new clown murdered :(

M

MrRichieIII

New member
I just purchased 2 clowns to put in my 14 biocube, which I already had a dragon goby and emerald crab, along with a few frags and polyps. I read that crabs throw their claws up to intimidate, but what I seen was my crab come out from crevice (which it never does) and reach out for the clowns like it does when I put krill in. As soon as I put them in tank he came out and watched them with wide open claws, and it didn't help that the 2 clowns would pester him like they do the red leg hermits. I honestly didn't think they crab had big enough claws, that he was a threat, or that the clowns couldn't out maneuver him. But when I came home today I went straight to my tank only to find the smaller clown(designated male) swimming at top looking very stressed and no signs of other clown I had to pull out flash light and look in crevices and found him b eaten by te crab. So he's my #1 suspect. Sorry I just want to vent. :sad1:
 
yeah im not a big fan of crabs either. i have two hermit crabs but they were snail hitchhikers. even they are overstaying their welcome and are accidentally hurting my anemone
 
OK I need help. I just lost the other one..I don't understand. Can they just die from stress? They looked great at LFS. But in 24 hours I lost both :( My goby is healthy. Crabs and snails healthy. Coral frags and polyps appear to be healthy.
Temp/78
Ph/8.2
Ammo/0
Nitrite/0
Calcium/480
Kh/ 10°
Is there something else I should test/treat for? Could it be the frogspawn? I did see them attempt hosting it.
 
shouldnt be frogspawn. did you notice any damage or marks on the fish at all? if it was the frogspawn youd at least see welts/blemishes on them
 
Well the first one I found in the clutches of that crab and other hermits. But the smaller one I only noticedhim looking stressed( closed fins, swimming at top)
 
I don't think the crab is the culprit here. I see you posted your params but it still sounds like a water quality issue to me. I think the crab was just getting an easy dead meal.

What's your acclimation procedure?

What is salinity?
 
Oh yeah..salinity was low at 1.020... I just did temp acclimate, like lfs recommended. So I didn't think they needed a drip...so is my water bad? I thought those were pretty normal readings.
 
You have to match salinity as much as possible when you acclimate. This means you should test the salinity in the bag too. The crab was just doing its job of cleaning up. You also didn't list nitrate, but that has to be extremely high to kill fish quickly, so I doubt that's it. I would go with salinity shock too.
 
Anytime i get a fish, float and drip water in fish bag for about 20 minutes depending on fish or invert. You may know, but never put the water from the bag in your tank. Sorry about your fish!
 
What are you testing your salinity with? My hydrometer is way off from my refractometer, so if you only use a hydrometer it may not be 1.020. Could be higher or lower
 
Oh goodness i didnt even think about salinity shock.

if you cant get a drip for any reason then you can always do this. temp acclimate for 15 minutes then open the bag and add half a cup of water every 3ish minutes. do this for like 30 minutes tops to prevent ammonia build up. i used to do it that way and it never hurt anything. i use drip acclimating now too though
 
My practice of acclimating is taking it out of the bag and just throwing it in the tank; fish, corals and inverts, I don't discriminate.

Never had an issue with doing that for the past almost 3 years now.

Within the past 6 months i stopped heating up water for WC because I would use to overheat the water and had to wait for it to cool off. When I used cold WC and noticed no coral reaction then I don't bother heating as long as the salt is all dissolve anymore. I also don't match salinity, I just eye salt mix based on how much water I think I have in the bucket. it's usually a 4 gallon WC.

They aren't as frail especially for common fish and corals, and if they are i rather they perish right away then later on which would make me wonder what's wrong. The most difficult coral I have is a goniopora frag and acclimated no differently. The rest is all easy soft corals.
 
Hydrometer ...I will take sample up to lfs they do free testing to confirm test results. Refractometer out of my budget right now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ab129
Replacing a clown
Replies
11
Views
414
Uncle99
Uncle99
ClownBubbaJoe
Can I trust My Favorite Fish, A Clown Trigger In A Reef Tank ?
Replies
5
Views
101
griss
griss
M
help with new dracula goby
Replies
5
Views
417
leebca
L
rrrrob
Blue Damsel
Replies
7
Views
2K
rrrrob
rrrrob
JeannineC
Fish suggestion
Replies
19
Views
2K
rwbroadnax
R
Back
Top