New clownfish keeps dying!

[rambo33]

I have a 5g Marineland portrait tank that I converted into a saltwater tank in Oct 2023. I had zoas and 1 clownfish and a few snails in there. In July 2024 my clown died as I sort of neglected my tank ( stopped doing water changes, focused on my wedding).
couple weeks ago I decided I’m ready for another clownfish.

Last week I bought a Clownfish and it nearly instantly died in the tank. It was breathing rapidly so I checked the ammonia level and it was 4ppm! (The night before i cleaned the sand and rock… did that cause an ammonia spike?)I did a massive water change but the clown ended up dying.

I started dosing more microbacter7 and checking my parameters:

8/30/24

Full water change. Changed chemipure blue nano packet.

Salinity 1.025
No3 2
Po4 0.01
Nh4 0.1
KH 8.3
Temp80


9/2/24

Salinity 1.024
No3 2
Po4 0.01
Nh4 0
Kh 7.7
Ph7.8
Temp 78

9/3
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0 (api)
Nitrite 0
Phos 1
Salifert disolved o2 : 7mg/l
Salinity1.024
Ph7.9
Temp 79

My snails and hermits are all doing well and today I put in a clownfish and it died the same fate as the previous clown with rapid breathing and laying on the sand. I bag acclimated for 30 mins and dripped my water into the bag before introducing the new fish. Also even tried turning off the lights. What do you guys think is going on? I also upgraded the return pump that does 210gph but have it about half strength, provides good surface agitation as I point it up.

My zoas are also half open versus full open( probably hating all the water changes I’ve been doing). I purchase salt water from lfs and use a zero water filter that gets 0tds to top off

 

[AetherealKnight]

Rapid breathing and multiple dead clowns but inverts are fine, gives me a feeling that your tank is infected with some sort of disease (possibly ich or velvet or something else..) But it instantly dying seems strange as well…

Are you sure ammonia was 4ppm? What kit are you using to test your water?

 

[Lavey29]

Agree with the above. You have disease in your tank probably brook. Tank needs to fallow 45 to 76 days and you need to QT new fish. 5g is to small for clown fish.

 

[AetherealKnight]

From your previous posts you had a clownfish that had ich. Did you treat the clownfish and leave your DT empty? Or is this the same clown that died in July. If so then your tank is still infected with ich and needs to go fallow for at least 45 days or ideally 76 days.

 

[rambo33]

Rapid breathing and multiple dead clowns but inverts are fine, gives me a feeling that your tank is infected with some sort of disease (possibly ich or velvet or something else..) But it instantly dying seems strange as well…

Are you sure ammonia was 4ppm? What kit are you using to test your water?

Api test kit. I dunno if it was a wack one time
Reading but I panicked and changed the water and havent seen ammonia that high since

 

[rambo33]

From your previous posts you had a clownfish that had ich. Did you treat the clownfish and leave your DT empty? Or is this the same clown that died in July. If so then your tank is still infected with icy and needs to go fallow for at least 45 days or ideally 76 days.

This is the same clownfish that had ich that made it through. It died before the 4th of july sometime. but would a fish die in 3-4 hours from ich?

I named that clownfish Magic Johnson btw, he beat Ich. Lol

 

[AetherealKnight]

This is the same clownfish that had ich that made it through. It died before the 4th of july sometime. but would a fish die in 3-4 hours from ich?

I named that clownfish Magic Johnson btw, he beat Ich. Lol

It is unlikely a clownfish will die within 3-4 hours from ich. Did it have any spots on him?

 

[Fish Fan]

Sorry about your loss.

Yes, if you even just disturbed a significant portion of your sand bed, that alone can cause an ammonia spike. If you "cleaned" your sand and your rock, then almost certainly you'd cause an ammonia spike, especially in such a small tank. And how did you clean your rocks? If hope you didn't take them out and rinse them under tap water or something like that.

Agree with the above. You have disease in your tank probably brook. Tank needs to fallow 45 to 76 days and you need to QT new fish. 5g is to small for clown fish.

^I think this is very sound advice all around.

As some of the more experienced reefers here have mentioned, it's sounding more like you have a fish pathogen of some kind in your tank. Pretty much the only recommended way to fix that is to run the tank "fallow", meaning with no fish in the tank, for a period of time to allow any fish parasites to die off without a fish host to complete their lifecycle. At that point your tank would in theory be ready for fish again.

However, most of us here would probably agree that 5 gallons is a bit too small for a Clownfish. The smallest do get to be a chunky 3" or more, and need a bit more room to be happy. And when crammed in a small tank, they can get stressed, leading to an outbreak of disease.

If you really, really want a Clownfish, consider stepping up to at least a 10 gallon tank, and larger if possible.

If you really, really want a 5 gallon tank and must have a fish, consider some of the very small Goby species, like the Yellow Watchman Goby, Cryptocentrus cinctus, is a very popular nano fish. You can pair this (and some other) gobies with some species of pistol shrimp, which will form a symbiotic relationship, and can be the stars of the show in a 5 gallon tank. You can definitely have an awesome 5 gallon tank, it's just not a great size for a Clownfish, in my opinion.

