[czarkasm]

Hi everyone,

I need a little help.... My clown has been doing fine for about a month, she's been swimming around fine, and eating with no problems, until yesterday I noticed her swimming strangly. I went to two local fish stores and told them about my problem, they told me to do a fresh water dip, and I did. I made sure the temp and ph was exactly as my tank is, and dipped her for about 4 minutes. I don't notice any difference yet. If she lives till tomorrow, I plan on doing another freshwater dip. Is there anything else I should do? And what could this be, and what could of been the cause?

tank parameters are as follows:

Temp 77 - 1 degree fluctuation usually a day
PH - 8.2
Ammo - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
Salinity is at 1.023

Here is the video from youtube.
YouTube - Fish Help

Thanks Everyone

[weez1959]

Are you sure about the readings you're getting with you tests? Your tank look brand new like it hasn't even cycled yet. How long has this tank been set up?

[czarkasm]

The tank has been set up for about 2 months, and about the test kits, well, I bought a redsea test kit, and my ammonia was showing .25 the whole time, then yesterday I bought an api test kit, and the ammonia reading was at 0.

[weez1959]

Try bringing some of your water to a LFS and see what they come up with.
I hope Lee chimes in soon, you clown looks pretty distressed! Do you have a quarantine tank, Lee for sure will want you to put her in a QT asap.

[leebca]

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon event. A two-month old aquarium isn't stable yet. We test for some chemicals/things, but we can't test for all things that are important to water quality. It takes a few months for the tank to mature to the point where it can handle fish, and then, fish should be added about one fish every 8 weeks. So you can see that at this point, even if the tank had begun mature, it should only have 1 fish in it.

I can only refer you to some additional information. I hope you like to read, because there are many things in these links worth knowing:
Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium
It Was Acclimation, I know. . .
What is Water Quality
The Mature Aquarium
A Fish Quarantine Process

There is very little that can be done for this fish. I'd stop doing the FW dips. They are worthless in this situation. The LFS just 'gave you something to do' like taking an aspirin. The tank is too young. The fish may not have been acclimated properly. The fish may not have been handled properly on its way to you. It's very hard to say, except the tank is too young for fish at this point in time.

The one thing you can do for this fish is to put the fish into a hospital or quarantine tank and then lower the specific gravity to 1.016 using a refractometer. Hold the sp. gr. there. It will relieve some of the stress on the fish. There is a chance it will recover on its own in the lower salinity. Since you are thinning the salt solution for this, the water quality will be hard to control. Daily or twice daily water changes may be needed.

You could list the fish you have and the size display tank you have, only I think you'd get people mentioning how you've rushed things too much.

Good luck!

[czarkasm]

Well, I went and bought a 10 gallon for a quarantine. I lowered the salinity in the qt to 1.021, and I plan on buying some MelaFix tomorrow morning to see if it will help.

[leebca]

If you are going to use Melafix, then you want to read this:
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine...dont-work.html