Sick Clownfish =(

adudle00

Reefing newb
Hello,
I think I may have a sick/dying clownfish. =( I just got a pair of very small (1" maybe) clownfish for my 14 gallon biocube this past Saturday. They've been doing fine up until now. Even this morning they were fine, but I just looked and the one that is a little bit larger was swimming upside down and then kind of tumbling in the water. It's got worse in the past 20 minutes and now he's just basically floating around the tank swimming/twitching once in a while. I don't see any signs of disease.
I checked my water parameters immediately and ammonia and nitrite are both 0. Nirates are maybe slightly above 0, but not 5. pH is 8, salinity is 1.026, temp is 78. Anything else I should check? There's really nothing else in the tank that could have bothered them. I have a couple hermit crabs and snails, but they all appear to be doing fine. Any ideas on what could have caused this? =(
Thanks, -Ash
 
Did you acclimate them well when you got them?

Yes, they were drip acclimated for about an hour. They were fine when introduced to the tank, just all of a sudden the one started acting like this this morning. It just died about a hour ago, I wish I knew what went wrong. =(
 
Aww man, I'm sorry to hear that. It may have been an issue with him way before you got it. Somewhere between the ocean-distribution center and the lfs.
 
If you still have her, maybe take her to a good lfs and have them look and see if they notice anything that may have happened. Not an autopsy but maybe just a look and see if they can tell anything. What is the ph by the way?
 
Okay, so I left to go to my LFS, had them test the water and everything was okay. The only thing she said was that my pH is a little low (which I know, It's about 7.9/8.0 in the am and about 8.2 in the evening). She says they keep their salinity at about 1.022, and I keep mine at about 1.026. She also recommended I used 'real ocean water' instead of buying RODI water and adding my own salt. Any thoughts on this?

Also, I came home to find my other clownfish dead as well. It's obviously something going on in my tank, I just wish I knew what it was. Do they normally pass so sudden? When I left the house a few hours ago it was fine and now my nassarius is having a feast. =(
I'm very hesitant to get anything else until I figure out what caused this. *sigh*

-Ash
 
So sorry for your losses. I'm sure with the help from the members of this forum, you'll get it figured out....

If I had to make a guess at what it might be, I would say the difference in salinity with only an hour acclimation was too difficult for them. I'm very new at this, though....


eeekkkk......didn't realize this was such an old thread....lol
 
Last edited:
i personally wouldnt bother with the real ocean water. Did by any chance did you add the bag water to the tank? The little itty bitty ones can be hard to keep though, she may have just not made the transition so well.
 
i personally wouldnt bother with the real ocean water. Did by any chance did you add the bag water to the tank? The little itty bitty ones can be hard to keep though, she may have just not made the transition so well.

Aren't you suppose to dump the bag water out?
 
So that mean that when people drip the fish . Do they just scoop the fish out with a net?
yes drip acclimate the fish then net it and discard that water...Never add the water from the bag to the tank. I found out the hard way on that one...:frustrat:
 
+1 kelz n ted at least the LFS by me keep their tanks in bad shape so i never added the bag water and turns out it was always the right thing to do. love forums
 
I'd stop going to that lfs if they told you to not use rodi. You can use ocean h2o, but it's generally recommended to use the cleanest h2o possible. Rodi ensures that.
 
Back
Top