View Full Version : I lost my clown?... Help!
ooja3k
09-03-2007, 7:57 PM
So i just returned home after the holiday weekend...
I can't find my clown!?!??! Did he die??
Water parameters after my return:
Ammo - 0
Trites- 0
Trates - 20
SG - 1.023
Temp - 82
I know the temp is high and i could have roasted him... I just put extra fans on the tank trying to cool it off...
I can't find him anywhere??? Could my clean up crew gotten rid of him already?? I think him dying would have created a small spike in either ammo or trites or even trates..
I was only gone 2 and a half days...
More info: On of my rocks with mushrooms shriveled up and got completely rotten away and another rock is spitting its stomach out...
Whats happening???
My other clown that is in quarantine is doing fine..
Almondsaz
09-03-2007, 8:04 PM
Sounds to me that your temp could have gone higher when you were gone? Is that possible? Do you have an aquacontroller that you can check the data log to see if the temp got higher? Shrooms are hardy, but seem sensitive to the higher temps (IMO). Usually there is something of the body left even after the hermits....could he be hiding in a small space in your reef for cooler temps?
ooja3k
09-03-2007, 8:06 PM
Thats what im wondering... There is an area that i can't ever see where my shrimp usually hide...
I don't think the temp ever got above probably 84...
I thought ocellaris clowns were relatively hardy...
My QT tank is at 78 and my ocellaris in there is doing fine...
Im soo lost....
clown-lover
09-03-2007, 8:08 PM
Sorry for your loss.. Here is a story of mine..
I bought a pygmy cherub angelfish (which was larger than my clowns) on a Friday, last I saw him was feeding on monday and by wednesday morning there was nothing left of him. I tore my tank apart looking for him.. Let me tell you.. Every piece of rock everything. While I was at it I replumbed.. and checked the plumbing.. So is it possible.
Almondsaz
09-03-2007, 8:09 PM
I hope you find him. I have raised my pair since they were babies and needless to say I really like them, they are starting to respond at feeding time.
There's a thought, does your clown respond to feeding - meaning stops what ever their doing to feed? You have probably already tried that.
Hope he shows up soon.
ooja3k
09-03-2007, 8:36 PM
Usually my shrimp will come out to grab the leftover food that my clown doesn't eat...
He didn't which leads me to believe he is either my shrimp is dead too, or he is still stuffed/eating my clown...
Almondsaz
09-03-2007, 8:44 PM
Ouch....sorry to hear that.
82 shouldn't have caused a death but I wonder if it didn't get higher while you were away as Almond suggested.
ooja3k
09-03-2007, 10:08 PM
ya maybe...
well its down to 76 now...
i took off the top rock which makes the cave where the shrimp usually hides...
he wasn't there...
so now have lost 3 shrimp and a clown...
MYSTERY!!!
but the nutrient levels in the water haven't changed since i left...
WTF?!?!?
FeatherDuster
09-03-2007, 11:27 PM
Cleanup crews usually work fast enough at cleaning up any bodies before they can effect water conditions. A similar thing happened to my cleaner shrimp. It was totally gone within 6 hours.
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 12:05 AM
so what do you guys think killed these guys??
just high temps???
liveaquaria.com has a 14 day guarantee...
i should get replacements for all my lost...
Grins
09-04-2007, 10:46 AM
Could be any number of things. High temps, if they were wild caught vs tank raised, illness that didn't show up the first few days you had them..
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 1:02 PM
they were tank raised... im just totally confused...
my shrimp are gone too... i would think there would be some bodies or something....
Kodiak
09-04-2007, 1:12 PM
so you have had several losses with no signs of the remains?
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 1:14 PM
Nope...
Even scarlets are missing... Lots of empty scarlet shells.. Found 1 blue leg in one though...
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 1:15 PM
My corals aren't opening up too much so im wondering if there is some sort of chemicals in the water that is harming the life in there..
Kodiak
09-04-2007, 1:33 PM
You need to QT what life you have left dude, your tank is geting owned.
salty420
09-04-2007, 3:42 PM
sorry to hear about your losses. when did you set the tank up? if i remember correctly it was recently, right? how have things gone timewise? like - how long to cycle, when first fish added, when second fish added... maybe this has been gone over, it seems that your param's are fine so maybe that's not it (my thoughts = going too fast)... maybe you do have some trace something in there that is cause the troubles...
Could you give us a quick recap of where you are? The levels and stocking before you left and then the same for after your return?
