Clown died

[HBtank]

One of the new pair of false percula clowns I got 2 days ago died today.

Both were around 1- 1 1/2 inches long and seemed strong. Both ate some their first and second day, and the one that died was the dominant and most active.

Both were fine this morning, but my roomate found it in distress later in the day. It died very shortly after. It was having problems swimming and was being pushed around the tank is what i gathered from him.

I cant figure out what caused this... My parameters are perfect and every single one of my tanks inhabitants are doing awesome.

Currently I have mushrooms, zoos, polyps, hammer, candy cane, closed and open brains. Fish are a mandrian, and one clown now . I also have about 30 snails, 2 cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermint.

The only culprit I can think of possibly hurting him is the open brain coral, is that possible?

other than that I am mistified, everything has been stable. Plus they are hardy tank raised clowns...

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates 2.5 ppm
PH 8.3
Temp 79

 

[bertoni]

The brain coral won't hurt a clownfish, IMO. What were the signs of distress?

 

[MrChico]

How sure are you that they were tank raised? If they were cyanide caught that might explain it. I once had a LFS owner tell me upto 30% of SW fish are cyanide caught.

 

[HBtank]

I was not here to see the signs of distress, but my roomate just said it was swimming very erratically and being pushed around by the powerheads, and when it got caught on one, he took it out and tried to "seclude it" in this suction cup thing we have for forks on the side of the glass, then it died.

Unless the cool guy at the LFS who knew his stuff was lying, it is tank raised.

Might just have to brush this off to a mystery...

There is always my roomate as a factor, no matter what I tell him he still just has to mess with the aquarium... of course I can tell, but I am sick of trying to tell him no and sound like an anal retentive jerk (which I am when it comes to this). From the drips on the front, to food I find inside, and sometime things moved around, I always know. I could just see him doing something stupid.......

Everything is doing great ATM, al inverts and fish are happy.

I really am stumped, this really seems like something happened in an acute way and not water quality or a culprit. All I could think of was the open brain stinging him and somehow it getting free, but really it was my only guess and did not make sense really...

 

[bertoni]

Clownfishes live in anemones, and I don't think a brain coral is going to be able to do what a host anemone can't. Pipefish, on the other hand, are far more touchy. I wouldn't be surprised if your roommate didn't do something that stress the animal or otherwise caused a problem, but the cause of death is pretty much a guess in cases like this.

 

[Starscream]

I live in Westminster very close to Huntington Beach and recently had a problem with clowns in our area. I lost 2 clowns in the same circumstances before I discovered that it was Brooklynella. I got some formalin and a 3rd clown but didn't end up needing to medicate. Guess i got him outta there before he got sick.