One clownfish dead, other laying on bottom, help!

I have a 20 gallon long with two clownfish and a cleaner shrimp in it. Everything was totally fine and happy until today when I arrived home to see one of the clowns dead and the other one just barely hanging on. The clown that’s alive in laying on the bottom of the tank breathing extremely fast. These cleaner shrimp is unaffected and being totally fine. I texted the water and all parameters are totally fine. The salinity is great as normal. And the temp is the same as well. Nothing has changed since I got them a couple months ago. The tank was cycled when I got them and they were so happy. I added seachem stability, pimafix, and melafix. someone please help me. I don’t want to lose my second clown.

 

I'd be willing to bet they got into a fight, can you see any injuries on either fish?

 

I'd be willing to bet they got into a fight, can you see any injuries on either fish?

No injuries

 

Hmmm, Jesterrace stella1979 what are your thoughts?

 

Could they be sick? maybe they had some kind of infection before you brought them home. AmmonI and Nitrate levels are low?

 

Can you tell us a little more about the tank? Pics?

 

Can you tell us a little more about the tank? Pics?

Not home right now but it’s a 20 gallon long with live sand and a live rock structure. The light is on for about 6-8 hours a day.

 

Update: I woke this morning to see that the remaining clown has passed. Thank you everyone for you help

 

I'm sorry for your loss, really wish we could've gotten you an answer.
Where did you get the live rock from, and how did you prep it? My only guess at this point would be that it brought some disease into the tank

 

Sorry for your loss. Unfortunately there are many variables and although we can't bring your fish back, we might be able to trouble shoot to prevent this in the future. So forgive me but I will run off a list of questions to try and narrow it down.

1) What test kit are you using? API is notoriously inacurrate (ie False Positives for Ammonia, Nitrates where it's difficult to tell what the levels are)

2) How do you acclimate your fish? Also have you checked the salinity levels from your LFS or Online site that you order from? If it's significantly different from your tank levels and you don't acclimate properly that can be a problem?

3) Did you notice any kind of a sort of copper colored or reddish color shine to the fish after they died? This is a calling card of velvet which is a very quick killer.

4) Did you QT the fish or just add them to the display tank? Also do you happen to know if the fish are wild caught or captive bred?

5) What exactly are the salinity levels and parameters that your tank tested at?

6) Are you using treated tap water or RODI water?

 

Sorry for your loss. Unfortunately there are many variables and although we can't bring your fish back, we might be able to trouble shoot to prevent this in the future. So forgive me but I will run off a list of questions to try and narrow it down.

1) What test kit are you using? API is notoriously inacurrate (ie False Positives for Ammonia, Nitrates where it's difficult to tell what the levels are)

2) How do you acclimate your fish? Also have you checked the salinity levels from your LFS or Online site that you order from? If it's significantly different from your tank levels and you don't acclimate properly that can be a problem?

3) Did you notice any kind of a sort of copper colored or reddish color shine to the fish after they died? This is a calling card of velvet which is a very quick killer.

4) Did you QT the fish or just add them to the display tank? Also do you happen to know if the fish are wild caught or captive bred?

5) What exactly are the salinity levels and parameters that your tank tested at?

6) Are you using treated tap water or RODI water?

1) I was told time and time again to replace my test strips I use for freshwater and get the apI master test kit before started saltwater. So I did. It’s the one with the test tubes and the drops.

2) when acclimating my fish I followed the method that I’ve seen many people do. I folded the bag over to make a sort of floatation device. I left the bag floating for 30 minutes then added a little bit of the tank water every 10 minutes

3) when the fish died I noticed difference. Their colors were all the exact same as they had been before.

4) when I brought my fish home they were the only fish going into the tank. Even if they had diseases when I bought them they only couldn’t have spread it to any other fish. The clowns I selected were captive bred.

5) I don’t remember exactly but everything was exactly how it had been since I got them. I am using tap water but I treat it with conditioner and stability before I add salt.

Bonus answers: I got my live rock from a lfs down the street from me that sells live rocks from a wall of custom aquariums he has with only live rock in them. I bought a few pounds of live rock and then the rest in dry rock and set it up in a nice structure that my cleaner shrimp and fish had so much fun playing around. I have a magnetic scraper that I wipe off algae with as well as a hang in the tank hydrometer. (Side note: I don’t like the hang in the tank one so I have an instand ocean one that I fill up and test the tank a couple times a week) no parameters have altered since the time I got the fish. I’ve had the fish for months now and they were so healthy and fine until just yesterday.

Thank you for all your help. If you have any other questions I’d be more than happy to answer them

Edit: I briefly rinsed the live rock off in treated water. Then I washed the dry rock off in tap water. I left the tank running for multiple months with just the rocks and sand to let it cycle testing it every week. Once the tank remained at the proper levels for over a month I looked into getting fish

 

Test Strips are the worst, but API isn't much better. Red Sea, Salifert, Hannah and Nyos are all better choices. Captive bred tend to be hardier and significantly less likely to have diseases BUT still not guaranteed. The thing that makes me suspect parasites is the fact that the fish are fed, but the shrimp appears to be fine. There are several types of parasites (ie ich, velvet, etc.) which are unique to fish gills. They often show visible signs but not always. The other possibility is that your tap water has something nasty in it, although that would've affected the shrimp as well. As a precaution though, I would test the tap water to see where the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at. Municipal water systems periodically do flushes that can spike Ammonia a bit. Harmless to humans but deadly to marine life. If nothing else this will help narrow down what the trouble is.

 

I don't have much to add that Jester hasn't already... so can only reiterate his point about parasites like velvet and ich being very hard to see until it's too late. Another issue that plagues clownfish is Brooklynella. I've very sorry you lost the fish and while there's nothing we can do about that now, it would be best for you to familiarize yourself with the signs of common diseases. Even when we can't see visible signs of a parasite, we might venture a guess that the fish is sick based on behavior. For example, 'heavy breathing' could indicate a parasitic infection or maybe flukes in the gills.

Because these things are so very common, I follow a qt method that calls for prophylactic treatment of fish. In other words, I treat all new fish with PraziPro from the get-go in case of flukes or worms and am highly suspicious/observant in the first several weeks and ready to treat with copper for parasites should a new fish show even the slightest indication. While PrazI is fairly mild, you absolutely do not want to use copper in a display tank as it will kill inverts and beneficial critters on live rock. This is why it's good to have a simple qt setup even if the fish are to be the only ones in a tank.

Anyhow, you did nothing wrong and I'm really sorry about the losses. I'm also sorry to say that your display tank is unsafe for new fish... I wouldn't add any fish until the tank has been fishless for at least 80 days. The reason for that timeframe is that studies have revealed that marine ich can survive up to 76 days without a host. I'm not sure about the timeframe for velvet or brooklynella but a 90 day fallow (without fish) period is the general guideline for ridding a tank of parasites. Hope this helped a little. Good luck!!