Sudden Clown Death??

cafishgirl

cafishgirl

Non-member
Hi All,
Looking for answers to why my clown suddenly died. On Monday evening I added a small BTA to my tank. Until that point I had a small maroon clown, watchman goby, and two small frags of zoo's. My tank has been up for about 8 months now. It's a 14 gallon biocube with live rock, standard lighting (10K & atinic), protein skimmer. The BTA attached right away and the clown was immediately attentive to it. Tuesday, things still seemed fine, the clown was nestled in the anemone and seemed quite content...both fish and anemone had eaten. Came home from work yesterday to find my clown being eaten by hermits :eek:and the anemone had been on the move...moved about 4 inches and closer to the powerhead. I tested for ammonia, phos, nitrites, nitrates, & ph and all were within normal ranges (I don't have exact numbers in front of me at moment). Can't figure out what could have gone wrong so quickly. The watchman goby and zoo's all seem fine. Any advise???? Do anemone ever turn against clowns? So disappointing but I would really like to find out what happened so I can prevent it from happening again. Thanks, Shannon
 
I got the clown about a month and a half ago. Always very active with excellent color, clear eyes, no white spots or anything. I did however have an equally weird thing happen when I got her. I had a pygmy angel that I had had for 6 months. The day after I added the clown, the pygmy angel died. No warning, nothing....just up and died. Related incidences????
 
I lost a very healthy clown as suddenly as you did not too long ago. I found that after the clown died, the other surviving clown was sticking to the top of the tank when the lights went out. I began to make a habit out of observing the tank in pitch darkness with a night vision scope (I know that sounds creepy). What I found was that my coral banded shrimp was trying to attack my fish (a tang and a wrasse). My tank is 150 gallons and my coral banded shrimp is the largest one I've seen. Every once in a while, one of my fish will have a slight tear in a fin. I just assume it is the CB shrimp trying to score another meal.
 
JayM said:
Wow....talk about a reef accessory. What scope do you use?
Click to expand...



Yup,
I know what my next accessory is.:p
Just curious was this still attached to a gun?:.

Shannon,

How do you check your salinity?
Do you have spikes in temperature or is it pretty steady?
The pygmy angel and now the clown dying definitely raise a red flag.
 
Hi Bob,
I use a refractometer to check salinity. I check the tank temp usually twice a day and it's pretty consistent at 79 degrees. The highest it's been is when we've had some hot weather and it's been as high as 83, but never higher. I did read somewhere that if an anemone isn't doing well they can release toxins and kill off things in the tank. Has anyone heard this? My anemone looks really good though....Hmmmmm.
 
i lost 2 healthy clowns a while ago all my levels were fine and what we came up w was that we lost power for like an hour and my heater died (dont know how it happened) and my temp dropped to like 77-78. that is the only thing that could have happened in my case.
 
Maybe someone wiser about clowns and anemones could confirm but when I thought about getting an anemone, there was some caution as I have a naked clown fish. The naked clowns, as they are tank raised, sometimes do not go through the process right and can end up getting eaten. Could it be that the clown jumped in too quickly? The rubbing they do initially is supposed to acclimate the fish and the anemone to each other? As I said -- I don't know much about these guys -- just a thought.
 
Ha ha ha! The night vision is simply a monocular, very low powered, to observe wildlife. It doesn't attach to a firearm! You have to make sure that no light is on in the tank (i.e. moonlights) as the reflection off the glass can make it tough to view.
 
"Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He'd be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but he may have lied."

Glad you have a sense of humor. :D

One last thing... You don't have a bichon named "Precious" do you? :p
 
Naked clown??? Please confirm

Is there anyone who might be able to confirm the "naked clown" theory as to why my clown died almost immediately after getting a BTA? My clown definitely jumped in right away....didn't waste time getting to know the BTA.
Thanks
-Shannon
Sherri said:
Maybe someone wiser about clowns and anemones could confirm but when I thought about getting an anemone, there was some caution as I have a naked clown fish. The naked clowns, as they are tank raised, sometimes do not go through the process right and can end up getting eaten. Could it be that the clown jumped in too quickly? The rubbing they do initially is supposed to acclimate the fish and the anemone to each other? As I said -- I don't know much about these guys -- just a thought.
Click to expand...
 
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