- Location
- brooklyn
My tank is now about three months. General water quality is great. Nitrates are currently a little on the high side but I'm on a regiment of daily water changes right now that should rectify by the end of the week. Corals look great and continue to thrive. After a month of cycling I added a royal grama from a lfs. He was a strange fish in terms of behavior always hiding crammed up against a rock, but after a week or so he looked good and ate great. Then two weeks later a clown fish from another lfs. The next day I identified three small white lumps. One on a fin and two on the "spine fin". I immediately thought it must be ick. Let me preface here and say i dont have a QT. Honestly i did a lot of research before i launched and some how i missed the QT thing. At this point though i don't think I'm able to set one up at this time. So not being able to medicate or quarantine i decided to just wait it out and see. About two weeks later my royal grama starts behaving strange i.e. darting out of his hiding spot and rubbing against the sand. shortly after he totally stopped eating and two days later i found him resting upside down on the sand. His tail seems to have totally deteriorated and i thought i noticed a brownish sheen by his gill. I researched and determined it was velvet and that the clown probably was also infected and death was imminent. That was a week ago and the clown still looks great eats and swims fine no strange behavior. One of his white spots is gone and another showed up or maybe i just noticed it because it was on a white stripe. Now I'm not sure what to do. Did i misdiagnose ich. Ive had him for close to a month now and i think according to the life cycle of the ich parasite all the spots are supposed to disappear and then reappear shortly there after. Other than that he seems totally fine. Did i have velvet? Do i have ich? Should i get rid of the clown let the tank lay fallow for a month and try again from the begging? Is there any point if i cant quarantine? Maybe order from divers den or just look the fish over much better now at the lfs. Any one want to adopt a clown or cure him for me in your QT tank. Maybe some one wants to help out a newbie and babysit all my new fish in your QT tank? Any help would be appreciated as im just not sure what the next step for my tank is.
