Saving 2 maroon clownfish

[JenniferMcK]

I'm new to reefing and have had my tank set up for a couple months. Decided to get fish and petco is the only fish store around where I live. Learned my lesson the hard way. All 3 fish I got died within a week. A few weeks later I went back and explained to the store manager what happened and they replaced the fish which is against policy. These 3 new fish all died. All six were in quarantine and they all had ick. The first 3 I didn't know how to treat until it was too late and the 2nd batch I tried my best to treat the with ttm bc copper is not available where I live and I had to order some from Amazon, but I'm guessing they were all way too far gone. So today I went to petco to get salt and I passed by the fish Isle and my heart broke a little. I knew I shouldn't have lol. All their tanks were down bc they had a horrible ich outbreak, and most all of their fish died. An employee said they were just turning the heat up and lights out to get rid of it. I thought yeah that'll help haha. Anyway there were 2 maroon clownfish left in pretty much all the tanks. They looked pretty good. Swimming and actually eating and no visible signs of ich. I felt so bad for them so I bought them. Yeah i know why buy sick fish? Well they were most likely going to die at petco and as I have been doing research on every disease imaginable and how to treat I thought well maybe Ill try something new with them and see if I can save them. So my plan is to acclimate them into a 2 gallon container and basically do a 1-2-3 punch. I'm going to start copper and every 48 hrs I'm going to transfer them into a clean new water with same copper level. I'm debating on whether to do freshwater dips in between transfers, but I think im going to wait to see how they come along. Then after 10 days of this I'm going to drop copper and treat with anti parasite meds, maybe gc? Anyway I'm hoping that they make it. They're so cute and I just want to save them. So if anyone reads this and has any advice to give, I'd be grateful. I actually watched a YouTube video that a guy made that does this method. Can't remember his channel name but I'm going to try my darnedest to save them so wish me luck.

 

[Geebs19]

Interesting method, havent heard of that before. Best of luck with these guys.

Lets see what @HotRocks and #reefsquad have to say.

#welcometoR2R

 

[MSB123]

@4FordFamily
@Humblefish

 

[ndrwater]

Welcome to R2R!! Best of luck!!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome to R2R! I'm not one of the desease experts. With all the fish getting wiped out the way you described I'm suspecting something more than ich. Wish you luck saving them!

 

[Gareth elliott]

The speed at which you lost the fish sounds like velvet not ich.

But marine ich or velvet is not like freshwater ich, turning up the heat has not been linked to increased lifecycle speed like the freshwater variety. Also these marine parasites tend to attack the lungs, turning up the heat removes o2 the fish are already having a hard time getting no idea why they are using this method.

If the fish are really bad
a freshwater dip will offer some temporary relief from the parasites and buy some time treating. You are going to want to match ro/di water temp and ph to the qt water. If going ttm i think velvet will need a transfer every 48 hours for best chances of survival. Another online shipper to try for meds would be chewy for quick shipments, or ordering from walmart and shipping to the nearest store, this is usually a 24hour turnaround. Clowns handle both ionic and chelated copper well, just use the related concentration based on type.

 

[KrisReef]

I think we got another soft touch member here. Nice rescue, good luck with those clowns. (I've done the same thing, just not at Petco)
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[JenniferMcK]

Interesting method, havent heard of that before. Best of luck with these guys.

Lets see what @HotRocks and #reefsquad have to say.

#welcometoR2R

Thank you so much! It's basically ttm and copper treatment together. I think I'll basically do this for a good 14 days and them leave them in quarantine for another month or so before I put them into my dt.

 

[JenniferMcK]

Welcome to R2R!! Best of luck!!

Thank you!

 

[JenniferMcK]

Welcome to R2R! I'm not one of the desease experts. With all the fish getting wiped out the way you described I'm suspecting something more than ich. Wish you luck saving them!

Thank you. I actually thought the same. But examining the dying and dead fish there I am almost certain it was ick as they had white spots that could be counted and not like a dusting of sugar. Either way I am prophylactictly treating with copper. I do wonder though if it is velvet would the fish I have now that've been in that tank for at least week have symptoms? Since I know it's a quick killer.

 

[JenniferMcK]

The speed at which you lost the fish sounds like velvet not ich.

But marine ich or velvet is not like freshwater ich, turning up the heat has not been linked to increased lifecycle speed like the freshwater variety. Also these marine parasites tend to attack the lungs, turning up the heat removes o2 the fish are already having a hard time getting no idea why they are using this method.

If the fish are really bad
a freshwater dip will offer some temporary relief from the parasites and buy some time treating. You are going to want to match ro/di water temp and ph to the qt water. If going ttm i think velvet will need a transfer every 48 hours for best chances of survival. Another online shipper to try for meds would be chewy for quick shipments, or ordering from walmart and shipping to the nearest store, this is usually a 24hour turnaround. Clowns handle both ionic and chelated copper well, just use the related concentration based on type.

