Weird Clownfish Death

[jackalexander]

So my girlfriend has had 4 clownfish now who have all died mysteriously. The tests are completely fine and everything is where it should be. Salinity is 1.025/35ppt. Is this marine velvet or ick? All of her fish have died within 24 hours of showing signs of sickness and have all died looking the exact same way. Any suggestions on what to do.

 

[hyeclass]

2 to 4 days for valvet fish will die i would recommend put copper if you have a different tank put them there if you not going to have corals you can copper your tank
Did you just bought a fish?

 

[hyeclass]

Copper will kill shrimps any inverts as will

 

[MugenReef95]

you're gonna want a better test kit first
looks like you might have ammonia in your tank still idk color looks off to me hard to tell lol
how old is the tank?

 

[ScubaFish802]

How do the fish look when they are starting to decline? How long are the fish surviving in the tank once they are added? How's tank temperature look?

 

[jackalexander]

you're gonna want a better test kit first
looks like you might have ammonia in your tank still idk color looks off to me hard to tell lol
how old is the tank?

tank is over a month old and that ammonia reading is just API over read, I have a tank that’s 4 months old and I still have an over read.

 

[jackalexander]

How do the fish look when they are starting to decline? How long are the fish surviving in the tank once they are added? How's tank temperature look?

The fish start swimming in the corners and lose their color and hours later they die. The first pair lasted 2 weeks and the second pair lasted 4-5 days, one is still alive. temperature is 78-80.

 

[hyeclass]

you're gonna want a better test kit first
looks like you might have ammonia in your tank still idk color looks off to me hard to tell lol
how old is the tank?

Clownfish even it has ammonia they won't die

 

[MugenReef95]

Clownfish even it has ammonia they won't die

yeh they are pretty tough lol

 

[jackalexander]

2 to 4 days for valvet fish will die i would recommend put copper if you have a different tank put them there if you not going to have corals you can copper your tank
Did you just bought a fish?

If I had copper how do I get it out of the tank after treatment? how long do I do the treatment for & if I transfer the inverts and corals to my tank before the treatment will they bring the marine velvet or disease with them?

 

[hyeclass]

The fish start swimming in the corners and lose their color and hours later they die. The first pair lasted 2 weeks and the second pair lasted 4-5 days, one is still alive. temperature is 78-80.

Ammonia did kill the clownfish how long you had the fish

 

[jphilip813]

Is it me or does that Kit say Fresh Water...but the Clown fish is a Marine fish..or does it not matter what type of kit (Marine or Freshwater)it is...and I also recommend using a different test kit (Salifert is my recommendation...but RedSea is also good)

 

[excell007]

How old is your tank. looks like ammonia is not 0. Does your test kit comes with a color chart for saltwater? There's a slight variation between freshwater and saltwater color chart. What other symptoms do you see, rapid breathing/erratic swimming etc...

 

[jackalexander]

Is it me or does that Kit say Fresh Water...but the Clown fish is a Marine fish..or does it not matter what type of kit (Marine or Freshwater)it is...and I also recommend using a different test kit (Salifert is my recommendation...but RedSea is also good)

it is for freshwater but does the same thing as saltwater & has a high range PH tester

 

[ScubaFish802]

Would you mind describing your entire acclimation process? It sounds like something going on in the tank parameters or acclimation if all fish pass within 4-5 days of being added to the tank

 

[jackalexander]

How old is your tank. looks like ammonia is not 0. Does your test kit comes with a color chart for saltwater? There's a slight variation between freshwater and saltwater color chart. What other symptoms do you see, rapid breathing/erratic swimming etc...

the test kits are the same, we tested it. the fish has rapid breathing and kind of swimming in the same spot.

 

[jackalexander]

Would you mind describing your entire acclimation process? It sounds like something going on in the tank parameters or acclimation if all fish pass within 4-5 days of being added to the tank

The clownfish came from the same tank and we put them in our water still in the bag for temperature acclimation for 15-20 minutes and they were quite small so we put them in a large bowl and added 1/2 cup to 1 cup of our tank water into the bowl for 30-45 minutes.

 

[ScubaFish802]

The clownfish came from the same tank and we put them in our water still in the bag for temperature acclimation for 15-20 minutes and they were quite small so we put them in a large bowl and added 1/2 cup to 1 cup of our tank water into the bowl for 30-45 minutes.

Do they show any signs of distress at the LFS at all? Only other thing I could think of would be ammonia like the above replies

 

[jackalexander]

Do they show any signs of distress at the LFS at all? Only other thing I could think of would be ammonia like the above replies

I’ll test the ammonia again to make sure but i’m positive it’s extremely low to nothing and they all looked totally fine at my LFS.

 

[excell007]

the test kits are the same, we tested it. the fish has rapid breathing and kind of swimming in the same spot.

Did you check if the gills are red/swollen? Ammonia affects the gills causing the fish to breath rapidly and swim near the surface. Are there any other fishes in the tank other than the clowns that died? it's hard to determine exactly what happened by just looking at a picture because velvet can also cause rapid breathing since the parasite also attacks the gills. How old is you tank, clowns are pretty hardy, that's why they are usually the first addition to a tank.