Dead fish investigation

[Reefing_Engineer]

Hey, I started a reef tank and did lots of research on corals and I got caught lacking in my fish knowledge. I bought two clownfish around 1”, a black and regular oscilaris, and for some reason I have lost two of the black ones in around a day. The regular oscilaris has been doing great, I noticed one of the two was breathing faster than normal, but that’s just a sign of stress right? I just can’t figure out what happened because they were fine at my LFS, and then died overnight, but my other clown is fine and my corals are good so it’s not a water thing! I know these things just happen sometimes but I need some peace of mind it’s not my fault they died.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,sorry to hear,in my experience black o's are def harder to get acclimated ,2x as long as regs and can still be touchy

 

[KingTideCorals]

What is your acclimation process currently for new fish in the system?

Also welcome to R2R!

 

[Reefing_Engineer]

hi,sorry to hear,in my experience black o's are def harder to get acclimated ,2x as long as regs and can still be touchy

Okay thanks for the tip, I’ve never heard they needed to be acclimated longer!

 

[Reefing_Engineer]

What is your acclimation process currently for new fish in the system?

Also welcome to R2R!

My acclimation process is start with 2 cups of water, drip acclimate for 30-45 minutes until I have 8 cups total and then transfer the fish into the tank, fairly standard I think.

 

[Privateye]

any signs of aggression?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The big issue I see are LFS stores that keep their fish in water with an SG of say 1.019 and then you try to acclimate them to a tank that is at 1.025. This is a primary cause of fish dying within 24 hours of purchase. Not saying it is definitely the problem here, but always ask what the dealers SG is, and never try to acclimate a fish up more than .004 SG units. A QT is going to help you out in the long run.
Jay

 

[JasonK84]

@Jay Hemdal probably nailed it! Fish aren’t very forgiving of switching to a higher salinity. Going from high to low salinity isn’t as much of a problem and this is why it’s possible to do freshwater dips on marine fish. Going up more than .002 sg will require a prolonged drip acclimation but may still cause undue stress. LFS’s keep a lower salinity in their fish systems to aid in suppressing parasites.

 

[najer]

My lfs runs their fish system at 1.023 so my shift is .003, 6 cups of my water over half an hour into the floating bag and off they go.
Was there any fin damage on the fish?
I also didn't know about the black clowns thing, thanks Frank.

 

[Nathan Milender]

Well, sometimes fish just die and you never get a reason. Look at getting a dissecting scope to help in the future and take a close look at the skin and skills in these cases if you want to rule out infection post mortum. Breathing hard can simply be stress, it can also be ich, velvet etc. Clowns tend to have uronema but usually you can see it on their skin as sores.

Moving fish can be stressful. Stress alone can kill fish. I usually use a lunch cooler with rags and some warm water jars to stabilize temp and reduce stimulus with the total darkness to help with transport.

If you are doing a 45-60 min acclimation I doubt it was .03 sg difference. I do struggle with the longer acclimations because it is so hard to control temp while doing a long drip. Usually I will use a water bath to surround the drip and a heater to control the temp. I never thought the strong recommendation to float bags made sense with the one hour drip freeze. Downside to this is they can jump out of your bucket into your water bath but I have never had that happen.

I do recommend a QT tank so you can leave it bare bottom, no lights, extra air, and you can do some immediate treatments if necessary. PVC fittings make easy hideouts so every fish can have an immediate hide hole. If you suspect a large Sg difference you can then change it slowly over a few days.

I have no experience with the black clowns. I hope your last clown makes it.

 

[Reefing_Engineer]

Thanks for all the help about the SG difference! I will prolong my acclimation and ask my LFS to be sure it’s not too much.

I know I need a QT tank but I’m a college student in a very small apartment with two tanks so I’m out of space

Thanks to you all for getting me some good info!