Bonded Maroons-Sick Male

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dadsoldtruck

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 28, 2009
126
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Richlands, NC
So against my better judgement I bought fish from the LFS after i swore i wouldn't because I'm sick of just throwing money away due to loss, my husband went in there to kill time and found the most beautiful bonded pair of Maroon clowns. I couldn't pass it up. The tank they were in had a sterilizer on it, but I'm begininning to wonder if it was plugged in. The female is doing great and is very protective of her male, but he's not doing so well.
He wont eat, he's got a couple of white spots on him that look like ick and his slime coat is looking a little hazy. He's also hiding a lot. I'm so afraid to medicate the tank and stress him out more. I can put a sterilizer on it, but it's notorious for heating the tank up 5 degrees. Is that my only option? What about getting them an Anemone? Will that help him any? I believe my tank will support an anemone.
 
anemone would be an expensive option. Where they in one before?

I would bump the heat, lower salinity. Though thats how i have all my tanks already :D

Freshwater dipping new additions no matter what is always a great tool. I dip all fish before risking anything in my system. I would just add some prime or some stress reducer, otherwise NO medicines. I am glad you don't like to medicate! I am sure you know that prevention is key!

Good luck
keep us updated.
 
did exactly as Canuck said, lowering salinity and raising temp for my fish when they had ick. I did water changes every other day and also added this product which helped alot
Click to expand...

how can saltwater fish have ick? i thought that stuff hated salt
 
My salinity is 1.023, pH 8.2, Nitrates 0 Temp is slowly rising as I turned it up to see if that helps. Right now there is two shrimp, sally lightfoot, and a goby in the tank with them.

Also, i had removed the lights to float a bag of freshwater in the tank to let it warm up to the tank temp before dipping him. Lights were off for about 30 minutes when I came up to check on the water temp and he seems to be doing a bit better.

The Haze is only on one side, and i only saw it this morning. he will not show me that side again. I wonder if it's from him making "love" to the Xenia? I want to get an anemone for them anyways as he seems to treat the Xenia like one and when they were in the LFS they both were in one together.

Hope this helps, thank you so much guys!
 
I turned the temp up yesterday to about 82 and left the lights off all afternoon and into this morning. The male is MUCH better. He still has a few spots but seems to be calming down. On my way now to feed the tank to see if he will eat. Thanks so much guys.
 
manlyfish;4197207; said:
how can saltwater fish have ick? i thought that stuff hated salt
Click to expand...

There is ick and there is marine ick.

TheCanuck;4196410; said:
anemone would be an expensive option. Where they in one before?

I would bump the heat, lower salinity. Though thats how i have all my tanks already :D

Freshwater dipping new additions no matter what is always a great tool. I dip all fish before risking anything in my system. I would just add some prime or some stress reducer, otherwise NO medicines. I am glad you don't like to medicate! I am sure you know that prevention is key!

Good luck
keep us updated.
Click to expand...

Bumping heat and lowering salinity work in non-reef systems...but from what I can gather she has a reef. Inverts, corals, and especially sps can be negatively effected by these things. Heat over 82 degrees has caused me to lose some of my more sensitive specimens in my reef. Medication is also not really an option in this tank because of all the inverts.

On a side note, I would never personally recommend freshwater dips. I know that some people have had success with them, but I have had the exact opposite. When I started off reefing 8 years ago now, I thought that dipping was a good idea too. Lost a lot of livestock from what was probably a combination of poor husbandry techniques, but long story short, I think that taking a stressed sick fish, and then throwing him into a WORSE situation and stressing him more (after the stress of capture) is quite often fatal. I lost a gorgeous atlantic blue tang ($400) this way...and wont do it ever again.

Hope your maroon continues to recover, paired maroons are very rare, and usually dont last unless you have a HUGE system.
 
So what it seems to be was that these two are wild caught and he was stressed because I didn't have an Anemone for them. so the day I left my lights off and bumped the heat he started hosting my Xenia and has been doign fine ever since. He's eating very well now and these two are closer than ever. I bought them a bubble tip and they sleep together in it, then during the day he goes back to his Xenia which is right next door. These two will be even more rare if they start to breed. She needs to grow a bit still according to a breeding book I have.

The only thing you really can do to treat fish in a reef tank is put a sterilizer on it and let them be. A sterilizer has saved my tank from total crash a few times as our LFS doesn't take care of his fish and they are diseased. Finally found better stores but have to drive an hour for them. But it's worth it.
 
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