Help!

[swdevil]

I have a 20g reef tank, 6 months old. Test results are as follows:
S.G. = 1.024
Temp = 79 deg F
pH = 8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 20
Current problem is that my 2 clownfish have both died within a week. The first disappeared suddenly. 4 days later my other clownfish died as well...I first found him near the sand, swimming sorta upside down or on his side...breathing kinda heavy and trying to hide in the rockwork. His appearance and demeanor changed from 100% normal and vibrant to a pale, faded color and swimming imbalanced....all from one day to the next. I suspect the same happened to my other clownfish but that she had a chance to hide in the rocks and died there.
I feed Marine Cuisine/cyclopeeze/mysis soaked in Selcon...once every other day (about the size of a grain of rice).
Other inhabitants are: Cleaner shrimp (alive, doing well and very active), various snails & hermit crabs. Variety of LPS corals & zooanthids.
I am very sad about the loss of my clownfish and even though I feel discouraged, I want to re-stock my tank. But first I want to know what happened to my fish. I would hate for this to happen again.
Anybody? Any idea what could have happened?

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by SWdevil
http:///forum/post/2730021
I have a 20g reef tank, 6 months old. Test results are as follows:
S.G. = 1.024
Temp = 79 deg F
pH = 8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 20
Current problem is that my 2 clownfish have both died within a week. The first disappeared suddenly. 4 days later my other clownfish died as well...I first found him near the sand, swimming sorta upside down or on his side...breathing kinda heavy and trying to hide in the rockwork. His appearance and demeanor changed from 100% normal and vibrant to a pale, faded color and swimming imbalanced....all from one day to the next. I suspect the same happened to my other clownfish but that she had a chance to hide in the rocks and died there.
I feed Marine Cuisine/cyclopeeze/mysis soaked in Selcon...once every other day (about the size of a grain of rice).
Other inhabitants are: Cleaner shrimp (alive, doing well and very active), various snails & hermit crabs. Variety of LPS corals & zooanthids.
I am very sad about the loss of my clownfish and even though I feel discouraged, I want to re-stock my tank. But first I want to know what happened to my fish. I would hate for this to happen again.
Anybody? Any idea what could have happened?
Were your clownfish wild caught or captive raised. I've seen a very similar decline in wild caught fish in which cyanide is used to stun/catch the fish. The fish recover and appear to be fine, then suddenly start swimming funny and die in a short period of time. Certainly not as common as it was ten years ago, it still does occur ~ that would be my first guess.

 

[swdevil]

Captive raised...ORA Farms

 

[swdevil]

bump

 

[swdevil]

ok I am getting sick of this and I am ready to give up on this hobby altogether.
I added a linear blenny about 3 weeks ago.
He was in the tank this morning...a few minutes ago I feed the tank...
Blenny = nowhere to be seen
WTF!!!

What am I doing wrong?!?!?!? everything else in the tank is seemingly fine. Snails, hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp and all coral are all fine.
I just can't seem to keep fish!
Please help me...

 

[spanko]

Sounds like some type of water quality issue. I wonder if you have some stray voltage in there from a powerhead or heater? Is the tank new or used as I wonder also if there was some kind of medication used in there that you don't know about. The other thought is maybe you have some fish killing critter that hitched a ride on your rock that you don't know about. Are you did you use tap water in the tank and if so do you have copper tubing in the water system in the house that is maybe leeching copper into the water. This could be tested with a kit.
Other than those things I am kind of stumped.

 

[swdevil]

Hey spanko...thanks for responding to my thread...I am stumped as well.
All the points you bring up are very good...the answers are as follows:
Stray voltage - I have a ground probe in my tank. Is there any chance those malfunction and leave currents within the tank? And if so, wouldn't my inverterbrates and corals be affected too?
Tank was brand new...never used and no medications ever introduced.
Water used - all RO/DI water from my LFS tested w/TDS meter...never have used tap water.
Fish killing critter - I have thought about this...but I have no idea how I would identify this...much less address it. What are some possibilities if this was the issue? In addition, I kept my tank free of fish for about 3 weeks...I would hope that any fish killing critter would die in that period of time. I dunno...I am just upset and confused and I dunno what to do. I am at my wits ends

 

[spanko]

Okay I guess one thing I did not ask is how much live rock do you have, sand, filtration methods etc.
Fish killing critter could be a mantis or some nasty crab. Hard to find but night time surveillance with a flashlight with a red bulb may help you to see what lurks in the night.
On the live rock and sand if you don't have enough of a biofiltration base built up maybe with the addition of the fish you are getting an ammonia spike and the fish are dying from ammonia poisoning.
Just some things to think about.

 

[ibew41]

how are you acclimating the fish?also what is your alk results

 

[swdevil]

 

[swdevil]

bump

 

[kube]

have had the same expierence and never did figure it out I lost 5 clowns in a row, only thing i did to currect the issue was get rid of 3 damsels that were smaller than the clowns but after that the two i have now are doind just fine, with the exspection of the Ich outbreak....currently winning that fight......but thats a different topic

 

[spanko]

Saw this tread pop up again and a thought came to mind. Are all of the fish coming from the same store?

 

[prime311]

You could be also suffering from a lack of oxygenation in the water. Make sure you have plenty of movement at the surface of your water.

 

[swdevil]

My clowns came from one store, my blenny from a different one. The former is a very reputable store around here though.
If anything I would have thought that the blenny came from an iffier place.
But the clowns did live in my tank for about 6 months before they started succumbing. So what gives?

 

[kristi518]

I had the same thing happen to me. It started last week, one of my clowns started breathing heavy, and then two days later I watched it die. Then my other clown did the same thing the next day. The only thing left in my tank are my two damsels which I am certain can live through anything. I took my water to the lfs and they said that everything was fine. WTF??? I loved my clowns, I just don't understand what happened.