someone help!

[SigEpLucas]

my baby clown that i've had for almost three days now looks like somethings wrong...he's looked really good so far and has been eating fine.

It's the middle of the night and I got woke up and looked cause he was franticallly swimming through the tank hitting the walls, sand, powerhead, and magnetic glass cleaner. Also his front half from his middle stripe up is like an ashy white color and a few hours earlier was bright orange.

What could be happening, anything I can do?

 

[SigEpLucas]

just tested and everything is pretty much the same 0 ammonia 0 nitrite about 20 nitrate 77 degrees...

 

[messiah023]

If your parameters are in check, there must be another factor effecting him.
Chemicals? Did someone clean the tank with cleaner? Do you have air freshener? Did something fall into the tank?
If not, are there other fish in the tank? Is he being bullied?

Also, fish just get sick and sometimes die for no reason. Keep an eye on him. If you have other fish, keep an eye on them as well.

If you had a QT, you could move him there for a bit.

Keep us posted.

 

[Smitty]

+1 Messiah...clownfish are kind of unpredictable, and who knows, he may have been sick already or stressed...also, I don't know if you test for ph, but low ph could have an effect on fish, especially if you basic parameters are fine like you say. Good luck!
Keep us posted.

 

[SigEpLucas]

my pH is pretty low it's been at 7.8 or 7.9 I was planning on getting some marine buffer to start bringing that up. right now he's the only fish the only other thing I have is an emerald crab and I don't think they've paid any attention to each other. Maybe overfeeding, Should I not feed him everyday? I've seen many things that say feed twice a day and a lot of people who don't even feed everyday. What should I do here?

He looks a lot better this morning he is swimming around a lot slower and has a lot of color back.

 

[Smitty]

You could skip a few meals...my fish eat every other day, or sometimes I may skip three days...your ph is low, you should start buffering soon, it may be affecting your fish.

 

[messiah023]

Agreed,

Your PH is too low. You need to maintain at least 8.0 the majority of the time.
It takes a new tank some time to "settle in". Even though your cycle may be complete, a stable tank will take you at least 10 months to achieve.
Start buffering. I don't recommend as I have never used it, but they do sell some "instant" ph buffer to get you to 8.2 in emergencies.

If PH was the problem alone, your crab would show signs of stress.

Feeding is always hard. People tend to overfeed because fish seem hungry every time you are near the tank.

Feed extremely little amounts, every other day.

I feed a small bit of frozen mysis M-W-F only. I cyclopeze on some odd days and dose with phyto on Saturdays.

With one fish, he can eat like 3 or 4 small mysis shrimp every other day.....not much at all.

Good Luck....keep us posted.

 

[SigEpLucas]

thanks i'm off to the lfs to see if they have a marine buffer of some kind...

 

[Bifferwine]

If something scared him, it could have caused him to act like that. I've seen my clowns do the exact same thing -- change color and bump into the sides of the tank. Also, if you turned the light on all of a sudden, that could have caused him to freak out and swim into things. Clowns changing colors is not unusual either, they usually change colors at night or if they're scared. If he is acting okay today, I wouldn't worry about it, and if you turned the light on in the room while he was sleeping or the tank was dark, you should be more careful about that in the future, it will startle them, especially if they are new to the tank and haven't fully adjusted yet.

 

[SigEpLucas]

thanks biff!

 

[SigEpLucas]

ok I went ahead and got some marine buffer and mixed it in with a water change, I let the new saltwater sit for like 3 hours and then mixed in the buffer and let sit for 20 min or so, package said 15, did the change and my water is extremely cloudy, it almost looks smokey, what should I do?

 

[daugherty]

it will clear up what buffer did you get

 

[daugherty]

it could be that you have added to much of the buffer. are you trying to raise it all at once?

 

[SigEpLucas]

no just like the directions said 1 teaspoon for 20 g, should i do another water change?

 

[daugherty]

it will clear up soon almost all buffers will turn milky white when put in the tank.

 

[daugherty]

i use seachem reefbuilder and it will not raise the ph above 8.3 but will keep rasing the alk.

 

[SigEpLucas]

i'm using seachem marine buffer I didn't get the reef builder because it was so much more concentrated and I didn't wanna accidently overdo it...

 

[Bifferwine]

Don't worry, I have that buffer. It will turn your water cloudy for a while, but will go away in a little while. I think all buffers do that...