Someone Help, I think my babies are dying...

[B/]My poor little baby clown is hanging on for dear life, he's been like that all day. Any chance he might make it. Wishful thinking I guess. The medication is called Sea Chem (metronidazole) 1 part to 5 parts of Sea Chem (focus) to bind the med's to the food with some garlic drops to make it tasty I guess. "PackLeader" you hit the nail on the head, everything you said the LFS said. I don't get it, their eye's are clear, they're eating, everything else is good except the (nitrate). If they make it through this, I'm never changing anything again. I was told live rock in the long run would help cut down on ich, cleaning, water changes...that it would be a great thing, now I wish I'd never got it. The little clown is bright eye'd, but just laying in the front of the tank now, just looking at me. It's killing me. Maybe he's paralyzed? [/B]

 

I am going a different direction.

What did you transport the rock in to get it home?

Did you put it down on a counter before you added it to the tank?

Did you recently have an exterminator in the house or spray anything near the tank?

Have there been any kids in the house?

 

wow you guy's are pro's arn't you? I woke up my husband to ask him because I was at work when he did this (he wanted to surprise me, now wishes he didn't) but he said the LFS wrapped each piece of LR in newspaper, then into a styrofoam cooler. From there it went directly into the tank (which I know now was wrong too) he had nothing on him, never sat it on the counter, no kids, or exterminators, or sprays that I know of. What were you thinking?

 

I think he is thinking of some form of something toxic getting into the tank.
How much rock did you add?
I would think something else too. No way nitrates at 20 are going to take down a clown. Hmmm. You said he was eating right? How does his breathing look?

 

70 lbs. to a 125 gallon. Now my husband tells me that he did set up the small banquet table and laid down the towels (that we ALWAYS) use just for the tank cleaning ect,. But was only to get the paper off the rock. I did notice one of the 3 clowns (not the baby though) one of the 2 larger, would go very close to our poly jaw, then turn his back so the poly jaw would bite at him. Is he trying to kill himself? Also the blood shrimp, snails, peppermint (cleaner) shrimp lived through the Med's this time, months ago we had ich, but this sickness looks more of a milky covering but comes & goes daily and that's never happened before. Could it be our temp? It's always been set at 76 & someone said to turn it up to at least 78. Is this correct? But all in all whatever happened started about a week after he added the LR. and of last last night baby clown was still haning on, he's seperated from the 2 others but they do go over to him to swim by him. when I turned off the lights he went somewhere to go to bed like last night when I thought he died, but suddenly appeared later in the day. Maybe out tank is too cold? , and we've stopped the med's. Again thanks for all your help

 

sorry, his breathing looks labored, but he's eating off the bottom of the tank. He occasionally snaps out of it and tries to swim, when I came in one time he was halfway to the top of the tank, but that didn't last long. I don't want to get ANYTHING for this tank, but we added a anemone a few months back thinking the clowns would love it & they won't go near it. Should we try another. They're staying close to a konch shell ALWAYS... do the think it's their anemone? I heard if they're tank raised they may not adopt the anemone, is this true? God, I hope there's a "questions" thread...Sherri, keeping the faith.

 

Check the anemone. This could be the problem if it is dieing. Had this happen before and nuked my tank.

 

I am sorry. I did not realize you added 70 lbs. That's a lot of live rock to add all at once to a tank with live critters in it. So I defer. I believe you are experiencing a cycle and not such a mini one at that.

 

I concur. That much live rock is going to have some die off. It will need to cycle. Also, do you feed your anemonie? I am going to check this thread to check your lighting. Anemonies can poison a tank faster than anything I have ever seen. Keep a good eye on it.

 

Ya, lets talk about lighting. You should run another test kit to see if your levels are rising.