Clownfish stuck in Powerhead

E

Emigs21

New member
Hello everyone,

I have a 40g breeder with invertebrates and live rock. I bought a clownfish last Friday with a watchman goby, both are doing fine. I bought a second clown, much smaller, on Tuesday. The smaller clown was acting weird and lying on his side heavily breathing on Wednesday I thought they were choosing genders but yesterday(thurs) he was doing fine. He was swimming a lot and also ate. When I woke up this morning he was stuck to my powerhead and was dead. Everything I'm reading online says a healthy fish shouldn't get stuck in a ph. I'm wondering if maybe I have too much flow? I have two tunez 6015 pumps as well as my return u-tube.

In the process of running water tests right now.

Any advice helps!
 
I'm just not sure how he got sick cause he was ok when I went to bed. Like I said he was heavily breathing at the bottom of the tank two days ago but yesterday he was fine. Tested the waster yesterday and it was also fine.
 
Everything in the water tested out fine, only thing changing is the carbonate hardness going down a tiny bit each day.

Is it possible he was just stressed out and couldn't fight the ph? He was a pretty small clownfish...
 
Your clown was already sick, and not able to fight the current. Normal healthy fish, no matter the size, will not get sucked into and stuck on a PH.

Did you QT the fish to make sure he wasn't sick prior to putting in the DT?

Telling us everything is "fine" does us no good in helping. We need actual test numbers. What may seem fine to you, may not be in reality to a seasoned reefer.
 
Even with very powerful powerheads there will be dead spots or spots with little flow due to rock structure etc. A fish who may be struggling would likely seek those out and be just fine. One who is sick and disoriented would be the one that gets sucked up.
 
These are tests for the past 3 days:

Temperature - 80 degrees
Salinity - 1.025
Nitrates - 0ppm
Phosphates - 0 ppm

Carbonate level started at 10dKH two days ago and have gone down to 8dKH today.
 
I'm wondering how much of this was due to the other clown in the tank, it was much bigger than the one that died and had been in the tank 3 days prior.
 
Emigs21 said:
Everything I'm reading online says a healthy fish shouldn't get stuck in a ph.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't believe everything you read on line. Although it's unlikely, a healthy fish absolutely can get sucked to the side of a powered. I've had it happen on multiple occasions with my MP60s. Even had a small anthias get pulled inside and shredded.
 
ca1ore said:
You shouldn't believe everything you read on line. Although it's unlikely, a healthy fish absolutely can get sucked to the side of a powered. I've had it happen on multiple occasions with my MP60s. Even had a small anthias get pulled inside and shredded.
Click to expand...

Ouch
 
Emigs21 said:
These are tests for the past 3 days:

Temperature - 80 degrees
Salinity - 1.025
Nitrates - 0ppm
Phosphates - 0 ppm

Carbonate level started at 10dKH two days ago and have gone down to 8dKH today.
Click to expand...

What about ammonia since that is the parameter that is probably most important right now. How did you acclimate him?
 
By the way he got stuck to powerhead either after he died or just on his way out with no strength to swim away. It's not the powerhead it's the fish that gave in.
 
I would suspect it was either sick or got into it again with the other clown. If the older was a maroon clown, then it most likely was territorial and offed the new one.... Just a thought.
 
It happens.. You stated the fish was already stressed/side swimming..
Its usually a sign that its going to die.. Sometimes they can make an "attempt" to come back and seem ok for a bit but it usually doesn't end well..
 
I agree that a Healthy fish can get stuck onto the side of a circulation pump.. I had a lawnmower blenny that would sit on top of them and you could clearly see the suction was holding him there.. When he wanted off he would wiggle vigorously to escape.. STRANGE FISH , Also a fish can get ill and go down hill fast or be ill from something for a long time and slowly get worse..

My advice is sometimes things just happen.. If you have other fish and they are all fine and the the dead fish does not appear to have parasites Just watch everyone else closely.
I Have had fish just disappear to never be seen again this is how it usually goes in a Mature tank....

Good Luck
 
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