Clownfish sudden death

[reeferab]

Hi,
I’m a new reefer and my first post. Unfortunately posting with a heavy heart.

tldr - clownfish died after being close to a damaged candy cane - is toxicity the likely cause?

I have a Fluval Evo 52L/13G tank. It has
been running for 2.5 months. I added my first and only fish - a mated pair of Allard/African clownfish - on the 8th July.

Also have 1 blue legged hermit crab, 1 turbo snail, 1 nassirus snail, 1 bumblebee snail.

This evening I fed them frozen mysis (defrosted with tank water) at 18.00. It’s food they’ve had before and happily gobbled it down. All fine so far.

I had bought shells off eBay for hermit crab. I first rinsed them I hot tap water, then cold tap water, and finally in rinsed and left them in saltwater.

After feeding, I dropped the shells at 18.31- one big one hit the edge of a frogspawn as it was sinking (I very stupidly was dropping them from the top rather than placing softly). It didn’t close up or look damaged.

The shell scared the female to go to the right of the tank.

The next shell hit a candy cane and knocked it out of place. The female clown was downstream / downflow and very close to the candy cane.

Between 18.30 and 18.40 the female started acting erratically and even sat down by the big shell and I knew something wasn’t right.

I could see the white bands - particularly the one closest to the mouth - was pinkish and this colouration was spreading.

First I took out a bit of tank water and put in a bowl. By the time I was taking her out, she was already swimming upside down in a corner.

At 18.45 I got some fresh saltwater and placed her inside a bucket. She was mostly unresponsive.

At 18.50 she was basically gone. She was lying sideways with the pectoral fins hardly moving. She died a few mins later.

Was this likely due to toxicity from the candy cane ?

For reference the other clown was on the top left of the tank and appears unaffected. CUC is fine from what I can (can only see the crab moving around). Corals appear normal. This is at 20.00 - so some time has passed.

Corals are: candy cane 3-4 heads, frogspaw, hammer, finger leather frags, plating monti frag, small mushroom.

Obviously feel absolutely awful. I think it was toxicity due to my stupidity of just dropping the shells into the tank. Can post photo of dead fish in case it helps…

Has anyone else experienced this?? Could it be something else?

 

[bluemon]

Candy cane sting wouldn’t kill a clownfish.

Likely something else wrong

A picture would help. Do you have any pictures of your clownfish before death?

Also did you acclimate the fish/ match the saltwater when you dropped it in to the fresh water?

 

[ZC aquatics]

Hmm I’ll try to research this

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Candy canes don't release toxins, they have little stinger tentacles that are not strong. I think the coral was just sloughing, it happens when corals are stressed, but its not toxic. This is not what caused the fish death.

Have you done water changes since adding your fish July 8? Do you test the water to make sure ammonia is not elevating?

 

[reeferab]

Candy cane sting wouldn’t kill a clownfish.

Likely something else wrong

A picture would help. Do you have any pictures of your clownfish before death?

Also did you acclimate the fish/ match the saltwater when you dropped it in to the fresh water?

Thank you replying.

It was just so sudden with pretty normal behaviour earlier in the day, and feeding normally as well so attributing to candy cane.

But perhaps you're right re candy cane sting.

The photo by the candy cane is from earlier in the day - she was photobombing. The other photo is her struggling and sitting by the sand.

I matched the salinity but didn't have time to match the temp. TBH, she was mostly gone by then.

The other clown, corals, and inverts are fine today. FYI I also gave the same food to gouramis in my freshwater tank and they were all fine - just to rule out any issues with the food.

 

[reeferab]

Candy canes don't release toxins, they have little stinger tentacles that are not strong. I think the coral was just sloughing, it happens when corals are stressed, but its not toxic. This is not what caused the fish death.

Have you done water changes since adding your fish July 8? Do you test the water to make sure ammonia is not elevating?

Thanks - yes I looked up the stinger tentacles / nematocysts.

Yes I do approx. 10-15% water change on a weekly basis + top off with salt/RO water as needed.

Last full test was on 19 July - most using API test kids (saltwater master, reef master):
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5 (hard to tell)
KH: 5
pH: 8.4 (handheld digital meter)
Phosphate: 0.25 - 0.5 (hard to tell)
Specific gravity: 1.026 (hydrometer)
Temp: 28.1 C / 82.6 F

Last water change was also on the 19th. Temp was on the high side, water change brought it down.

Add 1ml of AB+ on 21st, target feed with skimmer, powerhead off.

Also trying to raise alkalinity - added 0.25g of sodium bicarbonate (Arm & Hammer Baking Soda) mixed with a few ml of RO water. Also added 1ml of Seachem reef carbonate. Both on night of 21st.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks - yes I looked up the stinger tentacles / nematocysts.

Yes I do approx. 10-15% water change on a weekly basis + top off with salt/RO water as needed.

Last full test was on 19 July - most using API test kids (saltwater master, reef master):
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5 (hard to tell)
KH: 5
pH: 8.4 (handheld digital meter)
Phosphate: 0.25 - 0.5 (hard to tell)
Specific gravity: 1.026 (hydrometer)
Temp: 28.1 C / 82.6 F

Last water change was also on the 19th. Temp was on the high side, water change brought it down.

Add 1ml of AB+ on 21st, target feed with skimmer, powerhead off.

Also trying to raise alkalinity - added 0.25g of sodium bicarbonate (Arm & Hammer Baking Soda) mixed with a few ml of RO water. Also added 1ml of Seachem reef carbonate. Both on night of 21st.

Just some random thoughts - since the other clown is doing fine, you can likely rule out fish diseases. Since the corals are doing fine, you can rule out water quality issues (any water problems that would be acutely fatal to a fish would kill the corals).

You mentioned a color change in the fish? What if this was from impact damage from hitting something after being frightened by the shells being added?