ReefSafeSolutions Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Hey gang, As some of you know, I pulled out one of my clowns because he was nipping at all my corals. The other clownfish I had started acting really weird, but I thought nothing of it. The fish store gave me a tiny little clownfish as a replacement for the problem clown, but the little guy died after a day or two. Well, after about a week or so, the last surviving clownfish died. He was acting really strange...almost as if he was trying to pair up with some zoas, and even the rock the zoas are on. Wouldn't leave his post even to eat. Very out of the ordinary behavior for this guy, because he was a pig. Loved eating. I thought he might have needed a buddy, so I picked up a purple dottyback. I know, they're supposed to be aggressive, but this guy is pretty cool. The two fish didn't even acknowledge each other. Anyways, came down this morning to find his body in the overflow, on top of the media filter. I doubt the dottyback picked at the clownfish...I think the he died because he just wouldn't eat. Checked all my parameters this morning, everything is good. Ammonia is at 0, nitrates at 0, minimal phosphates...everything checks out. I'm just not sure what killed the clown. Could removing the other clownfish have caused stress on this one, to the point of not eating and dying? Because at this point I'm worried that every fish I drop in the tank is going to die on me, and I don't want to be a serial fish killer. Thanks for any thoughts/opinions you may offer! Link to comment
Boggers Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 as for the strange behavior...That is just clowns and makes it hard to tell without video. But second paragraph you say clown is a pig and third you say not eating so I might have lost something. If the clown is young and flow too strong, they can get swept up into the overflow at night when they attempt to sleep and bed down. Can you give us tank details- size of tank and what pumps you have Link to comment
ReefSafeSolutions Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Yeah sorry, let me give a bit more backstory. The clown that just died today (or last night, not really sure) has been in my tank for a good 6 months at least. The other clown was in the tank for a similar length of time, but randomly starting chomping on coral, so he got removed. The remaining clownfish then started acting funny, even before I had a chance to drop the replacement clown in the tank. But of course, then those two died, so... Anyways, the tank is an Innovative Marine 16 Gallon nuvo, with stock pump. I believe it's 211gph. I also have a Jebao WP10 wave maker, but I'm powering it with a 12v supply instead of 24v, so I don't have as much flow. I don't think flow is the issue here though, as the clownfish that just died was having no problems at all since it was introduced to the tank. Loved eating, no issues with feeding at all during the past 6 or 7 months. Everything got weird once I removed the other clownfish. I'm leaning towards stress, but if something else sounds off I want to fix it before any more fish die. Link to comment
Boggers Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Flow not the issue for sure...If I follow right you had 2 clowns, removed one due to eating coral, replaced it with a young clown that died (if I saw your other post right) got a dottyback and one of the first clowns you had was found in overflow? Link to comment
ReefSafeSolutions Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Correct. Strange sequence of events, I know. And the dottyback never even acknowledged the presence of the clown...I paid close attention the last couple of days and the dottyback has been hiding quite a bit. Never once bugged the clown. It has been coming out more and more, mostly when someone is by the tank, but there was never any territory struggle between the clown and the dottyback. Link to comment
Boggers Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 stress, or a sudden jump would be my best guess. I had a ruby red that went into the overflow 3 times before it tried the carpet instead and didn't make it. (My overflow has about an inch of swimming room) Link to comment
ReefSafeSolutions Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Well, I'll have to narrow it down further to stress, because I made a cover for the back sump area as well as the display area, so the clown couldn't have jumped. I suppose it got stressed and either died and floated through the overflow, or got weak enough to not be able to swim away from the overflow and got sucked in, then died. I suppose the silver lining in all of this is that my water parameters all look good, so at least the water won't be a concern when adding another fish. Just the dottyback, now that it will have time to establish the entire tank as its territory.. Link to comment
Urchinhead Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Did you QT the new clown prior to adding to the display tank? Was the new clown a wild caught or tank raised? If the answer is no and/or wild caught you may have introduced a parasite or other pathogen into the tank that is clown specific like Brooklynellosis aka Brook which will wipe out a clown very very fast. Link to comment
ReefSafeSolutions Posted October 7, 2015 Author Share Posted October 7, 2015 I don't have a QT, so unfortunately I didn't QT the little clown. And to be honest, I'm not sure if the fish was wild caught or tank raised. Let's assume for a minute that I did introduce a clown-specific disease. How would I go about eradicating it from my tank before adding a new clown? (I'm about to do some googling on the topic, but I figure casting a wider net can't hurt.) Link to comment
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