Sudden Deaths

[Danielsj]

Hey guys so i have just lost both of my clowns today. I have had them for about 2,5 months and they have been thriving eating and not showing any signs of sickness at any point until today. So this morning when i got up my smallest clown was laying on the sand breathing heavy, i fed the tank to see if he would get up but no response i then gave him a freshwater dip to see if any parasites where irritating him but nothing came off him. I then had to leave for university and when i got home in the afternoon he was dead.. no visible marks on him, no discoloration or anything just sudden death out of nowhere. Then just 10 minutes ago my second larger clown, who had been looking fine and healthy all day also eating fine this morning started spazzing out and within 30 seconds she completely stopped moving and is now also dead... again no visible marks, discoloration or anything. My tank parameters are all good, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 2-5 nitrates, about 25-26 degrees celsius, 1.025 salinity and around 8 alkalinity. I also have a midas blenny who's looking perfectly fine so i quite frankly dont understand whats going on.. i'm quite sad i have lost these two, and not knowing what the heck happened does not help. Would be nice with some input on what could have gone wrong

 

[Jekyl]

Any recent additions?

 

[Danielsj]

Any recent additions?

Yes the Midas Blenny along with 3 snails and two small coral frags just about a week ago

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Sorry you lost those 2 fish. Bummer. When I hear situations like this where everything seems very stable, I share a situation that took place about a year ago. I was maintaining a number of tanks for an aquarium maintenance company and the owner asked me to go to this one person’s home, they had lost both yes clownfish in one night. I thoroughly checked the notes from the previous week when we were out for maintenance. Everything looked fine. I proceeded to ask them about external pollutants that could have found their way into the tank. Bingo! The day before the deaths, their new puppy crapped on the rug in the room. They immediately had it professionally cleaned and the room sprayed. The small tank (40ish gallons) had a skimmer on it. The skimmer should have been unplugged. It allowed all of those airborne toxins to enter the tank. Unfortunate. This may not be your exact case. But bug sprayers? Maids with windex, lemon pledge etc. you get the idea.

 

[Danielsj]

Sorry you lost those 2 fish. Bummer. When I hear situations like this where everything seems very stable, I share a situation that took place about a year ago. I was maintaining a number of tanks for an aquarium maintenance company and the owner asked me to go to this one person’s home, they had lost both yes clownfish in one night. I thoroughly checked the notes from the previous week when we were out for maintenance. Everything looked fine. I proceeded to ask them about external pollutants that could have found their way into the tank. Bingo! The day before the deaths, their new puppy crapped on the rug in the room. They immediately had it professionally cleaned and the room sprayed. The small tank (40ish gallons) had a skimmer on it. The skimmer should have been unplugged. It allowed all of those airborne toxins to enter the tank. Unfortunate. This may not be your exact case. But bug sprayers? Maids with windex, lemon pledge etc. you get the idea.

Its not easy with these aquariums sometimes.. Thanks for the suggestion but i'm just a student so i live in a small apartment and do my own cleaning and i dont use any sprays of any sort not to mention i have not done any cleaning for the last week.. also i dont run a skimmer, i have a very low tech setup. My next move is gonna be just seeing how the rest of the animals in the aquarium do, hopefully they will all survive. And then i will check copper levels and other more special things like that, might also start a quarantine tank to prevent something like this happening again in the future, granted i dont actually know if it was brought in by the new additions yet..

 

[Jay Hemdal]

If the clownfish didn't show any external signs (white spots or mucus sheets) then you can usually rule out Brooklynella or marine ich. Rapid breathing itself is a general symptom, caused by a variety of problems, however, the fast change from the start of symptoms to death is reminiscent of the gill disease velvet, Amyloodinium. The Midas blenny blenny being fine clouds that diagnosis - unless not enough time has yet passed to have it show symptoms yet. Gill flukes do not show such a quick decline.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey guys so i have just lost both of my clowns today. I have had them for about 2,5 months and they have been thriving eating and not showing any signs of sickness at any point until today. So this morning when i got up my smallest clown was laying on the sand breathing heavy, i fed the tank to see if he would get up but no response i then gave him a freshwater dip to see if any parasites where irritating him but nothing came off him. I then had to leave for university and when i got home in the afternoon he was dead.. no visible marks on him, no discoloration or anything just sudden death out of nowhere. Then just 10 minutes ago my second larger clown, who had been looking fine and healthy all day also eating fine this morning started spazzing out and within 30 seconds she completely stopped moving and is now also dead... again no visible marks, discoloration or anything. My tank parameters are all good, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 2-5 nitrates, about 25-26 degrees celsius, 1.025 salinity and around 8 alkalinity. I also have a midas blenny who's looking perfectly fine so i quite frankly dont understand whats going on.. i'm quite sad i have lost these two, and not knowing what the heck happened does not help. Would be nice with some input on what could have gone wrong

What test kits are you using ?
Any increase in breathing respirations?
Have you checked for possible stray voltage?

Sounds like they both stopped eating and lethargic behavior. Did you notice any loss of color ?

 

[Danielsj]

What test kits are you using ?
Any increase in breathing respirations?
Have you checked for possible stray voltage?

Sounds like they both stopped eating and lethargic behavior. Did you notice any loss of color ?

I'm using red sea test kits, they both started breating heavily but only around a half an hour before they passed. I have not checked for stray voltage but i have another fish in the aquarium which is still healthy. They both ate and acted fine up til right before they passed..