Small Copperband Butterfly- PLEASE HELP

[jennlep0o]

So after purchasing my lovely little fish and introducing him into my tank, its been about 3 days, hes coming down with a few problems. In panic mode, I start reading all about his kind online, apparently ive done nothing right. My parameters are all mainly perfect execpt for the pH which is a bit low, 7.8. Other than that everything is fine. For the first 2 days he was doing great, even eating a frozen mix! I have one black percula in there and they were swiming around like friends. Now I wake up this am and hes hanging at the top of the water, breathing very heavy. Also I notice he has a bubble basically on his false eye and its on both sides. I read something about gas bubble but from what I gathered that was for fresh water. I really don't want eugine to die and have never had anything like this happen before. My tank has been up and running for about a year now and never had any problems with water issues. I have a rather small tank but the stupid guy at the LFS advised me it would be ok since it was a small butterfly. I have a 12gal nano and about 15 lbs of LR and 20 lbs of live sand and I have a ton of soft corals

[Kmoriarty]

That butterfly definitely can't survive in a 12 gallon tank. If you really don't wNt to watch him die I would return him to the lfs. I'm sorry they gave you such terrible advice. In a 12 gallon nano, you really shouldn't even have 1 clown. If anything at all, I would stick to maybe a smaller shrimp goby. The clown will probably be okay for a while until it gets full size then it will really suffer in such a confined area.

[leebca]

Sorry to hear that you were given such poor advice. That size aquarium makes a fairly okay reef tank, but really not a fish tank. You are not the first nor last to be drawn into the hobby with deficient equipment.

As for the fish now, it is likely dieing. It is dieing from any number of possibilities, but water quality, acclimation, and environment are the most likely culprits. You can fix all but the acclimation -- that is up to the fish now. It may be too late to recover the fish, but moving it to a more suitable tank (size, and water quality) may help.

If your pH is not in the proper range, then your water quality is not good. pH is controlled by alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Together they make a buffer which holds the pH in the right spot. So the pH is one signal that things are not right with the water. This is, of course, just one example.