Clown Fish maybe dead?

[Sleeman]

I'm at work and cant continue to investigate, so looking for any advice when I finish.

In my 32.5g fluval, I have 1 wrasse and 2 clowns, all young. They've been in there for 14 days, and are its first inhabitants other then inverts. The tank was fully cycled before they were added.

Last night I noticed the smaller clown was acting strange, he was in a spot Id never normally seen him, hovering about an inch off the sand bed swimming really fast, but going no where. Having panicked I tested everything I could. Ammonia and nitrites read 0, ph was a bit low, somewhere around 7.8(really hard to tell on liquid test kits), temp was 78f, nitrates were also undetectable, and salinity was reading a bit high, 37pmm. I re calibrated my refractometer as I was paranoid my readings were wrong, and ya it went from 34.5 to 37. So I did a fresh water top off of about 2 gallons, and brought it back down to 35ppm, but thats the only notable change in the tank other then adding a few coral frags last saturday.

This morning I noticed I cant find him anymore, which according to the internet means he's likely stuffed into a crack somewhere dead. That means there was about 14 hours between noticing strange behavior, and a missing fish.

I checked their health daily, and noticed no signs of any disease. The only things are that day I did notice he didn't seem to be eating, took 1 pellet in the morning, and didn't take any at night. I also noticed white stringy poop once a couple days ago, that i think came from the smaller fish in question, and hear that can be a sign of bad things? Theyve been fed on a rotation of pellets, and frozen brine pre soaked. I also noticed he was occasionally bullied by the bigger clown, a slight jab now and then.

The other 2 fish are as happy and healthy as they have been the last 14 days, both eating and swimming normally.

 

[Jekyl]

2 gallons is a big top off. Try to at least do it once a day.

 

[zalick]

Having owned clowns for a long time and my current clown is 12yrs old, I've never known them to hide in rocks etc. They do have very strange behavior. For example my current clown spent around a year sleeping basically pinned on the overflow.

I think clowns are kinda "lazy". They aren't great swimmers and tend to find the spot in the tank where they expend the least amount of energy. There needs to be a lazyboy for clowns!


If you couldn't find it, sadly I'd say it passed and is wedged in the rocks.

 

[Sleeman]

2 gallons is a big top off. Try to at least do it once a day.

Okay, the top off took place, after noticing the strange behavior, so though if that's to much it may have contributed, it doesn't seem like the root issue

 

[Sleeman]

Having owned clowns for a long time and my current clown is 12yrs old, I've never known them to hide in rocks etc. They do have very strange behavior. For example my current clown spent around a year sleeping basically pinned on the overflow.

I think clowns are kinda "lazy". They aren't great swimmers and tend to find the spot in the tank where they expend the least amount of energy. There needs to be a lazyboy for clowns!


If you couldn't find it, sadly I'd say it passed and is wedged in the rocks.

He's dead

I work from home, couldn't take it had to go move some rocks around, found his body.

Needless to say I'm very confused.

 

[Jekyl]

Okay, the top off took place, after noticing the strange behavior, so though if that's to much it may have contributed, it doesn't seem like the root issue

Not saying it's the root issue. Just some food for thought.

 

[zalick]

He's dead

I work from home, couldn't take it had to go move some rocks around, found his body.

Needless to say I'm very confused.

sorry to hear that. Did you notice any torn fins or any signs of bullying that you might not have observed?

Any other observations of the body?

 

[Sleeman]

sorry to hear that. Did you notice any torn fins or any signs of bullying that you might not have observed?

Any other observations of the body?

The bigger clown did occasionally take a little poke at him, never seemed serious more of fake out type of charge, but who knows what I didnt see then. Before death I cant say I noticed any damage, though being so small and was in an awkward spot it would've been hard to tell when he was swimming in one spot so fast.

After death looking at his body, yes there's some tears in his fins, but its entirely possible that happened after death due to the inverts in the tank, though none were on the body at that moment.

LFS guys best guess it also something suddenly stressed him, but I have no idea other then getting bullied what that could've been. I moved my power heads to get better flow in the front a few days ago, but that's all I can think of, and there was plenty of places for him to hide from the new flow if he wanted

 

[zalick]

The bigger clown did occasionally take a little poke at him, never seemed serious more of fake out type of charge, but who knows what I didnt see then. Before death I cant say I noticed any damage, though being so small and was in an awkward spot it would've been hard to tell when he was swimming in one spot so fast.