If you do get fish in the future, I would strongly suggest either purchasing pre-quarantined fish, or quarantining your own fish before adding them to your display tank.

Good luck with whatever you do!

 

[rambo33]

Would Brook or Ich cAuse a fish to die in 3/4 hours? Also is there any treatment I can use in the meantime? I dont want my zoas, snails to die.

 

[Lavey29]

From your previous posts you had a clownfish that had ich. Did you treat the clownfish and leave your DT empty? Or is this the same clown that died in July. If so then your tank is still infected with ich and needs to go fallow for at least 45 days or ideally 76 days.

If the fish he has tried died very quickly then it's not ich. Marine ich is a progressive disease that can take multiple weeks be fish finally succumb.

 

[rambo33]

It is unlikely a clownfish will die within 3-4 hours from ich. Did it have any spots on him?

No spots. First fish entered tank at 2pm and died around 530pm
Next week fish went in at 2pm and died around 8pm.

 

[Lavey29]

Would Brook or Ich cAuse a fish to die in 3/4 hours? Also is there any treatment I can use in the meantime? I dont want my zoas, snails to die.

Brook kills quick like 24 to 48 hours. Ich is a progressive disease that typically takes multiple weeks to kill fish.

 

[rambo33]

Sorry about your loss.

Yes, if you even just disturbed a significant portion of your sand bed, that alone can cause an ammonia spike. If you "cleaned" your sand and your rock, then almost certainly you'd cause an ammonia spike, especially in such a small tank. And how did you clean your rocks? If hope you didn't take them out and rinse them under tap water or something like that.


^I think this is very sound advice all around.

As some of the more experienced reefers here have mentioned, it's sounding more like you have a fish pathogen of some kind in your tank. Pretty much the only recommended way to fix that is to run the tank "fallow", meaning with no fish in the tank, for a period of time to allow any fish parasites to die off without a fish host to complete their lifecycle. At that point your tank would in theory be ready for fish again.

However, most of us here would probably agree that 5 gallons is a bit too small for a Clownfish. The smallest do get to be a chunky 3" or more, and need a bit more room to be happy. And when crammed in a small tank, they can get stressed, leading to an outbreak of disease.

If you really, really want a Clownfish, consider stepping up to at least a 10 gallon tank, and larger if possible.

If you really, really want a 5 gallon tank and must have a fish, consider some of the very small Goby species, like the Yellow Watchman Goby, Cryptocentrus cinctus, is a very popular nano fish. You can pair this (and some other) gobies with some species of pistol shrimp, which will form a symbiotic relationship, and can be the stars of the show in a 5 gallon tank. You can definitely have an awesome 5 gallon tank, it's just not a great size for a Clownfish, in my opinion.

If you do get fish in the future, I would strongly suggest either purchasing pre-quarantined fish, or quarantining your own fish before adding them to your display tank.

Good luck with whatever you do!

I used a soft toothbrush to scrub algae and some cyano on it

 

[Fish Fan]

I used a soft toothbrush to scrub algae and some cyano on it

OK, good to hear! That's typically the right thing to do, just remember it's a very small volume of water, so disturbing anything can potentially lead to an ammonia spike.

 

[rambo33]

Brook kills quick like 24 to 48 hours. Ich is a progressive disease that typically takes multiple weeks to kill fish.

Is there any medication I can add to
my tank now? I woulda thought from July until now whatever bug it was woulda been gone

Can I dose API general cure?

 

[gbroadbridge]

The key fact here that you're missing is that a 5 gallon tank is too small for a clownfish.
Once we get past that ...

If there is a disease like Brook in the tank the only way forward is to either sterilise the tank or leave it fallow with no fish for 76 days.

You can't rush things in this hobby .

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Might be a long shot, but did you manage to get any videos of your fish or pictures before they died?

 

[Tamberav]

This tank is not appropriate for a clownfish. It is tall and skinny and no way I would trust an even and upgraded return pump to provide adequate oxygen on a tiny tank that has a well fitting glass lid.

It’s very possible your clownfish are suffocating.

Plus once rock is in, there is no where for the clown to move.. even a clown needs more space than this.

I had this exact tank. I kept tiny blennies and gobies in it.

I ran a small power head in mine (jeabo sow-4)

I am also not sure what thermometer you are running but it’s such a small tank, it can easily get too warm with a cheap heaters thermostat so I used an INKBIRD.

I did 90 percent water changes. Only enough in the bottom to cover the fish.

 

[rambo33]

Might be a long shot, but did you manage to get any videos of your fish or pictures before they died?

I understand this tank is too small for a clownfish, but just wondering when it will be safe for me to add new livestock like Blemmies or gobies. I bought a Salifert O2 test just to see my dissolved O2 levels because I was curious they were suffocating. Not sure how accurate test is but I was getting around 7mg/l

 

[Tamberav]

I understand this tank is too small for a clownfish, but just wondering when it will be safe for me to add new livestock like Blemmies or gobies

Turn tank temp to 81 then wait 45 days before adding any fish as precaution, any one of those fish could have had disease.

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

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