My clownfish died just after a day

I have a 6 gallon nano tank and wanted to make it for one clownfish, It had pool sand and the water was fresh sea water. The temperature was 76 degrees and there was some hermit crabs and shrimps. The filtration was 435lph internal filter with biomedia. The filter and the tank was new. I know I rushed things but I did a full water change later that day when I saw the clownfish staying at one spot and was my intention to keep doing partial water changes until the nitrogen cycle was complete. Later he was laying on his side breathing very fast. I didn't know what to do next. The day after I woke up and found him dead. I still could not understand how he died because the other creatures were fine and are still fine now. I don't think that the ammonia would spike that quickly to kill him.

Any thoughts how he might have died?

 

You should have cycled the tank before putting the fish in, and also from my research from when I was thinking about getting clowns it was my understanding that a pair requires 20gal, so I'd assume one needs at least ten. Though I could be wrong on that.

 

Thanks but leave aside the stocking size. I know people where I live that have the same tank and have the clownfish for quite a long time now, they told me that water changes is the key and I think it's true. Could it be the sand? maybe it altered the ph or something.

 

You should have cycled the tank before putting the fish in, and also from my research from when I was thinking about getting clowns it was my understanding that a pair requires 20gal, so I'd assume one needs at least ten. Though I could be wrong on that.

^That. Tank is too small (I wouldn't put a clown in under 15 gals) and needs to be cycled fully, clowns are sensitive to ammonia.

 

Clowns aren't that sensitive. Mine was in a fish-in cycle for a bit and faired very well. As well as being left alone all winter break and having his salinity skyrocket. Plenty of serious reef-keepers keep small clowns in pico tanks

 

i'm thinking of getting a tomato clown instead of the false percula. I have had one for some time and never died.

 

Could the clownfish died of high salinity like 1.028?

 

Clowns aren't that sensitive. Mine was in a fish-in cycle for a bit and faired very well. As well as being left alone all winter break and having his salinity skyrocket. Plenty of serious reef-keepers keep small clowns in pico tanks

Not by marine standards, no, but they're not something I'd ever recommend to cycle a tank, especially one that small. You got lucky with a tough clown and a gentle cycle. And OP is a beginner, not an experienced reef keeper. Takes a LOOOOOOT more work to keep parameters stable in a tank that small, especially without doing a fishless cycle first.

Could the clownfish died of high salinity like 1.028?

Tomatos can handle higher salinity than ocellaris, ideal is 1.024 to 1.026, but 1.028 is a bit high. They also can get very large, recommended minimum tank size is 30 gallons.

 

There's a reason people say that clownfish are good starter fish, TBB ... they're of the damsel family and can pretty much take the same type of treatment as damsels can and come through with flying colors. Granted, we should strive to give them what they need, but the only way they're really sensitive is if they're sick to begin with. Ocellaris/percula also don't get big ... 4" is their maximum size and it takes several years. Maroons, tomatos, etc. do get bigger but occies, not so much.

I've also noticed in all honesty that Saltwater is easier to take care of then Freshwater as long as things stay stable[and even so, it seems Freshwater fares worse with fluctuations then Saltwater does -- at one point the SG of my tank was 1.030 and yet, everything seemed happy as ever]. My saltwater fish tend to live for years and years where my Freshwater fish get sick and die out of nowhere due to bad genetics and already being weakened from stress of fish store tanks before I even got to get them.

 

. Ocellaris/percula also don't get big ... 4" is their maximum size and it takes several years. Maroons, tomatos, etc. do get bigger but occies, not so much.

OP was talking about tomatos, and so was I (edited to make that clear). These aren't "random facts", to whoever gave me that comment, minimum recommended tank size REALLY IS 30 gallons for tomatos. I can literally link you to 20 care websites backing me up on that if you'd like.

