Please help I had a fish die I think it’s only beginning

[h2so4hurts]

Velvet, crypto or brook. Look at the rest of your fish, keep an eye on their behavior and any changes in color, breathing or appearance of obvious parasitic infection.

Everyone commenting about the temperature being "off" by a degree, or the "low" pH just needs to stop. It's not that.

A dead fish looking chewed is almost always an effect of it sitting on the bottom of the tank and getting munched by the CUC. Unless it was observed getting sucked into and spit out of the power head, it's probably an infection. Especially if other fish are flashing.

 

[Hincapiej4]

Guys, he didn't kill a clown fish with temp at 81 or ph at 7.7-8.1
What can kill fish: Ammonia, total lack or circulation , disease.

Well yea....what do you think happens when you have ammonia and low pH?

Or low circulation.....we know that by itself didn't kill them..at least no probably. You can't just ignore an obvious red flag lol

 

[Loveandhate4corals]

what's your phos and nitrates? w new setups, crashes can be inevitable.

 

[JohnGP]

Velvet, crypto or brook. Look at the rest of your fish, keep an eye on their behavior and any changes in color, breathing or appearance of obvious parasitic infection.

Everyone commenting about the temperature being "off" by a degree, or the "low" pH just needs to stop. It's not that.

A dead fish looking chewed is almost always an effect of it sitting on the bottom of the tank and getting munched by the CUC. Unless it was observed getting sucked into and spit out of the power head, it's probably an infection. Especially if other fish are flashing.

It's not "just a degree", it's almost 4 degrees. I don't see anyone here saying low temp is exactly what killed the fish but rather that with possible low-ish PH could definitely be a factor.

 

[proxy001]

It's not "just a degree", it's almost 4 degrees. I don't see anyone here saying low temp is exactly what killed the fish but rather that with possible low-ish PH could definitely be a factor.

My 10 year old clown is in 81-84 degree water , happily. Ive seen clowns on reefs at 88 scuba diving.
This fish has obvious external signs of damage. Whether he was trapped in a powerhead, attacked by something or disease.

 

[h2so4hurts]

My 10 year old clown is in 81-84 degree water , happily. Ive seen clowns on reefs at 88 scuba diving.
This fish has obvious external signs of damage. Whether he was trapped in a powerhead, attacked by something or disease.

Agreed. Clownfish are tanks. When they die it's disease, harassment or an accident. People have historically cycled tanks with clownfish. If one dies it's probably not water quality. Water temp could be 85+ and I wouldn't expect the fish to really care at all.

 

[JohnGP]

My 10 year old clown is in 81-84 degree water , happily. Ive seen clowns on reefs at 88 scuba diving.
This fish has obvious external signs of damage. Whether he was trapped in a powerhead, attacked by something or disease.

Glad your Clown is happy, his isn't. I've seen Clowns off the coast of Japan while diving and the water wasn't anywhere close to 88F, it was in the mid 70's. Our tanks are not the Ocean. My point was, again; not that the elevated temp and low-ish PH killed the fish but that it could be a contributing factor to it's stress level which in turn lowers it's ability to fight off disease, higher temp water carries less oxygen which also isn't helping. According to his Apex his PH varied between 7.72-7.96 and his temp looks like it was at 82F for a while and dropping as low as 80.4. I agree temp/PH didn't kill the fish, sounds like a disease but getting his temp and PH a little closer to what most of us agree as "normal" will help ease the stress level on his remaining fish until he can get the cause figured out.

 

[Dom]

Ok, is it just me that thinks that the clown looks chewed?
You mention the clown tang, what size tank is it or is tang a typo.
Your apex shows a direct shift as temp went up so did ph, as mentioned lots above you need oxygen in there, do you a corresponding orp trace?
Sorry for your lose.

I thought the same thing... the fins... right?

 

[Hincapiej4]

Glad your Clown is happy, his isn't. I've seen Clowns off the coast of Japan while diving and the water wasn't anywhere close to 88F, it was in the mid 70's. Our tanks are not the Ocean. My point was, again; not that the elevated temp and low-ish PH killed the fish but that it could be a contributing factor to it's stress level which in turn lowers it's ability to fight off disease, higher temp water carries less oxygen which also isn't helping. According to his Apex his PH varied between 7.72-7.96 and his temp looks like it was at 82F for a while and dropping as low as 80.4. I agree temp/PH didn't kill the fish, sounds like a disease but getting his temp and PH a little closer to what most of us agree as "normal" will help ease the stress level on his remaining fish until he can get the cause figured out.

Exactly...why stress them out more than you need to? I mean humans can live in 88 degree temps..but we are happy? When you smile, does it ACTUALLY (every time or are you hiding depression) mean you're happy? If we have issues being able to tell (most of us) when someone isn't actually happy, how could you tell if a clownfish is actually 100% comfortable. You can't, so why not put all parameters inside the range where people who have done the research agree is best? Being in 88degree temps in the wild doesn't mean they are that happy, it means they haven't moved and are dealing with it.

Come on man, get it together.

 

[JohnGP]

That's what myself and others were trying to convey, why not try and lower the stress level as much as possible and make the remaining animals more comfortable while trying to get to the root cause of the problem? It's just common sense and good husbandry but it seems some on here would rather argue with any single point just for the sake of argument or to prove how smart they(think they) are rather than try and help. I'm not saying I'm an expert or any such thing but I'm starting to understand why so many more experienced people no longer want to offer advice/help anymore. I see it more and more often these days on many forums and not just fish keeping forums either...

OP: Any more updates? How are your remaining fish doing? I think if you posted a pic or two of your tank and got some more info on your parameters it would be helpful to some to help diagnose what may be going wrong here.
Do you have a QT/Hospital tank?
I think I saw where your other Clown died, did you give him a FW dip and see any Flukes?
I see where several people have asked for your NO3, PO4 and maybe even NH3 levels, do you happen to have those?

Have you or anyone in your household been using spray chemicals in your living room, like Febreeze, Pledge or maybe a scented candle or something like that? Years ago a friends tank got wiped by his wife using some type of spray furniture polish. Just throwing some ideas out there...

 

[Bradsreeftank21]

Thanks again everyone for giving me different suggestions and possible reasons for the death of the fish. I just returned home and here are some photos of the fish that are still alive. Also upon arriving home I also found my anthias fish was dead inside my elegance coral. The remaining three fish a razz, mandarin goby and clown tang all seem to be doing fine although ever since I bought the clown tang he does suddenly every now and then start all around the tank and sometimes scrapes the sand and the rocks which from what I’m told is not good but the strange thing is he’s been doing it for two months now and hasn’t showed any other signs of disease. I will try and figure out ways to call the tank temperature down and work on my pH level although these levels haven’t changed since I had these fish. But here are photos of the fish that are still alive. I’m using voice to text so hopefully this doesn’t come out wrong. Sorry if I didn’t answer somebody’s question I’m trying to read and answer them all thanks again

 

[Hincapiej4]

Clownfish tend to do weird **** sometimes. They don't really swim how others do and have odd personalities sometimes. Long as they don't show any signs of anything and are EATING they are probably fine.