Mysterious clownfish death

[kyle38]

Hello I’m new to posting on here but have been reading through the site for years and it has helped immensely!! So im hoping someone might have an answer for what possibly happened to my clown cause I am stumped sorry for the length of it but here goes so I’ve had this tank set up now for many years and all fish have been in it for at least 2 years with no deaths and no disease parasites or problems at all, everything was quarantined prior to being introduced I’ve been extremely careful because I’ve had to tear down a tank before n I never wanna do it ever again, it all happened really fast after lights went on in the morning I put a seaweed sheet in for my PBT and angel like I always do and the pair of clowns swam up outta they’re anenome up to me like they always do looking perfectly healthy and fine I came back maybe 30 mins later n noticed the male going crazy in the corner n see the female was pale looking laying on the bottom motionless then sprung to life freaking out darting all over the tank and then dove to the bottom spinning in tight circles actually digging down into the sand like an auger then went stiff and was dead whole process was maybe 30 seconds, everyone else including the other clown is fine other than his now broken heart from losing his wife and I have several way more sensitive fish than a clown that are fine all corals/inverts are fine water parameters fine fish get a varied diet of frozen foods with garlic and selcon and all have looked great for a long time but I’m still losing sleep over this wondering if this is some kind of mysterious illness that has no indications of being there that is gonna wipe out all my fish any day now or if it maybe just got injured somehow? Anyone experienced anything like this??thoughts??

 

[KrisReef]

I’m not a doctor or a veterinarian but your description of the last living moments of Mrs. Clownfish suggest to me either a stroke (Blood clot in a major artery) or poisoning event.
In any case, these kinds of medical issues are not something you have control over, presumably you did not poison your fish.

 

[kyle38]

That would make sense considering nothing else has happened I guess I never really thought of it having a heart attack or something along those lines plus whatever age it was both fish in the pair were already bigger around 2 inches back when I got em years ago hard to tell how old it was how long do ocellaris clown typically live for??

 

[Sharkbait19]

Welcome to the forum! Sorry it’s under these circumstances.
Sounds like there could have been an injury that killed the clown. Bashing into the lid or a fatal attack from another fish could do it.
Whatever it was, it sounds like something random that you have no control over.
Just monitor the other fish to make sure they don’t start acting off at all.

 

[brandon429]

most people qt fish, few people qt everything wet from a pet store

when is the last time you added a snail/crab/coral frag or macro from a store here (checking disease vectors) and did they pass through fallow phase before addition

there are 15 year old clownfish on the site, oldest I recall posted was about 22 or so

 

[JaFish720]

I agree it sounds more like a sudden panic attack

 

[kyle38]

Thanks for the input from everyone!!I’m starting to think it was maybe a power head accident but it’s still all a guess, I wish I’d watched the tank just a little longer before walking away and seen the whole thing play out to have a better idea and as to the quarantine/new addition question the last addition I did other than copepods fish wise was the powder blue tang about 2 years ago and most recent corals woulda been around a year ago some Zoas, acans, favia and a stylo I did have a separate fishless tank to keep corals/inverts/macro for fallow periods it’s since turned into a home for a mandarin and a fairy wrasse that my tang decided he hated for some reason especially the mandarin, I try to be careful to the best of my knowledge to keep everyone healthy I made alot of mistakes in the hobby when I started and didn’t have a tank at all for a really long time but got back into it when my daughter was born as something we could do together and it’s been great this time around thanks alot to things I’ve read and learned on this site