Clown dead - Agian! Please Help

[susiestank]

UPDATE 3 Months Later Agian
Okay. So here's the deal. As you can read above we had this issue 3 months ago. Read the above to get story. Since then we did not add a fish because of the fear of the mysterious death. The tank has been fishless but neverless had 3-4 xenia frags, a mushroom , a cleaner shrimp , 2 peppermint shrimps , emerald crab , and snails/crabs assortment. Everything in the tank is doing fine. We have been doing waterchanges weekly etc. Everything good.
So last weekend (Saturday) we got another clownfish from a different store then the 2 we went to before. Drip acclimnated him. He was swimming-eating etc. Checked him last night before I went to bed (about 11pm). Then this morning(monday) when I was leaving for work (730) , he was dead. Please advise.

 

[tree]

that is just so strange. Sorry for your loss, I know it must be really frustrating at this point. My clownfish have made it through several temperature spikes, a couple power outages, and some wild ph swings. They seemed to have more problems after the power outages with the reduced oxygen and colder temps than any of the other problems. Could you post your readings? They might help us figure out the problem. Salinity (by refractometer or hydrometer), nitrate, nitrites, ammonia, the more info the better. What type of filtration do you do? How long did you acclimate & how?

 

[susiestank]

I will re-test when I get home from the office. Last I checked - everything 0 , salt 1.025 , 0 copper , etc. I will test agian when I get home from work. Yes my first clownfish made it through power outages - a tank change - moving - and more.
I drip acclimated him for 2 hours.
My first tank was set up from Jan 2005 - Aug 2006 (then a vacation accident and circuit breaker going off killed almost all). The new tank has been up since Aug 2006.
Filtration - I have a aqua C remora skimmer, about 40ish pounds lr? Not to sure on exact amount since I have added and changed some since inital purchase in 2005 , same with sand. I have teh same as in the first tank not sure on exact amount.

 

[tree]

Is this the same tank that crashed or did you upgrade after the crash? Sorry just wondering what might have changed between when you were having success with this fish and the problem you are having now.
The 2 hour drip acclimation should have been fine for the clown.

 

[susiestank]

After the crash we drained that tank. We then actualy got a 25 (had a 20). We saved the l/r and got new sand. Re -set everything up - let it cycle. Then about a month later added some cleaners. Then eventually started trying to add a fish. We havent been about to keep a fish. Yet we can keep shrimp and corals - makes no sense.

 

[susiestank]

I jsut dont get what could be killing the fish and nothing else. And we even tested for stray voltage with a voltmeter.

 

[tree]

It doesn't seem to make any sense at all. So other than the new tank and the cleaning crew, the only other thing new is the sand. What type of sand did you put in - the only thing I can think of is the sand might contain silica or some chemical that the clowns are sensitive to but doesn't affect the inverts?

 

[rykna]

Another thing occured to me. I couldn't find your PH levels in the posts. I had a similar mystery with my false perc clown. Fine night before, next morning the little guy was swimming very strange, similar to someone trying to walk straight when you a drunk. There was no sign of any disease...nothing. I forget who, but some online here said to check the ph....which should be 8.2 or 8.4, they said if the PH was low it would cause this drunken behavior. Sure enough, the PH was 7.8. I added some buffer ASAP, and 30 minutes latter the little guy was back to normal.
Hope you can figure this out

 

[teen]

try a clownfish off the internet. order one from this site. i dont trust fish from any of my 6 lfs.

 

[teresaq]

how are you acclimating them. how long. I have had problems when lfs water was way off from mine, and didnt acclimate long enough. if thier water is 1.017 and yours is 1.024 (example) then your fish will need longer to adjust. ask them what thier ph, salitiy ect. is ?

 

[susiestank]

I did; float the bag half hour with lights off. Then i drip acclimated for 2 hours.

 

[tree]

What TeresaQ was referring to is a major change in salinity. There is a place near me where all their fish are kept in hypo so if I buy from there, I get my salinity in the quarantine tank as close as possible to theirs, I still do a drip acclimation of 2 hours, and then bring the salinity up over a few days rather than a couple hours.

 

[susiestank]

Well this has happened with 3 fish from 3 different stores. I mean its highly unlikley that all of them would be like that. I have gotten fish/iverts from these stores previously with no issues.

 

[teen]

try buying online and see what happens.

 

[susiestank]

Water Test Results
Everything like usual.
Temp: 80.3
Salinity: 1.025-1.026 (using refractometer)
PH: 7.8-8.0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrtie: 0
Cooper: 0
Cacium: 440-460
Phosphate: 0-0.25
Silicate: 0-0.25
Everything looks normal. Plus whatever is killing my fish hasnt killed any corals,shrimp, or inverts. Mystery.

 

[tree]

just a bump for ya. I don't have any other suggestions past the ph which Rykna also mentioned. Maybe someone else might be able to help solve this mystery.

 

[nanoman94]

This is just so weird and it is getting quite irritating. I hope we can get to the bottom of this very soon

 

[snookedsteve]

Man I feel your pain. I had the same problems with tangs. I had 2 Naso's and a Powder blue. All mysteriously died. I have a yellow now who is doing well

. The only thing I can think of issomething is killing them at night. It seem highly unlikely that it is your parameters if the fish are acting fine and then they are dead over night. I would suggest getting a flashlight and looking through the tank at night when the lights are off. Maybe test your parameters a couple hours after the lights are off as well. I doubt they will change that much though with the exception of slight PH drop. Try posting this in the disease section as well. Just my $.02

 

[snookedsteve]

Oh and don't buy another clown from anywhere until you figure it out. I don't know why anyone would suggest that. Like they say "insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results".

 

[m0nk]

Rykna noted that your pH should be around 8.2 but your levels posting notes it's 7.8-8.0. Perhaps that's the problem right there? Just a thought...
Best of luck, hope you're able to get it worked out!