Last week one of my clowns committed suicide by getting wedged in the rock work and this morning the second was just MIA. After checking the rocks, sump, floor, etc I'm assuming the BTA must have eaten him. What a week.
Feeling discouraged
- Thread starter eheldreth
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Reefing will have many ups and downs. Unlikely clown killed itself getting stuck. Make sure you check water parameters. Hate to say it but reefing can be challenging at first but if you persevere you will be rewarded with an amazing hobby.
Learned the hard way about slowly acclimating shrimp ... might as well have thrown the little guy in a pot of boiling water.
Corals that were nearly dead in my main tank at home are rebounding and thriving in my office tank.
Saved one tank from a crash just to have another (in the same room) sneakily crash for the same reason.
Pulled my dead-looking highly traumatized royal gramma from one tank and now he's thriving in a different one.
Pulled a beat up molly out of my work tank and added it to a small tank at home. It quickly recovered and even had babies. I didn't attempt to collect the babies so they died, and the adult died within a week or two.
You win some, you lose some.
Corals that were nearly dead in my main tank at home are rebounding and thriving in my office tank.
Saved one tank from a crash just to have another (in the same room) sneakily crash for the same reason.
Pulled my dead-looking highly traumatized royal gramma from one tank and now he's thriving in a different one.
Pulled a beat up molly out of my work tank and added it to a small tank at home. It quickly recovered and even had babies. I didn't attempt to collect the babies so they died, and the adult died within a week or two.
You win some, you lose some.
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I'm sorry about your losses. Fwiw, I highly doubt the BTA did anything to a healthy clown, but if it was also dead/dying, the nem might have taken care of the remains.
Can you tell us about your system? How old is it, how long did you have the clowns, other tank inhabitants, maintenance/water change schedule, parameters?
OP
OP
Its a Biocube 29 with an ATO. I picked up the tank last june and added the CUC (snails, pods. and hermits) and clowns at the end of last July. I added Duncans, Zoas, and Clove polyps last September and their all looking healthy. The BTAs came in October. There haven't been any new additions since then.
Other than the normal new tank uglies its been pretty stable.
Sorry to hear about that. My 2 clowns are sick right now and not eating, I feel pretty bad because I think they got ammonia poisoning. It wasn’t from lack of husbandry. I am very thorough with my testing and WC and cleaning. I think my hermits went to town on some new snails I got and spiked ammonia in my small tank. I’m doing the best I can and all we can do is learn from the hiccups and move forward.
Sounds more like potential disease. A clown is unlikely to wedge itself in a rock and die and a BTA isn't going to be able to eat a healthy clown. Were these fairly new additions?
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The truth
OP
OP
I hadn't noticed any obvious signs of disease but I'll probably wait a few months to add any new fish to be safe.
Sorry I missed your post with the time frames, I see it now. Strange for sure. Are your inverts/cuc doing fine? Any supplement or dosing or water changes in the 24 hrs preceding the deaths? I thought Biocubes had built in lids to protect from jumping.
OP
OP
Nope, I actually just made SW intending a change today. No recent dossing or anything else. I changed the lid for an octolid when the light started fritzing but it fits tightly with no gaps and that was a couple of months ago. I only checked the floor and sump area because I couldn't believe a clown just disappeared.
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