We just got this 120 litre marine tank and added two clown fish to it (after it cycled) but in a week they died. We have nothing else in there apart from peppermint shrimps, brittle sea stars and sea cucumbers and they died. Our water quality was fine apart from nitrates which were 40 parts per million. Any suggestions on how this could of happened.
Two dead clown fish
- Thread starter lachya
- Start date
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Could be so many reasons why but if I had to pick one it would probably be ammonia poisoning which you might have missed in your testing. However, if you clowns had white spots on them then it could be disease.
DopeCantWin
Active member
If you can show your water quality was fine, there are sicknesses which will take clowns in about a week.
Deinonych
New member
What fish illness would wipe all of these out?
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Brooklynella, Marine Velvet and Cryptocaryon (marine ich) are the main suspects but could be others.
Deinonych
New member
Brook and velvet can definitely kill in a week's time. Crypto tends to be more prolonged in its duration before fish succumb.
Deinonych
New member
If I'm reading into the OP's sentence I believe he means the inverts are still alive, but the fish died.
That is correct. The problem could also have been acclimation error of non-matching specific gravity.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
On its own, in general yes. I never discount the possibility of combo of multiple parasites though. Good point on inverts still being alive...it shows a strong possibility of parasite infestation. If that's the case, a fallow period of 4-8 weeks is recommended.
ThRoewer
New member
If that would have been an issue those fish would have showed distress immediately and died rather quickly.
Also, reef fish are way more tolerant to salinity swings than most give them credit for. Usually quick changes to lower salinity are tolerated quite well.
Same goes for temperature swings.
In this case my bet is on one of the protozoan parasites: Brooklynella, Amyloodinium, Uronema, Trichodina, even Chryptocaryon if they already came with a heavy enough infection.
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Going up in specific gravity too quickly would also match the mortality time line. If there were an acclimation problem, it would almost always be because the shipping water is much lower than the receiving water. Cryptocaryon irritans would be highly unlikely in that time frame.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Do you happen to know if those clowns were tank raised or wild? Tank raised clowns are typically very hardy unless they come from a very bad source like Petco. The wild ones are more susceptible to Brooklynella that can take them out within 4-6 days.
