death of a clown

[Aquatic_Love]

i just got my clown today and within hours it died and I don't know why. My water tests before I added the clown were

-ph 8.2, ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, and nitrate - 10

temp - 80 and salinity - 1.023

I did a 45 min accimilation and released it into my tank. I gave it a lil food to see if he'd eat, but it didn't. It also wasn't very active. It looked as if it was struggling through the current too.

All in all, it didn't seem healthy.

So I left for dinner (cheesecake factory) and when I came back, he was gone. It took me 10 mintutes but I finally found him hiding under a rock. I remember reading that clowns sleep, so I assumed it was normal. When I woke up, which is now, I found it dead in the middle of my tank, chewed up.

 

I tested the water again. Everything was the same except ammonia and nitrite. They both went up just a little bit (around .25 and probably from the food it didn't eat).

 

So that's what happen.

 

Oh yea, here's my tank specs.

 

10 gal AGA

ebo jager 50w heater

2 aquaglobe micro something powerheads

2x19w 6500k pc

10 lbs. fiji live rock

10 lbls. bio-activ sand

 

and my livestock

 

4 cerith snails

2 unknown hermit crabs (probably blue legged)

2 emerald crabs

1 cleaner chrimp

 

My 2 conclusions are maybe it was sick to begin with, or it probably got jacked up by one of my other creatures while it was sleeping.

 

Anyone have any other ideas of why my clown (perc) died so fast?

I didn't read my lfs fish policy, but I hope i can exchange/return it.

 

P.S the only things that died in my tank were my 2 astrea snails, because they got shell jacked and killed by my 2 hermits crabs, i mean Astrea Crabs.

[tinyreef]

was it drip or incremental acclimation? not that one's a whole lot better than the other, just curious.

 

how was it in the lfs tank?

 

it could be simple stress. the cleaner could've gone after it and then the two emeralds. 10g ain't a lot of space and with no respite a newcomer can be easily stressed.

[six-liner]

Yeah acclimation is key. Also, feeding the fish after hours of getting home isnt a good idea. it will only add to the problem. Always give the fish a day to settle in before trying to feed it. Make sure it ate at the fish store before you bought it, that way you know its not sick, it is eating and will be OK for a day without food, and to make sure it's active and healthy.

 

SixLiner

[Aquatic_Love]

sorry about the late reply.

 

anyways whats done is done and theres nothing i can do now.

 

ill just skip on fish for awhile. but i think it was sick before i got it, because there were quite a few inactive ones in the tank when i bought the fish and theres was one dead on the floor,

but for 10 bucks, i thought it was worth it.

 

i know i know, i get what i paid for