Are clown fish poop machines

Auston

Auston

Member
Tank is a 6 Gallon edge.
I added a clown in the beginning of the week to the tank. A few days later the clown goby in the tank died. The clown fish is a much more aggressive eater and may have out compeated for food or my other thought was that there was a nitrate spike from his bio load. I am away from home so I was just looking for opinions. My wife is taking care of the tank ATM.
Thanks
SG.1.026
Temp78
Alk in range
Mag and calcium in range
Weekly one gallon WC
Lightly stocked. 4 snails 2 coral frags 2 fish now one fish.
Feeding brine and flake
Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite not known right now
 
His bio load wouldn't make it spike any more than if it was shared evenly between the two fish. The nitrates are more dependent on how much food you put in, so if you are adding more food daily to feed more fish, your nitrates will likely tick up, regardless of who is eating it.

I'll be that guy and say, off the bat, that two fish is a lot for that size tank.

Also, if the clown was an aggressive eater, it's likely he was aggressive towards the goby too, which likely contributed to the death. Did you or your wife notice any bullying? I don't think the goby would die from getting less food for a few days.
 
That makes sense input of food may have changed if she over Fed but she is good with instructions and has a good grasp on the sensitivity of a reef tank. I can agree that in a six gallon 2 small fish is likely in the upper limit of stock level. The two days I was able to watch the tank with the two fish I did not see bullying if anything the goby came out of hiding more to have a better chance of eating. It's hard to say what happened. I have not seen any hitch hikers that are "bad" I have checked many times in the middle of the night as well to see if I had some night time creeps. Tank was set up with live sand, one live rock(small) and the rest bleached and cured rock.
 
Is this a new tank?
Before adding fish was it fullly cycled?

With such small water, ammonia poisoning is a possibility.
 
Sorry tank was fully cycled tank was actually thriving before leaving other then cyanobacteria issues. I've been just lowering feeding and increased nutrient export best I can. Perhaps cyanobacteria increased and caused poisoning of some kind?
 
I plan to add a canister filter with some kind of bio media. Rings or balls or LR rubble. Increase my water volume, flow and bio filtration. I run a fairly porus batting at the inlet of current filter (and will when I add the canister) that I change every other day and turkey blast the tank multiple times a day to get everything in suspension.
 
If I had to guess, the clowfish likely killed the clown goby. Clownfish can be fairly agressive. Especially in a very small tank and the clown goby is similar enough to the clownfish that the clownfish took him out.
 
Interesting, my thinking was that the goby being more of a rock skipper would not cause an issue. Seems like the clown is the most obvious change is the tank and likely the culprit. I just never saw any real aggressive behaviour other then a voracious appetite. Unfortunate if he killed him
 
slief said:
if i had to guess, the clowfish likely killed the clown goby. Clownfish can be fairly agressive. Especially in a very small tank and the clown goby is similar enough to the clownfish that the clownfish took him out.
Click to expand...

+1
 
As I get more worms and biodiversity and get the canister running i plan on having dominant invert and coral tank. The clown was really for her I do like it however
 
So I'm at a loss and need help. One week later from OP my clown fish is now dead. When I got back I noticed the clown had some white on his dorsal fin and tail. I don't think it's brookIynella I don't see any of the other symptoms, figured it was from stress. It seemed to come and go over the last week and really there were no other signs of a problem he was active and eating and seemed overall normal. The only change I've made was adding two frags three days ago. He was active and happy last night and then dead this morning. No ammonia, PH is 8.1-8.2. the only new tank issue I have is cyanobacteria everything else seems fine. No coral issues I have not seen my nassarus snails in a while however. I just don't get it.
 
Last edited:
Might have been a sick fish to start with? 3 months is a good amount of time before adding fish, so you're all good there. Have you tested nitrites yet?

Sometimes we just have bad luck. If I were in your position, just to be safe, I'd wait out the fallow period for ich (4 weeks, I believe), give your tank a chance to mature and even out, and then try another clown at that point if you want to give it another shot.
 
Seen the video, looks like a normal clown to me, does not appear stressed.
Water chemistry in a 6g changes fast.....beware

The goby died.....anything else....snails.....maybe a ammonia spike?

Test for ammonia!
 
Tested ammonia this morning when I found the dead clown and it was 0. I'm going to go get a nitrate test kit now as mine went bad. Coral and snail look good. Have not seen the sand dwelling snails in 2 weeks however. They don't even come out when I was feeding. Had three and never see them now. So either there in enough food in the sand or they are just coming out at night or they are dead and my nitrate is off the charts lol.
I'll do the test around 6:30 and post results. I'm going to get some carbon too
 
Ya test came out to
0 nitrite
And about
1.5 nitrate
Must have been brookIynella the LFS is pretty sure.
I'll wait 6 weeks and try again I guess
 
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