Rabbut's Marine Jurnal

[ox5477]

looking good rabbut

 

[rabbut]

Thanks Adam and Ox. I will be collecting the green xinea at work on Saturday, all being well. It's been on reserve for about 2 months now, so what will another week be if not I cannot wait to get some coral in there, but a temperary funds shortage means after the xinea I'm done for a while, possibly untill after christmas...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[seffieuk]

Looking nice the fish have a lovely colour

Seffie x

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice Clowns, partial to skunks myself

 

[ben1987]

nice fish, saw some of them in a fish shop and they are attractive

 

[rabbut]

Not good news. One clown is missing, and the other appears "off it". I have checked in and arround the tank and there is no trace of it, dead or alive. It's the female that has gone. Now the male is behaving in a way that is screaming "There is a problem here!" at me. He is hanging on his side in the top back right corner of the tank, not moving after lights out. When I open the flap, he returns to upright and just hangs in the same corner. During the day, he just swims on the spot in the corner all the time, eating, only if food literaly hits him in the face...

Ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate ~ 2.5
pH 8.2

He is clamping one fin (his right side) also...

I have (rightly or wrongly) assumed that the female is dead. The female diden't look on-colour once settled-in either, showing similar symptoms, though not as clearly... She swam on the spot in the same corner as the male, but bossed him about a bit and was keaner to eat. She wasn't all that kean on food though after the first feeding when she went a little mad..

Any ideas anyone? I'm at a loss here as to what is going on. My gut feeling is something parasitic, but there is no gill claming or flashing going on, nor anyting visible on the remaining fish

Thanks for any input
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

gutted mate...

although i dont think you have enough CUC to make a whole fish dispaear so quickly. Check all round the tank, fish can manage to jump out of the smallest gaps. Im also amazed at teh tiny wholes that fish hide in.
If it is dead and not hiding i dont know what caused it im wayy too much of a noob to know that

 

[seffieuk]

I lost my clown for a whole day - he had somehow managed to jump over the weir at the back! When you had the lid off could he have jumped out? I wonder if your flow is causing them to stay in the corner - it's not creating a whirlpool effect is it?

Seffie x

 

[rabbut]

I suppose too much flow could be the issue, but I don't realy want to reduce it since I now have Cyno... I have literaly taken apart the rock stack and checked in each hole. Three days after the fish vanished, there have been no further sitings of the fish by anyone, even at feeding time. Checked down the sides and on the floor. There is no space for the fish at the back, so if it jumped it went down the sides or onto the floor at the front The skimmer has pulled about 100ml of dark skimmate since Wednesday, which is more than I expected it to pull... It is not skimming wet either At this point, I think she probibly has gone

I will try running without one pump for a day or two and see if that makes any differece to the remaining fishes behavior, but I don't realy want to do that long-term if this syno over the rocks and substrate stays...

I have cut light down to 10 hours a day (from 12) and I'm doing 20% waterchanges weekly ATM to try and clear it... Might try reducing the photoperiod further in a weeks time if it's still there...

Is more CUC needed do you think, or is there enough?

Thanks for the input to the issue so far Ben and Seffie

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

i know where there is a pair going for £30 mate. in leeds aswel. PM'd

 

[SkiFletch]

Ouch, sorry Rabbut. Were these wild caught, or tank bred clownfish?

 

[rabbut]

I was told that they are tank bred stock, and that seemed consitant in the colours of the fish The remaining fish is getting a bit more friendly, but he is still hanging in the corner, despite one of the pumps being left off for just over 24 hours, so all in all, there isn't realy a massive difference in behavior being resulted from one pump being left off...

There was a rather cool shrimp mault on one of the rocks at the front this afternoon after I got back from Uni, will try get a pic of it if I can later, assuming it is still there. In mint condition, all in once piece

Interestingly the skimmer is still going crazy.... The foam overfilled the 1ltr collection bottle on Saturday (Un-condensed foam, not skimmate, it's not that mad ) and I've had to empty it as a result, and now 2 days later it's getting close to doing it again with a fair ammount of skimmate condensed at the bottom, considering there is only one fish in...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[rabbut]

More bad news, there is a corpse in the fridge The male clown went over during the night Not a scratch on him ether... Everything looks perfectly normal, from the gills to the tail

 

[rabbut]

Well, finally got to the supplier of the clowns today, and they have agreed to go halves on a replacement pair for me as soon as they can get them. Working in the trade though, I am fairly pesimistic about the wait involved though, but there is hope, since they deal with TMC London as well as TMC Manchester, so have three times the ammount of stock available to them than work does It half supprised me that they were willing to do that though, one body, no recipt (not that would be an issue anyway, if you know your legal position in the UK) and minimal comunications untill today...

Anyhow, got some Green Xenia and a stoe-away Blue Mushroom yesterday at work, along with enough water for a 40% waterchange. Some new shells have finaly been added for the hermits also, and both have moved house already I will try to get round to some pics later this week...

The shop seemd to agree with my theory of parasites being a possible caurse of death. They obviouly wanted to argue that the issue was at my end, but they were happy at agree to a half way meeting point after negotiations... They reconed that they had the clowns at their end for 5 months before I picked them up. Interesting as it was 5 weeks when I called origionally

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

good new that mate, i lost a few fish at the start when my water stats were fine. They were all from the same shop and i got nothing. I am 100% sure that the fish were of a poor quality.
Hope the new ones do better