After death looking at his body, yes there's some tears in his fins, but its entirely possible that happened after death due to the inverts in the tank, though none were on the body at that moment.

LFS guys best guess it also something suddenly stressed him, but I have no idea other then getting bullied what that could've been. I moved my power heads to get better flow in the front a few days ago, but that's all I can think of, and there was plenty of places for him to hide from the new flow if he wanted

Tough to tell. A little chasing might be normal but really once paired the bigger one doesn't chase really at all. Maybe once on a blue moon.

Changing flow wouldn't really be the cause of anything IME. Clowns will adjust and find the low flow spot to hangout.

I'm guessing that maybe they weren't really paired up and the bigger one was bullying just enough to keep the smaller one from being well fed. And the stress and lack of food maybe just weakened it to the point of death. Total guess but seems to make the most sense given no obvious signs of disease.

 

[Sleeman]

Tough to tell. A little chasing might be normal but really once paired the bigger one doesn't chase really at all. Maybe once on a blue moon.

Changing flow wouldn't really be the cause of anything IME. Clowns will adjust and find the low flow spot to hangout.

I'm guessing that maybe they weren't really paired up and the bigger one was bullying just enough to keep the smaller one from being well fed. And the stress and lack of food maybe just weakened it to the point of death. Total guess but seems to make the most sense given no obvious signs of disease.

To be honest that's sounding fairly correct now that you mention it. They definitely weren't paired, I just got a big and small one from my LFS new batch in hopes they would. I noticed the small one was much more hesitant to feed, and would eat less, I figured that's because he was small, but, may have been from getting bullied. The Mysis would float around, but he'd still only eat a bit and continue to hide under his favorite arch

 

[zalick]

To be honest that's sounding fairly correct now that you mention it. They definitely weren't paired, I just got a big and small one from my LFS new batch in hopes they would. I noticed the small one was much more hesitant to feed, and would eat less, I figured that's because he was small, but, may have been from getting bullied. The Mysis would float around, but he'd still only eat a bit and continue to hide under his favorite arch

It's tough. No guarantee they will pair. The female of my pair died after 9 years suddenly one day. She was super dominant. The male has now transitioned and grown to be female. I've been very reluctant to add a small male for fear it would bully my fairly passive female.

I'm going to try adding a small male soon and of they don't pair up quickly, the small male will go in my frag tank until I can find it a new home.

 

[HB AL]

In 35+ years of keeping fish I've experienced this several times, its definitely a head scratcher. You have what looks like a perfectly healthy fish, then one day (usually happens within a couple months) a fish that normally gorges when fed does not eat. Next day looking healthy it does not eat again. Within a week the fish is dead. It didn't starve and die as it had been only a couple days of not eating. My only theory is its possible when collected they used lethal forms like cyanide and some fish got a bigger dose causing internal damage to organs, etc... then you get the fish everything's good then the damage from the cyanide starts a rapid decline in the fish from its system shutting down. When I've had this happen and the fish stops eating under these circumstances I've never been able to get it to eat again. Luckily its kinda rare as I've maybe
experienced this 10 times over the years.

 

[Sleeman]

It's tough. No guarantee they will pair. The female of my pair died after 9 years suddenly one day. She was super dominant. The male has now transitioned and grown to be female. I've been very reluctant to add a small male for fear it would bully my fairly passive female.

I'm going to try adding a small male soon and of they don't pair up quickly, the small male will go in my frag tank until I can find it a new home.

Well I guess ill just stick with one clown then. Small tank meaning the fish variety is limited anyways, so at least that means I can have something else in its place

 

[Sleeman]

In 35+ years of keeping fish I've experienced this several times, its definitely a head scratcher. You have what looks like a perfectly healthy fish, then one day (usually happens within a couple months) a fish that normally gorges when fed does not eat. Next day looking healthy it does not eat again. Within a week the fish is dead. It didn't starve and die as it had been only a couple days of not eating. My only theory is its possible when collected they used lethal forms like cyanide and some fish got a bigger dose causing internal damage to organs, etc... then you get the fish everything's good then the damage from the cyanide starts a rapid decline in the fish from its system shutting down. When I've had this happen and the fish stops eating under these circumstances I've never been able to get it to eat again. Luckily its kinda rare as I've maybe
experienced this 10 times over the years.

Cyanide!? what the heck

But, these were all captive breds, called to check.