First death...trying to figure out why :(

[Tropical Baker 17]

So I had my first death for my saltwater tank- my female clown: Zoey.

Trying to figure out exactly why she died. I have a 55gal with 1 remaining clownfish and a strawberry basslet. After removing the fish I tested and got NO3: 0 NH4: 0 and pH: 7.4

Both clowns were added at the same time 6 days ago. The basslet was added one week prior. Both other fish look healthy and happy. The only other thing that happened to my tank recently was a powerhead become unstuck and blew sand around my tank (assumably) for the better part of a day. I am already planning a water change for tomorrow and have 5 gal of saltwater mixing in a bucket. I am also going to go out and get a pH 8.2 buffer to raise my pH. Is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

P.S. I now need to remain Walter the remaining clownfish since he is totally going to become a she :'(

 

[Neno reefs]

I am thinking your clown died because of the PH it should realy be higher... (But i am not an expert so i dont know for sure).

But i do know your clown (walter) will remain a male unless you get another clown and walter is bigger then the new clown, then he will change into a female. But as long as he is alone or you get a bigger clown he will be male.

 

[wontonflip]

Your PH is pretty low. Ideally it should be closer to around 8.2.

But another problem could be that the fish didn't handle the stress from the move well at all. It happens often with new fish. A few questions....

Was the clownfish small? If so, get a larger one next time. Older larger fish tend to survive better.

How did you acclimate? The ideal acclimation method is to drip acclimate (1-2 drops/second) for around 2-3 hours, then temp acclimate before putting them in. I've never lost a fish with this method.

Was the LFS where you got them reputable? Was the fish eating before you bought him?

I would also add that you should wait several weeks to a few months in between adding fish to ensure your tank can handle the extra bioload. But I doubt that was an issue. But just an fyi for future additions.

Oh depending on what part of MD you're in, you can check out Marine Scene in Herndon, VA -- extremely reputable LFS.

 

[Kelz88]

I personally dont think its the ph that got the clown, I think it was the unstuck powerhead. Im guessing it released a bunch of nasty things into your water.

As for the clown get one that is much bigger or much smaller and you should be fine.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

The clown was on the smaller size. Drip acclimated for 1hr. The LFS is the only one close to me and I hear nothing but stellar remarks about them. The pair of clowns were going to be the last addition for about 3 months. I am going to slowly bring the pH up tomorrow.

Also I found it weird that the clown was stuck near the back of the powerhead. Is it? possible he swam too close and got sucked onto the back of the guard

Also my protein skimmer did pull a large amount of organics when the head hit the sand

 

[BL1]

I personally dont think its the ph that got the clown, I think it was the unstuck powerhead. Im guessing it released a bunch of nasty things into your water.

As for the clown get one that is much bigger or much smaller and you should be fine.

The tank is pretty new so there wouldn't have been enough in the sandbed yet to affect the tank ...

I would retest your pH, it's rare for it to get that low. Also, test for ammonia, there'a chance that adding the fish that quickly could have cause a mini cycle that affected the fish.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Ammonia was defiantly 0. As far as water I am using tap water so I don't think the pH is too far off my fresh water sits right at 7

 

[wontonflip]

I honestly think it's just one of those deaths where the fish did not handle the move well. It happens. Try to get bigger fish next time to increase survival chances.

 

[grozier]

For future note try using RO/DI water for yor tank, it will save you a lot of headache in the future.
I had a sand storm when I changed my tanks over and it didn't kill anything, so I dont think the sand is the issue either. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw ifthey live or die.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Sucks that it died but at least I know I most likely wasn't the cause of death

 

[grozier]

I wondered the same thing when I had 2 Lionfish die on me? I quit trying on those

 

[FishyReef]

Its also possible that your other clown killed the first one. If they were about the same size then they may have been trying to figure out which one was going to be female and the one that died got the short end of the stick. But yeah, the sand incident, adding 3 fish fairly close together, using tap water, and just not adjusting to the move could all have been causes as well. How are you testing your water? (test strips, hydrometer, refractometer, etc?). And what is your salinity? Your salt mix should add enough buffering to keep the pH higher than 7.4, even if your tap water is close to 7, which leaves me wondering if your salinity is on the low side.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

salinity was 1.022 average from 2 hydrometers I use API test kits with the test tubes and color charts. The clown that died was about 1.5 times in size of the remaining clown so it was definitely the female.