Clownfish died?

[ChuckNasty]

So I have to Occ. Clowns, one is about a half inch bigger than the other. The last couple of days the smaller one has been sitting in the bottom corner of the tank, pretty motionless. I didn't think much of it, because clown fish are weird like that, and he hadn't lost any color; he also didn't have any signs of ich.

So now just today, he started to lose motor skills, started floating with the flow of the water and getting pale, all this happened over the course of an hour!! So basically he went from semi-fine to pale and dead in about 2 hours. He had eaten yesterday when I fed the tank, although he was a little 'lax in doing so.

The larger Clown is fine, but now that the other is out of the tank, he seems almost frantic? I guess I'm looking for closure... What possibly could have happened? I just did a 4 gallon water change yesterday, as well as one the week before.

24 gallon tank / Gravity - 1.026 / temp. 79 / ammonia 0 / nitrite 0 / 10 ppm nitrate.

 

[Mcgeezer]

Stray current??

 

[Marchillo]

RODI water?

How long has the tank been setup?

My clowns who have been in my tank for 7 months all of a sudden looked terrible on Sunday. Without knowing for sure I think I may have contaminated the wc water with air freshener spray (it was setup in the same place I make water). I checked my tank for stray voltage as well and didn't feel any.

Nothing showed up in my testing. Parameters looked good etc.

 

[heathlindner25]

RODI water?

How long has the tank been setup?

My clowns who have been in my tank for 7 months all of a sudden looked terrible on Sunday. Without knowing for sure I think I may have contaminated the wc water with air freshener spray (it was setup in the same place I make water). I checked my tank for stray voltage as well and didn't feel any.

Nothing showed up in my testing. Parameters looked good etc.

may or may not, but I have heard of air fresheners crashing tanks

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Stray current??

Not stray current, it would affect everything in the tank.

Not sure what exactly but my guess is it was sick to begin with.

 

[texdoc77]

So I had a very similar issue with my two ocellaris clowns. However, it seemed that there was some bullying going on from the larger to the smaller one, then over the course of an evening the smaller one just began swimming in the lower corner of the tank and died. Nothing was off in my tank either, but it was, and still is to a point, a fairly new tank. It had already cycled, but was (and is) in the process of overall stabilization. During this time things we don't necessarily test for or think about can happen. There can be pretty large pH swings and salinity imbalances just to name a few and if you have a smaller fish it may not be able to overcome these changes. The advice given to me was to do my best to figure out why the ocellaris passed away take steps to correct it, and not to add a new fish until I was sure the issue had resolved. I never really found a specific reason, though I think bullying might have been a significant issue, but over time the tank has begun to settle a little more and the fish are just doing better. I'm sorry about your fish, I'd wait some time before considering to add another ocellaris in its place, but the consensus is that they are happier with a mate. Good luck.

 

[ChuckNasty]

The bigger clown was bullying it for the past few weeks, maybe it just stressed it to death? Or what Dkuhlmann said... It may have been sick to begin with but never displayed any signs until now and just tanked super hard?? I've had cardiac patients that lasted longer than my clown did today lol.

 

[droog]

The bigger clown was bullying it for the past few weeks, maybe it just stressed it to death? Or what Dkuhlmann said... It may have been sick to begin with but never displayed any signs until now and just tanked super hard?? I've had cardiac patients that lasted longer than my clown did today lol.

There's your answer. You should have done CPR on the clown :dance:

 

[tennesseebob]

Defibrillator...

Defibrillator...

The bigger clown was bullying it for the past few weeks, maybe it just stressed it to death? Or what Dkuhlmann said... It may have been sick to begin with but never displayed any signs until now and just tanked super hard?? I've had cardiac patients that lasted longer than my clown did today lol.

That's when you introduce stray voltage

 

[gone fishin]

It sounds like the larger clown did not accept the smaller one as mate material. So he was voted out of the tank.