I wouldn't recommend a beginning salt keeper cycle a 6 gallon tank with an ocellaris, I stand by that. 10, 15, 20 gallons, maybe. I work at a LFS, we have people try to do it all the time and more often than not it's a disaster. It obviously didn't work this time-the fish is dead. I always recommend fishless cycling for salt (or, at the very least, adding critters one at a time instead of in a group like OP did).

 

TBB, what fish would you suggest for the OP to have in general? I would imagine that something from the damsel family wouldn't work unless it was an ocellaris or something similar.

Just to input for ZombieKeepr (he went to run some errands), I believe he saw the post for the OP wanting a tomato instead of a false percula and got mixed up. He has his facts right, but they just got jumbled up with the posts. He's kept tomatoes and ocellaris, so at least he knows what he's doing when it comes to Saltwater fish.

Sorry to hear that someone gave you a comment like that, though. That's not very nice ... people on this forum are weird sometimes ... (no offense to anyone in particular)

So, I guess it comes down to the OP having to choose a different type of clownfish, correct? Honestly, I'm not sure about your preferences, but I think an occie would do great. ZombieKeepr's occie is so adorable.

 

(just fyI I gave no comments.. Idk what you're even talking about lol)

I say what I say based on personal experience. My clown did fine. Idk if I'd call his cycle gentle lol it was a bit of a mess. Poor fella went in the same day I dumped the sand in. A cloudy mess, it was. And hes still with me today. (I was no expert at that time either)

Tomato Clown would be a bad idea for a pico tank. An O. Clown would fair alright in a 6 gallon pico. honestly pico tanks are easier to care for than the larger ones. Parameters really won't get that out of whack unless its severely overstocked. Have one clown, maybe a snail and a shrimp, do little water changes with a cup and you're good to go.

I know plenty of reef-keepers with small 5 gallon and under tanks just sitting on desks that do fine without needing to be watched over like a hawk.

Working at a LFS doesn't mean much, no offense. I work at PetSmart but by no means do I know a lot. I'm also a member of my city and state reef club. But that really doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot.

 

I have a 66 gallons tank with two clowns in it. I want to remind you that not all fish are harvested safely, and if yours wasn't harvested correctly it could have died as a result of that. Or a combination of things. Make sure you know where your fish come from and how they were harvested.

 

OP, when you did the water change, how did you mix the saltwater before hand? And did you measure the salinity of the new water? Walk me through what you did

 

Working at a LFS doesn't mean much, no offense. I work at PetSmart but by no means do I know a lot. I'm also a member of my city and state reef club. But that really doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot.

Not in terms of expertise, no! But I do get to be witness to more first time salt tank cycling disasters than I care to remember LOL.

 

I edited my post, so if you want to read it then you can. I just wanted to fill in, since I was trying to edit my post without sounding stupid. >.<

Also, I agree with Nemo. I believe that the main reason a lot of new fish die is because there's the stress from them being captured and shipped and then shipped once again to their final destination - your tank. Some fish, fresh and salt water, are captive bred, but many are not due to the time and difficulty for their spawning. It's easier and cheaper for people to catch the wild fish, and that's why many of them never make it out of the store, let alone living for years in your tank. Not only that, but even if they do survive, the fish can suffer from a weakened immune system and can die after weeks of it being fine in your tank.

 

Not in terms of expertise, no! But I do get to be witness to more first time salt tank cycling disasters than I care to remember LOL.

Easy way to cycle SW, toss in a live rock that you don't care for and let it rot o.o

Or even better use the LR as a seeding material for your filter, as LR acts as a biological filter anywho. If OP had LR in the tank, it shouldn't have crashed that hard, now that I think of it. Adding LR is like instant cycling your tank.

There are people who just use wavemakers/pumps and live rock rather than filters, especially in reef tanks where a filter pad is a nitrate farm, which is no bueno for delicate coral

 

TBB, what fish would you suggest for the OP to have in general? I would imagine that something from the damsel family wouldn't work unless it was an ocellaris or something similar.

