Heartbroken my clownfish is dead :(

Araona · Jul 23, 2023

Hello everyone, I'm new here and just hoping someone has some insight for me.
Yesterday we added some new corals and 3 yellow tail blue damsels to our 300L tank. Shortly after they were added my water parameters were as follows:
Ammonia 0.25 (API)
Nitrate 5-10
PH 8.2
Salinity 35ppm
Alk 8
Temp 25.5c
We stuck the corals down with some reef safe putty and glue so the water was a little cloudy for a while. I also added some more copepods, phytoplankton and a little bacteria to try and help with the ammonia.
We have 2 wavemaker and plenty of surface agitation.
2 hours later I noticed our smallest clownfish laying on the sandbed so I immediately did a 20% water change and it seemed to recover and was swimming around happily however 3 hours after this I notice it swimming very erratically all over the tank then floating downwards and repeating this. I removed it from the tank and put in another tank (with some water from main tank) so it didn't keep getting thrown around and I watched it over the next hour but unfortunately it didn't make it.
To say I am utterly devastated would be an understatement and I am so sad I couldn't save it. All the other fish/inverts and corals look fine this morning including the new addition so I'd just like to know what could have happened to the poor little thing, could it have been attacked? And is there anything I could have done differently?

Thank you

1112-425XL · Jul 23, 2023

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate loss. Hope the rest of your reef remains healthy.

Rennurdoar · Jul 23, 2023

Sorry about your loss. There's a ton of great people and information here. Be sure to start a build thread! Welcome to the site!

OrionN · Jul 23, 2023

The putty that you use does not seem to be fatal if use in small amount. Cloudy water from it is a lot of putty and likely the cause of your fish death.
Sorry about this. Only use a small amount to attach coral frags in the future.

Peace River · Jul 23, 2023

Welcome to Reef2Reef. I am sorry to hear about your loss. Sometimes stress from the move, change in water conditions, or bullying can exacerbate a previous issue or there could be some other issue with the parameters (including whatever caused the cloudiness). Monitoring the behavior and health of the remaining fish will help determine further action at this point.

Nano_Man · Jul 23, 2023

Mr. Mojo Rising · Jul 23, 2023

how old is your tank? How many fish in the tank?
Cloudy water came from the putty, depending how much putty you used, especially if you used the whole stick, it might have sucked the oxygen from the water. Do you have a skimmer? if not, you should add an airstone

vetteguy53081 · Jul 23, 2023

Araona said:
Hello everyone, I'm new here and just hoping someone has some insight for me.
Yesterday we added some new corals and 3 yellow tail blue damsels to our 300L tank. Shortly after they were added my water parameters were as follows:
Ammonia 0.25 (API)
Nitrate 5-10
PH 8.2
Salinity 35ppm
Alk 8
Temp 25.5c
We stuck the corals down with some reef safe putty and glue so the water was a little cloudy for a while. I also added some more copepods, phytoplankton and a little bacteria to try and help with the ammonia.
We have 2 wavemaker and plenty of surface agitation.
2 hours later I noticed our smallest clownfish laying on the sandbed so I immediately did a 20% water change and it seemed to recover and was swimming around happily however 3 hours after this I notice it swimming very erratically all over the tank then floating downwards and repeating this. I removed it from the tank and put in another tank (with some water from main tank) so it didn't keep getting thrown around and I watched it over the next hour but unfortunately it didn't make it.
To say I am utterly devastated would be an understatement and I am so sad I couldn't save it. All the other fish/inverts and corals look fine this morning including the new addition so I'd just like to know what could have happened to the poor little thing, could it have been attacked? And is there anything I could have done differently?

Thank you

Pics provided are fuzzy and its hard to tell anything from a dead carcass. Some clues may be if fish was breathing heavily, loss of appetite, sudden lethargic behavior, loss of color, etc

vetteguy53081 · Jul 23, 2023

Seansea · Jul 23, 2023

Do you have a skimmer? When i putty or glue in the tank i dial my skimmer way back but not off. Then as the bubbles get lower in the tube of the skimmer i keep ramping up until back to normal. This helps remove that residue floating around or else it just stays in tank and causes issues.

How many clowns did u have? Usually u want them in pairs. If you had 3 the other 2 could have picked on the one and stressed it out.

jsker · Jul 23, 2023

Sorry to read about you loss. This one would be a hard one to figure out, was it the water conditions? was it some that was added? or was it something with the clowns health? It is alway hard to watch our fish family pass.

Cell · Jul 23, 2023

Some reef safe putty and superglue does not cloud your water. What putty product did you use?

shakacuz · Jul 23, 2023

welcome aboard the r2r board!

Araona · Jul 23, 2023

OrionN said:
The putty that you use does not seem to be fatal if use in small amount. Cloudy water from it is a lot of putty and likely the cause of your fish death.
Sorry about this. Only use a small amount to attach coral frags in the future.

Thank you I will keep that in mind for next time

Araona · Jul 23, 2023

LordofCinder said:
how old is your tank? How many fish in the tank?
Cloudy water came from the putty, depending how much putty you used, especially if you used the whole stick, it might have sucked the oxygen from the water. Do you have a skimmer? if not, you should add an airstone

The tank is 3 months old and after the addition of 3 yesterday there were 2 clowns and a watchman goby. Yes we did use a fair amount so that could well be the case and yes we have a skimmer.

Araona · Jul 23, 2023

Seansea said:
Do you have a skimmer? When i putty or glue in the tank i dial my skimmer way back but not off. Then as the bubbles get lower in the tube of the skimmer i keep ramping up until back to normal. This helps remove that residue floating around or else it just stays in tank and causes issues.

How many clowns did u have? Usually u want them in pairs. If you had 3 the other 2 could have picked on the one and stressed it out.

Yes I had a skimmer but probably could have done some adjustments to it and I didn't. We had just the 2 clowns that went in together and had been in for 2 months with no problems, I was just wondering whether the newly added damsels could have picked on it as it was a very small clown.

Araona · Jul 23, 2023

Cell said:
Some reef safe putty and superglue does not cloud your water. What putty product did you use?

We used aquascape construction epoxy, I now think we did too much manipulating under water with it and maybe this fish was the only casualty because it was the snallest

Cell · Jul 23, 2023

I just don't see how some coral putty in an 80G tank is going to cause cloudy water and death. I've mounted a lot of frags at the same time in tanks half that size no problem.

kevgib67 · Jul 23, 2023

Welcome, glad you are here! So sorry for your loss, we have all been there. I have never had cloudy water from using epoxy, you might want to throw it out and go with a different brand in the future.