Clown dying / not eating since i got him 3 weeks ago.

ICiber · Jul 31, 2024

Hello, i've recently bought a pair of clowns to a 10g Fish only Aquarium i wanted, one of them died during acclimation, but since i got this clown he havent eat a bite, i've had him for 3 weeks now, and on the 3rd day of having it a hatched some brine shrimp to try to make him eat, and he did eat some, but he mostly ignore all of them.

I've been doing weekly water changes since i installed this aquarium, i've had it running for 4 months before getting the Clown, and i added a capful of Seachem Stability weekly before getting it, and when i got it also, i have test the parameters and im having 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and about 0.10 nitrate frequently every week that i test the water when doing the water changes, PH is 8, and Salinity is 1.026ppm, i test it daily with a refractometer, i dont use RO/DI Water, so i have kinda high phosphates and you can see it by the ammount of algae im having, but i dont mind, well i dont mind if it doesnt affect the fish, and on my LFS they told me it doesnt, but they also had this clown at 1.010 that made the acclimation process a nightmare reason why the pair died after an hour of dripping acclimation, but this one was really active the first day, but then spent most of the time under the rock, i didnt tought it was bad since he was new on the aquarium, but since yesterday he started to swim all over the aquarium, thats when i notice that his tail seems ripped. He is all alone in the aquarium, and he is now swimming weird, he used to just allmost laid on the substrate as he was dead for a few minutes for a while but now he is just swimming a lot, so i tried feeding again, and he still ignore everything.

I honestly think he is now dying, and im feeling bad because i tried all kinds of foods with him and every parameter seems allright.

Any idea?

I Tried :

Frozen Mysys shrimp, frozen Brine Shrimp

Live Baby Brine Shrimp, Live Daphnia Magna i use to feed my AngelFish and Discus

Blakes Flakes for Marine Fish, Pellets.

By the photo im looking him pretty bad, i honestly dont know what else i couldve done, i didnt QT him since he was alone in the tank but maybe next time if this one dies ill just get a bare bottom tank to check them better?

Its sad because Clownfish have been my favorite fish since i get into the hobby almost 8 years ago and this one was my first try to getting one.

ICiber · Jul 31, 2024

ICiber said:
Hello, i've recently bought a pair of clowns to a 10g Fish only Aquarium i wanted, one of them died during acclimation, but since i got this clown he havent eat a bite, i've had him for 3 weeks now, and on the 3rd day of having it a hatched some brine shrimp to try to make him eat, and he did eat some, but he mostly ignore all of them.

I've been doing weekly water changes since i installed this aquarium, i've had it running for 4 months before getting the Clown, and i added a capful of Seachem Stability weekly before getting it, and when i got it also, i have test the parameters and im having 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and about 0.10 nitrate frequently every week that i test the water when doing the water changes, PH is 8, and Salinity is 1.026ppm, i test it daily with a refractometer, i dont use RO/DI Water, so i have kinda high phosphates and you can see it by the ammount of algae im having, but i dont mind, well i dont mind if it doesnt affect the fish, and on my LFS they told me it doesnt, but they also had this clown at 1.010 that made the acclimation process a nightmare reason why the pair died after an hour of dripping acclimation, but this one was really active the first day, but then spent most of the time under the rock, i didnt tought it was bad since he was new on the aquarium, but since yesterday he started to swim all over the aquarium, thats when i notice that his tail seems ripped. He is all alone in the aquarium, and he is now swimming weird, he used to just allmost laid on the substrate as he was dead for a few minutes for a while but now he is just swimming a lot, so i tried feeding again, and he still ignore everything.

I honestly think he is now dying, and im feeling bad because i tried all kinds of foods with him and every parameter seems allright.

Any idea?

I Tried :

Frozen Mysys shrimp, frozen Brine Shrimp

Live Baby Brine Shrimp, Live Daphnia Magna i use to feed my AngelFish and Discus

Blakes Flakes for Marine Fish, Pellets.

By the photo im looking him pretty bad, i honestly dont know what else i couldve done, i didnt QT him since he was alone in the tank but maybe next time if this one dies ill just get a bare bottom tank to check them better?

Its sad because Clownfish have been my favorite fish since i get into the hobby almost 8 years ago and this one was my first try to getting one.

Well i knew it since i post this but i didnt tought it would be so soon, but i just found him on the sand already dead, i still want to have a pair of clowns so i would love to know what could go wrong here.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Jul 31, 2024

It seems like the tank was not cycled when you added the fish. Nitrate should be up to around 10-20 to prove the cycle IMO. Did you ever add ammonia to the water? And 2 fish into a 10 gallon is a huge jump in bioload.

I have never heard of an LFS selling fish at 1.010. It seems impossible to me and I would not trust that LFS again.

What kind of filter is on the tank? How is the water oxygenated? Are there any rocks in the tank? Any powerheads for flow?

Edit: did you ever add ammonia to the tank?fish food or something?

ICiber · Jul 31, 2024

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
It seems like the tank was not cycled when you added the fish. Nitrate should be up to around 10-20 to prove the cycle IMO. Did you ever add ammonia to the water? And 2 fish into a 10 gallon is a huge jump in bioload.

I have never heard of an LFS selling fish at 1.010. It seems impossible to me and I would not trust that LFS again.

What kind of filter is on the tank? How is the water oxygenated? Are there any rocks in the tank? Any powerheads for flow?

Edit: did you ever add ammonia to the tank?fish food or something?

Thank you so much for the reply.
I Ghost feed once a week for the 4 months i had the tank Cycling, the tank has 2 Filters one is a MarineLand HOB that moves 200 gallons per hour and a MarineLand powerhead filter that its is labeled for 20 gallons for flow

It has rocks, i used around 5 lbs of dry MarcoRocks.

A few hours after i added the 2 fishes into the tank one of them died so this one was alone most of the time, i added Seachem stability every 2 days for a week on the first week to help with the bioload.

And yes, they have their fish at that salinity to "prevent parasites to propagate" according to them, the fish stores on my country are horrible, since i have checked with other 3 Fish stores and all of them seem to have their fish at hypo salinity levels, the worst is that they dont advice you on this, i test the water they were in once i get home and notice it, and since them i've been asking about it with the stores i have visited.