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 4:21 PM
Ya..
Set-up the tank and begun cycling with uncured rock on the 12th of august..
From there it cycled till thursday with nothing else in the tank.. Then i added a raw shrimp which rotted till like mon or tues of the next week... All that time, no ammo or nitrite spike occured... Only the nitrates rose... to about 40 or so i believe at the highest...
A couple days after removing the rotted shrimp, i ordered my clean up crew (The Reef Diversity Pack) from etropicals.com
Everything was float method acclimated... (I didn't have the drip method figured out yet).
At this point everything was good except for the coral banded shrimp was acting funny and lost an arm... He was then just laying on his head so i flushed him... A small shrimp was found dead as well... My guess is they should have been drip acclimated...
A couple weeks have passed and then i got my first fish, two ocellaris clowns from liveaquaria.com
Both were acclimated and examined upon entering the my main tank...
Two days later, (this last friday), i noticed a slime on one of the clown's back and sides.. He was immediately entered into quarantine. The other fish was showing no signs of disease...
The other clown was fresh water dipped multiple times and diagnosed with Brook.
He was treated before i left for the 3 day weekend with a mild dose of Rid-Ich+ which contains the chemicals which gets rid of Brook too...
That clown is doing great as of now!! No more signs of brook at all!!!!
Here is another piece of useful info: For a couple days before i left, since about last tuesday, i had a massive diatom bloom start...
But when i returned from my trip, the clown in the display as well as my last shrimps could not be found...
My tank was completely covered in film algae and i could barely see into the tank...
I checked the skimmer and while i was at it the temp and parameters...
The skimmer was loaded with dark brown gunk, while the parameters were all good, ammo - 0, nitrites - 0, trates -20 ph- 8.4... the temp was not... it was about 82-84 degrees...
I immediately turned off the lights and put fans on the tank and the sump below... I also added some ice cubes to a chamber in the sump... the temp dropped about 2 degrees per hour till it got to about 76 degrees....
One of my rocks of mushrooms was completely obliterated... Just slimy pieces remained...
As of right now...
The tank sides have been cleaned (magfloat)
The parameters have all been checked and everything is good
One out of the other two clusters of mushrooms is all good! One is halfway open and getting bigger...
My frogspawn is open and doing great!
Multiple hermit shells have been found.. Including a scarlet leg shell that a dwarf blue leg had won..
All WCs have been with tap water so far.. But the autotop off is always filled with distilled...
Im about to do a 25% WC with distilled water...
What could be going on?
Just one more question..what has your SG been?
missc4
09-04-2007, 6:27 PM
I feel your loss.I lost one of my maroon clowns last week and I have had them for 3 months or better.Don't know what happened,,where he went or anything.All my tests are normal ,He was just gone one day.I think my clean upcrew got to him very quickly because I saw no signs of him anywhere..All my other fish are fine,but I miss my second clown.
Amphiprion
09-04-2007, 8:41 PM
The temperatures wouldn't have killed it. Unless it went ridiculously high (upper 80s, 90), something else is to blame. Everything should have died if it was high enough to kill your fish, honestly. I am leaning toward something being wrong with the clown or something else dying first and killing the clown afterwards. Either one would explain the mushrooms being shriveled and upset (and in the other instance, rotting away). I suggest you do several water changes with purified water to at least eliminate some variables. Running carbon can't hurt either. Although it certainly isn't the cause of the problem, you may want to raise your specific gravity/ salinity a bit. 1.0264 is natural seawater. BTW, what are you using to measure salinity? Most hydrometers are notoriously inaccurate.
ooja3k
09-04-2007, 9:12 PM
i just have a basic hydrometer...
my SG has been about 1.025ish... and i have auto-top off to keep it at that...
my clown must have come down with brook while i was gone...
is it that deadly???
what could have killed me shrimps??? or maybe its jsut a molt and hes just hiding really really well...
The ammonia from the death could have killed them. And yes Brook does kill that fast.
ooja3k
09-05-2007, 12:37 AM
wow...
i thought my nitrates would be higher then... but maybe my skimmer did that good of a job?!?!?
come to think of it there was a ton of gunk in my collection cup for only having one fish in the tank...
k so thats what i think happened... the fish died of brook, and then the ammonia that ensued killed the shrimp, but the skimmer took the proteins out before they could make it any further through the nitrification process...
so..
how long should i keep the other fish in quarantine...
