We have had our 55gallon tank for going on 3 months now. We have right now a Yellow tang, clown fish, gobi, and somet crabs. We have ordered all the clown fish off the internet. And out of 9 clown fish one has made it. And now he isn't doing well. Swimming around like crazy and doing what the others started doing before they died. We have not changed anything for a while now. And he was eating really well but now he won't eat at all. We are new at this saltwater aquarium thing and we love it. But I don't like the fish dieing. My yellow tang has something on his gills and he turns pale yellow sometimes. We have already cured him for black ich and he doesn't have anymore. So. I don't know what is going on. We have checked everything in the tank and it all is good. The only thing we haven't check for is Copper. Please help.
Clown Fish Keeps dieing!!!
- Thread starter bowchic16
- Start date
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Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
What did you do to cure the tang of black ich... and did you do it in the main tank or a quarantine tank?
Can you post your actual water parameters for everything you've tested for? That will help start the ball rolling. I know you said everything is "good", but in the past some people's definition of "good" hasn't turned out to be so good!
Also... how are you acclimating the clown to the tank?
Can you post your actual water parameters for everything you've tested for? That will help start the ball rolling. I know you said everything is "good", but in the past some people's definition of "good" hasn't turned out to be so good!
Also... how are you acclimating the clown to the tank?
thincat
Aquarium Advice Addict
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Also am I to understand that you recieved 9 Clown fish through the mail at one time. How large were they? Did you QT them?
MichaelsLilGray
Aquarium Advice FINatic
with a tank that is 3 months old... id expect they were just dumped in.
writestuff
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I used to have a lot of problems with dying clowns. I have a great advisor at a fish shop who says that Nemo type clowns are over captured and not very healthy. I have never had one live long. I switched to a Maroon clown and have had him quite awhile. Just a thought.
Sadielynn
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There are a few things that could be going on here . One is clown fish disease or Brooklynella hostilis this is one of the worst things to get next to ich .. Both are hard to treat ..and eradicate. Once in the system this will need to be fallow for a period of not less than 3 months IME as this will allow for the cycle to continue and give it a host .. With brook it looks like the skin is falling off (think of a burn and the skin peels away) this is essentially what happens this is something that by the time we see the disease you are likely to not be able to do a darn thing about it . It is almost always very quick acting from the time you see it to the time the clown subcomes just a matter of hours or days .. Salvation for that clown is not good 
The other things are that you having issues with water flow as well as O2 saturation . Are you ordering them from the same place and how are they comming ? Did they have heat paks ? Clowns are not the best shippers however if you are getting them from a reputable place you should be able to get your money back .. if you are not sure then you may not be getting healthy stock .. Check your local pet stores look for bright coloring and bright eyes , active as well as no nipped fins etc .. Ask them to feed them , if they do and they actively feed chances are they are good .. ask them to hold them for a day or 2 ... Also how are you acclimating them ? I found that with my clowns they did better if they were acclimated at a some what quicker pace ... this may not be true for all but I have had the same clowns for nearly 4 years .... Since you have a larger tank a good investment would be a QT tank to hold them ... You can use a tupperware tote and place them in there just be sure to cycle it as well .. the benifit of the tupperware tote is you can get any size they can be clear or colored (which will help prevent stressing to the animals and you can rig a temp light to be on to check them .. They are cheap enough that if you have to deal with a disease to toss them or use them in the garden If you are finding that you need to medicate (which is rarely needed just pristine H20 conditions and keeping them fed well and use some selcon , ) you can transfer that to a glass tank ... You wont want sand or rock but you can use PVC pipes for hidey holes for them so they are even more secure ... they are also cheap enough to replace if meds are introduced .. Other wise you can dip them into boiling water between QTs to disenfect them ..
When introducing fish into the QT or the maintank from QT the first day leave the lights out , then feed them a day or so later after they have had time to explore use selcon and garlic to trigger them to eat and the selcon as a nutrient boost ... Just another quick note I had issues with mine when I first started and God only knows how many I killed but then I slowed it down and things just sorta fell into place ..
The other things are that you having issues with water flow as well as O2 saturation . Are you ordering them from the same place and how are they comming ? Did they have heat paks ? Clowns are not the best shippers however if you are getting them from a reputable place you should be able to get your money back .. if you are not sure then you may not be getting healthy stock .. Check your local pet stores look for bright coloring and bright eyes , active as well as no nipped fins etc .. Ask them to feed them , if they do and they actively feed chances are they are good .. ask them to hold them for a day or 2 ... Also how are you acclimating them ? I found that with my clowns they did better if they were acclimated at a some what quicker pace ... this may not be true for all but I have had the same clowns for nearly 4 years .... Since you have a larger tank a good investment would be a QT tank to hold them ... You can use a tupperware tote and place them in there just be sure to cycle it as well .. the benifit of the tupperware tote is you can get any size they can be clear or colored (which will help prevent stressing to the animals and you can rig a temp light to be on to check them .. They are cheap enough that if you have to deal with a disease to toss them or use them in the garden
If you are finding that you need to medicate (which is rarely needed just pristine H20 conditions and keeping them fed well and use some selcon , ) you can transfer that to a glass tank ... You wont want sand or rock but you can use PVC pipes for hidey holes for them so they are even more secure ... they are also cheap enough to replace if meds are introduced .. Other wise you can dip them into boiling water between QTs to disenfect them .. When introducing fish into the QT or the maintank from QT the first day leave the lights out , then feed them a day or so later after they have had time to explore use selcon and garlic to trigger them to eat and the selcon as a nutrient boost ... Just another quick note I had issues with mine when I first started and God only knows how many I killed but then I slowed it down and things just sorta fell into place ..
Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
I took it to mean they'd gone through 9 fish... but not all at the same time.
But seeing it's been about 10 days with no answers from the original poster, I'm guessing it wasn't that important!
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