Just to input for ZombieKeepr (he went to run some errands), I believe he saw the post for the OP wanting a tomato instead of a false percula and got mixed up. He has his facts right, but they just got jumbled up with the posts. He's kept tomatoes and ocellaris, so at least he knows what he's doing when it comes to Saltwater fish.

Sorry to hear that someone gave you a comment like that, though. That's not very nice ... people on this forum are weird sometimes ... (no offense to anyone in particular)

So, I guess it comes down to the OP having to choose a different type of clownfish, correct? Honestly, I'm not sure about your preferences, but I think an occie would do great. ZombieKeepr's occie is so adorable.

OP certainly *could* keep an ocellaris in the 6 gal. I wouldn't personally do it, wouldn't really recommend it, but it's done successfully sometimes. But I really really would recommend a fishless cycle.

Personally, my go-to for pico tanks are always small shrimp and goby pairs

 

I love gobies. Would you suggest a firefish with something like sexy shrimp after the tank is properly cycled?

 

I love gobies. Would you suggest a firefish with something like sexy shrimp after the tank is properly cycled?

It's on the small size for firefish too. Same as the ocellaris-you could do it, it may work, I wouldn't.

 

You guys are braver than I lol. Only thing I'd put in a salty tank less than 10 gallon is shrimp, snails, or tiny coral, given my awesome experience trying to start a 5 gallon mini-reef.

 

Haha, true. I've only seen a minimum size of a 15 gallon for a firefish and ocellaris. They looked happy. Still, the OP could totally get some sexy shrimp. Those little guys crack me up. Still, don't forget about the hermit crabs! Dwarf blue legs are my favorites.

 

If they weren't such a pain to feed I would totally be bringing home the pair of harlequin shrimp from one of my LFS :3

 

Goby/Shrimp pairs are amazing to watch. I'd live to get me some but I'm too poor from Freshwater already lol so my Osc Clown will be forever alone with his hermit crab and shrimp friends

 

lol yep. If anything, I'd have a pico tank with an army of dwarf blue leg hermits and turbo snails. Gotta love the clean up crews that you can get a hold of sometimes.

 

For those that may have forgotten the OP

I have a 6 gallon nano tank and wanted to make it for one clownfish, It had pool sand and the water was fresh sea water. The temperature was 76 degrees and there was some hermit crabs and shrimps. The filtration was 435lph internal filter with biomedia. The filter and the tank was new. I know I rushed things but I did a full water change later that day when I saw the clownfish staying at one spot and was my intention to keep doing partial water changes until the nitrogen cycle was complete. Later he was laying on his side breathing very fast. I didn't know what to do next. The day after I woke up and found him dead. I still could not understand how he died because the other creatures were fine and are still fine now. I don't think that the ammonia would spike that quickly to kill him.

Any thoughts how he might have died?

How was the fish acclimated?
Do you know if it was tank-bred or wild-caught?
Do you know where the sea water came from? Could it be contaminated?

Tank-bred fish tend to be more resilient than wild-caught, and tend to have less risk of carrying an existing ailment.

Do you have readings for pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? Was your specific gravity measured with a refractometer or hydrometer (the latter being less accurate). Your temperature is on the lower side, but shouldn't be the cause.

If the fish wasn't acclimated slowly, combined with a full water change, it's very possible that the parameter swing was enough to stress the fish, resulting in its untimely death. You indicated the fish was breathing heavily, this could indicate oxygen starvation, ammonia poisoning (any evidence of inflamed/red gills?), and even nitrate poisoning.

Without the parameters, it's hard to make an accurate call.

 

The marine aquarium is very nice to own but require a lot of time and money to run it. It's not for me for sure.

 

I have no experience at all but I've read on here not to do water changes during the cycle and was wondering why people are recomending to do them here.Is it because of the tank size or some other reason

 

I decided to take another chance of starting a marine tank so I had a 15 gallon tank and gave it a go. As for water, sand and rocks, I picked up from the sea. I have a 100w heater which I think should be good to heat the tank. The room temperature is 68ºF and an internal filter with carbon and biomedia.