I'd give him 2 weeks of being well.
Sploke
09-05-2007, 8:47 AM
And if you already have a QT tank setup, I'd recommend using it for any future additions. Nothing goes into my main tank without a 4 week QT first.
AshtonMitchell
09-05-2007, 9:50 AM
You need to QT what life you have left dude, your tank is geting owned.
werd.
on a lighter note perhaps your clown went to the circus hahahaha oh bad joke k i'm done. sorry for your loss man.
ooja3k
09-05-2007, 11:38 AM
its all good...
i just totally didn't expect that scenario when i returned... i thought the sick one would probably be dead and the one in the tank be doing well...
oh well..
ive seen two different sites which say the tank needs to be fallow for 3 weeks and another said 8 weeks...
you think two weeks would be ok grins?
Grins
09-05-2007, 12:19 PM
Hmm I know to leave the site fallow after ich but not about Brook. If you're reading to leave it fallow after Brook as well I'd give it 6-8 weeks.
ooja3k
09-05-2007, 12:58 PM
ya i wonder if anyone will chime in on this...
ive heard ich you need to leave it fallow, but maybe not for brook... ill look on a couple other sites...
Reefscape
09-05-2007, 3:04 PM
As far as i am aware, the recomended fallow period is 4 weeks for brooke...
ooja3k
09-05-2007, 5:30 PM
k gotcha...
thanks!
Amphiprion
09-05-2007, 8:04 PM
Yes, 4 weeks seems to be the consenus.
ooja3k
09-06-2007, 12:32 PM
Well.. I lost an emerald crab in the night... I now have a snail eating away at him...
Im wondering that with such a large cleaning crew.. (50+ critters) There isn't enough food to sustain them yet...
Could that be the possible reason?
Reefscape
09-06-2007, 12:57 PM
Its possible yes in only a 30 gal tank...personly, i would of said a mixture of 30 snails and hermy's in your tank, maximum....
Niko
ooja3k
09-06-2007, 10:48 PM
Well it was the reef diversity pack from etropicals.com they said it was good for a 30-50 gal tank...
guess ther were a bit off...
I think only a couple scarlets out of 12 made it the last couple weeks... All the blue legs are still cranking it out though... Doing well in all the scarlets shells!
Snoogans
09-07-2007, 3:23 AM
Your situation is exactly the same as my latest loss. Went away for a couple of days and on return my clown was gone, absolutely no sign of him. Since then my nitrates have been difficult to control so perhaps his remains are still around, yet unable to locate them. So lots of water changes at present.
Can I overdo the water changes and end up removing too much of my tank water and replacing it with too much new water? I have concerns I will unsettle the system
ooja3k
09-07-2007, 2:31 PM
OMG OMG OMG OMG
I found him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He was in the overflow!!!!!!! Its all black acrylic with a huge Black PVC silencer in there... I just happen to walk over to my tank and there he was!! Just came up to the surface to say, "Help get me outa here!"
So i did...
And now he is safe and happy swimming in the main tank!!!
Reefscape
09-07-2007, 3:55 PM
Absolutly awsome...really chuffed you have found him...happened to me a couple of times before i decided to put some fine mesh over the opening of the overflow to stop this from happening....great that the fish is all fine...
Niko
ooja3k
09-07-2007, 4:14 PM
well what do you think i should do now??
my other fish is still in quarantine to allow this tank to go fallow... but it hasn't been fallow...
my clown is healthy as can be and exploring the tank! do you think i can take the other fish out of quarantine and put him back in the display or should i wait a couple more days...
ooja3k
09-10-2007, 2:54 AM
bump
You need to finish the fallow period. 6 weeks at least.
salty420
09-10-2007, 2:15 PM
so glad you found him! i agree tho that you shouldn't add the other clown yet.
Subliminal
09-10-2007, 2:39 PM
Just FYI: I don't really know anyone who keeps their tank at 76 degrees. 78-82 seems to be pretty standard.
:)
ooja3k
09-10-2007, 5:17 PM
so should i take my other clown out of my display and put them both into quarantine???
ooja3k
09-10-2007, 10:27 PM
im just curious because it wouldn't my clown that has been in the "contaminated" display tank have gotten sick if the disease was in there???
i just think that he would have gotten sick and now that the other one is cured, i should be able to add the guy that was in quarantine to the display...
grins, you think i should take the one that has been in the display tank out of it, and put him in quarantine too?