Suicide Clown?

[Jim Cannon]

Ok, this was pretty weird. I have a 12 G Nano. I have two bluespotted gobies, a pistol shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, and some soft corals. Nothing elaborate or complicated. Over a year ago, I purchased two Percs. Everything was fine and dandy for about 6 months. Then one day with no warning, one of the clowns died. I didn't replace him. The second clown seemed okay being alone. Then the Saturday morning we noticed him acting odd. He was twitching and looked like he was trying to bury himself under the sand. We had to leave and when we returned hours later, he was no where to be found. Then tonight the cleaner shrimp was out and I could see he was very interested in something. That something was my missing, dead, and stiff clown. He was half buried head first in the sand between some rock.

Can anyone explain this? Anyone have a educated guess?

JIM

 

[reefman13]

Some kind of parasite or sickness -probably. Otherwise, LFSs have been known to sell old fish, which can sometimes end up not being their fault.

 

[saltysupply]

odd, I agree though, probaly a parasite..weird behavior though

 

[Jim Cannon]

Update;

Wife purchased two new percs yesterday. Today the very same thing happened. One was bigger than the other. The bigger one is in Nemo Heaven.

What hav I done? I did a water change 25%, and added some new fresh charcoal. Water tested okay....a teeny high on Nitrate, but surely not enough to cause the deaths.

I'll let you know how things go with my little guy. He looks good so far. *fingers crossed*

Jim

 

[2t2_crash]

you wouldnt happen to be using ich medication would you? copper based ich medication was the demise of my first clown, the second one seemed to go from 100% to dead between the time I called my wife and the 5 minutes it took to get home today

 

[Jim Cannon]

A parasite? Hmmmm. Is there a particular kind of parasite that affects only Percs? Nothing else so far seems to be in trouble. The two gobies seem fine. The Cleaner shrimp is in heaven! BTW thanks to him I was easily able to find the two dead ones. Find the Cleaner and find the dead carcass.

Ich treatment? No. But a good thought. I haven't added anything new in several months. Haven't changed food or salt solutions either.

I'll replace the Perc this a.m. and see what happens.

Thank you all for your input. If we don't communicate before, you all have a great Thanksgiving. I'll off to Dallas for the holiday to join my son and daughter for a nice time together.

Jim

 

[reefman13]

Their is a parasite that affects only clowns, but it has very unique traits.

I would think that the quality of fish from your LFS may be a little short of good.....

Post your parameters and how (if you have any) your corals are doing.

BTW: If you have ANY copper (or other metal in contact with the water) in your tank this could almost certainly be the cause of all this dying.

 

[Jim Cannon]

The only thing I can see metal is the thermometer. I'll remove it. It's not copper. I can't read it anyway because its coverered with coraline algae.

Probably more in the LFS supplier than anything. If the first one was new I would be convinced, but since he has been in there over a year, I wouldn't think so. But the last one was very new. I didn't acclimate him....the wife did. I can't vouch for her skills. She does know to let the water temp even up, but don't know if she did and other acclimation.

The new one is acclimating as we speak. We'll see how it goes.

My test kit needs to be replaced so I can't give you specifics. The LFS tested the water and said the Nitrate were off, but not deadly off. I did a 2 gallon WC last night. It's a 12 G Nano.

Corals seem to be fine. My Zenia is just a swayin and growning fine. The gobies are fine, watching out for their little Pistol buddy.

And the Cleaner shrimp is acting normal.

Go figger.

Prolly Bush's fault.

 

[adunne]

if im not mistaken copper only effect inverts.. not so much fish... ie: petco treats all their tanks with copper to fend off ich etc.. that is the reason they cannot sell inverts.. i may be mistaken but imo copper is a no no for inverts. so i dont think copper is your culprit