows.
Oh btw our parameters are all 0 ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate. PH is 8, spg 1.023, calcium 420-440. We have 20 lbs live rocks and 2 torch, 1 frogspawn, 1 buttons colony, 2 mushrooms, star polyps, all small and gotten from the frag tank but growing and fully open during day. This tank has been up about a year now and seems well balanced, we do regular water changes.
Any ideas or help you could offer?
thank you
Melissa
I have had previous SW tanks until we had to sell everything with the arrival of twins.
Now we have a 24 g jbj and are enjoying our friends again. Unfortunately we had an accident with equip, where I knocked the return off enough that circulation was interrupted and in the morning our fish were gone. All except our TR clown false perc, well this guy was so very lonely and his survival was a miracle to us as he spent the better part of almost 2 days gasping, but amazingly he pulled through.
Anyway I went to get a new cleaner fish and there were 2 very small fish that were in the LFS but skinny. The owners know me and offered them to me. I never should have taken them home they are a hippo tang and sailfin, both skinny, blue was a bit ragged. BUt I did take em home and amazingingly they plumped up it took close to 2 weeks to see improvement. These guys are small too, bodies the size of a mans thumb. Anyway these 3 fish (clown, blue, sally (sailfin)) all hung out picking at the rocks: even the clown fish and were very active.
Then 2 days ago the sailfin started attacking blue who ended up hiding in the rocks then swimminig crazily around the tank. This sailfin also attacked itself in the reflection of the tank. Blue was still swimming erratically, darting around, hitting the ground but not flashing or rubbing. I know how these fish are crazy swimmers but this is way above and beyond. She kept laying down and twitching; so I netted her and put her into an isolation hang on tank as the sailfin was attacking while she was down. I put a small rock in there and in the morning she was still ok, not great but not failing. The sailfin was still attacking itself in the reflection and I made the decision to net it and take it back especially now that it was physically healthy, as these were not to be long term occupants anyway.
The sailfin actually tried to attack the net so it was easy to catch. Blue is still with us, eating picking at rocks but still swimming CRAZY. she stays in the current swimming very fast. There are no marks on her, she is eating but still no improvement. I netted her and looked her over very closely but still cannt see ANY obvious issues. The only last thing I can mention is that both her stomach and the sailfins seemed extremely "bumpy" nothing I could catch on camera, but like rocks under her skin. That has passed but it seems they both got a little nuts, or a lot nuts. I was so proud to get them plumped up, yet no idea what else happened
I was hoping that someone would have an idea, she has made it this far and I would love to keep her healthy until we get a bigger tank in August. Is it that she is simply too small? Some sort of disease, or any ideas?
I am not an expert but havent yet seen a fish act like this. Of course I never saw a fish come back from gasping on its side like our clown did so who knows.
Oh btw our parameters are all 0 ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate. PH is 8, spg 1.023, calcium 420-440. We have 20 lbs live rocks and 2 torch, 1 frogspawn, 1 buttons colony, 2 mushrooms, star polyps, all small and gotten from the frag tank but growing and fully open during day. This tank has been up about a year now and seems well balanced, we do regular water changes.
Any ideas or help you could offer?
thank you
Melissa