Thank you so much for all of the info. Yeah I tried to tell the petco fish 'expert' that but hey I'm a nobody so whatever lol. I also think that they have a ph problem as well there bc when I brought my 2 little guys home and tested their water so I could acclimate easier, their ph was like 7.8. So I took a half a cup at a time of water in and out for around an hr or so. They're doing just fine now. Not a spot in them and I fed them and they ate very good. Velvet is a big possibility but at this point in time neither fish show symptoms whatsoever. But like I stated above, I'm prophylactictly copper treating along with ttm every 48 hrs. I'm thinking I'll probably do fw dips in between transfers for about 3-5 mins. Then after 14 days or so if they're looking good I'm going to put them into my qt and probably run copper for another few weeks or so just to be safe. And when my last fish died I kinda went overboard (hehe) and bought both cupramine and copper poweR to have ionic and chelated. I've been kinda lurking on here for a while and have ready probably everything @Humblefish has wrote up on treatments. I also bought gc metro kana plex focus. I have so much crap it's not funny. My husband keeps calling me the fish doctor right now. I just wish I could get my hands on some cp but my vet wouldnt even talk to me after I said I needed help with my fish. But I really want a cool reef tank and it's still in the early days so I'm not rushing it. Just trying to actually have healthy fish that don't die. Never buying from petco again after this. I'll just order online

 

[JenniferMcK]

I think we got another soft touch member here. Nice rescue, good luck with those clowns. (I've done the same thing, just not at Petco)
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Thank you so much! I am a softie. I rescue kittens puppies reptiles and I guess fish now

 

[Big G]

Hello and welcome to R2R!
Interesting method you are trying here. Hope it works well.
How are you measuring the copper level? Really important that it does not drop below the therapeutic level at any time during the treatment.

 

[JenniferMcK]

Hello and welcome to R2R!
Interesting method you are trying here. Hope it works well.
How are you measuring the copper level? Really important that it does not drop below the therapeutic level at any time during the treatment.

Thank you! Well after buying the api copper test and realizing I couldn't get an accurate reading that I would need, I ordered a hannah checker. And I plan to use the copper power at 1.75 ppm as I saw on this site somewhere that that is a good level without being deadly.

 

[JenniferMcK]

Well just an update here. The two clowns are doing good. Both are swimming well and still have no spots or visible signs of ick or velvet. Ramping up the copper as of last night just a little at a time to see where their comfort level is. I'll post a pic in bit. I do have a 10 gal qt that is cycled. I'm doing a 100% water change in it today to get it ready for them. Since I did have sick fish in it should I run an overdose of copper in it for a few days to kill the ich or velvet before I put them in it after the 14 days? I don't want to completely sanitize it as it is cycled and I don't want to wipe out the bacteria and then have to deal with ammonia when I put them in it, but I also don't want to reinfect them after the 14 days of ttm and copper if it gets rid of it all. Anyway again any advice and reccomendations are greatly appreciated. Thank you to all for well wishes and advice and info. I greatly appreciate everything everyone has replied!

 

[JenniferMcK]

The big one has a serious underbite. Is that normal? Anyway they're hanging around the bottom this morning. They both do swim around off the bottom at times. They Didn't really eat too much but did eat some. Should I be concerned or is this normal? I'm sure they're stressed and trying to get used to copper and new surroundings. It's very low right now. Checked it at .5 just a bit ago. Should I slow down with adding the copper in smaller increments? Still no visible signs of ick or velvet so I know it's not too bad at this point which is why I'm taking a slow approach.

 

[BestMomEver]

Underbite is different! Never seen that before! Clowns are weird creatures and do all kinds of funny things. Being at the bottom is not necessarily a bad thing unless they are gasping for air and/or not eating. I’ve noticed the water they’re in is really cloudy. Is that the tank that is creating that illusion or does it really look like that? If it is cloudy, I’d do a water change. They also look thin, but it’s hard to tell. Good luck with them! I hope they do ok.

 

[JenniferMcK]

Underbite is different! Never seen that before! Clowns are weird creatures and do all kinds of funny things. Being at the bottom is not necessarily a bad thing unless they are gasping for air and/or not eating. I’ve noticed the water they’re in is really cloudy. Is that the tank that is creating that illusion or does it really look like that? If it is cloudy, I’d do a water change. Good luck!

Hi thank you for the info. No it is the container they're in. It's a plastic 2 gal container and it has salt residue on the sides making it look really cloudy. I think I am going to do a water change though just to be on safe side. Even with the underbite, it's still eating lol. Just got a bulldog looking clown I guess

 

[JenniferMcK]

Here's a better pic of them. She's eating some food that's floating

 

[BestMomEver]

Here's a better pic of them. She's eating some food that's floating

Oooohhhh good! I like fish that eat! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them!