Unknown cause of death!!!

[maroonclownfan]

I have been reading this forum for months now, but this is my first post.
Heres the situation, I have a 29 gal. tank that I set up about 4 months ago. I let the tank cyle at the beginning and after a month I added two Damsels. Everthing appeared to be fine. A month after that I went a picked up my Maroon Clown. Now everything has looked just fine up to this point. But last week when I woke up in the morning one of my damsels was dead as a door knob. It showed no signs of disease or illness up to this point. Well I wrote that one off as a mystery, the other two fish looked healthy and were eating fine. However, when I woke up this morning, the other damsel was dead.
Now I know the first thing I am going to hear is "what are your water parameters?" But what would cause these fish to die over night like that? One minute they look healthy and the next morning dead. What gives?? Has anyone else ever had this problem after three months of healthy fish up to this point?
Sorry for rambling...I appreciate any light on this situation.
MCF

 

[peasly1]

well...you said it what are your water readings, although if they were that bad the clown would die first most likely,also i think maroons are the most aggresive of the clowns and that the damsels died after the clown was introduced "could" be the culprit,but dansels are very hardy..how big was the clown to the damsels

 

[maroonclownfan]

The clown is only slightly bigger than the damsels were (damsels~1inch, Clown~1.5 inch) And never did I see them battle for territory. The damsels did between each other, but never the damsels and the clown. Neither of the fish had damaged fins when I found them dead. All the fish appeared to get along fine, and why would they be fine before the lights went out and dead when they came on? Its a mystery. They don't even rest close to each other, opposite sides of the tank.
Thanks for your suggestions though. When I took my water to the LFS the readings were ammon-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
ph-7.8
temp is 77F
salinity 1.023
clear water, mostly green algae growth

 

[fshhub]

i have another question, the dead damsels, when you removed them, were they intact, or did they appear to be partially eaten? and do you have lr? and or any crabs?,
if all your water parametes are good, and it seems as if something has attacked them, and you have lr, i'd check into crabs or mantis which may have rode in on your lr,
just a speculation, but one worth examining
HTH

 

[maroonclownfan]

The fish were fully intact. no signs of a struggle. The only foreign creatures I can find are a couple small bristle worms and a crab that has the markings of a sally lightfoot but shorter legs and it is always hiding, even at night. I have still never seen it completely uncovered.
Well thanks for the suggestions, its a mystery to me. MCF