very sad day...my true percula is dead...

[proverbs]

i don't know what went wrong. my mys clown and my clarkii seem to be doing fine but yesterday night my nemo was just chillin on the sand bed for awhile and looked like he had no energy. he would then go to the surface almost n a vertical position, like when the fish get tired, and stay around the surface. my water levels are all ok, except my pH is a little low at 7.9, and i doubt this could be the problem. and all the fish seem to get along. anyone know what could have went wrong?

and how do you guys usually get rid of the fish? bury in backyard, toilet, or trash?

 

[HoopsGuru]

How old was the fish?

What size tank?

How old is the tank? (also, what kind of filtration)

What were your exact ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and specific gravity readings?

Extra Edit: Mixing clowns is not recommended, and if not the culprit now will likely be a problem in the future.

 

[proverbs]

the thing i'm wondering is that it had no nips or signs of struggle and fighting from the other fish. so how would the other clown have killed it? if it was the water levels - wouldn't all the other fish be sick too?

i only had the true percula for 1 week. i payed a premium price since i thought the color was perfect - $25.

 

[proverbs]

40 gal tank about 2 1/2 months old.

 

[melosu58]

A forty gallon tank is definitely too small for mixing clowns

 

[AquaReefer]

Yeah I wouldnt put different types of clowns in anything under 75 gallons even if there was no signs of fighting that could have done him in even if they were not fighting the one could have been preventing the other from eating and swimming freely which in turn could have stressed the fish out to the point of no return Sorry for your loss. Hopefully you find a different type of fish and do not mix again

 

[HoopsGuru]

the thing i'm wondering is that it had no nips or signs of struggle and fighting from the other fish. so how would the other clown have killed it? if it was the water levels - wouldn't all the other fish be sick too?

i only had the true percula for 1 week. i payed a premium price since i thought the color was perfect - $25.

As others have mentioned, it could have been stress from tankmates, water conditions, or un-related and the clown was just "not well". All fish, however, will not react to environmental problems in the same way...some fish can "tolerate" poor conditions longer than others.

I would be sure to watch the other fish closely since one has died from an unknown cause. I would also still be interested in your specific parameters for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and sg.

 

[proverbs]

well after i buried my true percula in the backyard, i noticed that my Clarkii was acting the same way as the perc. so now i think it was a disease that the perc brought to the tank, since it was the first one to die. now my clarkii is on the virge of also dying so i am going to pick up some medicine at the fish store. hopefully its not too late.

i noticed that the clarkii and perc were pretty good buddies since they would swim around together, so i guess one gave the other the illness.

 

[melosu58]

Medicine will do no good unless you know what is wrong. The very first place to start is testing your water to see if thast is the problem. Please post results so we can rule out water problems.

 

[lando]

If your clarki is showing the same signs I would turn your attention to water parameters first. As already mentioned we need to know NH3, NO2, NO3, SG, Ph, temp. What makes you think it was a disease or illness?

 

[proverbs]

here is my post regarding my water parameters...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=66894

 

[HoopsGuru]

Not knowing what problem you have, I am not sure what medicine you might be purchasing and adding to your display tank. Do realize that any meds, either antibacterial or antiparasitic, will likely kill your inverts in your tank and may render your liverock dead and unusable for the future.

You do have elevated nitrate levels, this is often a good indicator of overall water quality. It seems your export is not keeping up with the waste created in the tank. This may not be the cause of your current malady, but it may be stressful enough conditions that have your fishes' immune systems weakened.

Any symptoms are necessary for a diagnosis. Simply acting sluggish is a lot like nitrite poisoning, which goes against your current stated water parameters.

 

[proverbs]

Does anyone know what could be wrong!???

well, i put the medicine in yesterday - Copper Power: The safest copper treatment available for treatment of external parasites, ich, oodinium, and fungus.

i believe that the true percula that i bought had some kind of disease and spread it to my Clarkii. i got the Maroon for a couple months ago with 2 blue tangs and everything was good. and then i put the true percula in last friday and put the clarkii in on saturday. everything seemed to be fine. all the fishes were very active and swimming around. all of a sudden, on sunday night, my true percula just swam in one place. i thought he was sick, but then thought he just might be tired. the next morning he was dead. after i buried him, i saw that the clarkii was acting the same way, so i put him in a hanging box net inside the tank and when i went to go buy medicine at the LFS. when i came back home, my clarkii was laying on bottom of the box net like he was dead. luckily, he was still breathing. a couple hours after i put the medicine in, he started swimming again, but only at the top of the surface in one spot. and today my maroon just stayed in one corner and did not come out for the whole day, only for a few seconds when i threw in some food. my clarkii is still just swimming in one place and does not move around AT ALL. i threw in some food, but he didn't eat all day. i did take out my snails before i put the medicine in, but left everything else in.

my goby, shrimps, and crabs are still active and going about as if nothing happened. my 2 blue tangs are still swimming around and often stop by the corner of the tank to visit my maroon.

are there particular spots that fish like to sleep? i noticed that my maroon, and 2 blue tangs all sleep in the same corner of my tank (the small one only gets to sleep there if the bigger tang lets him). there would be no room for the clarkii and true percula to sleep there, so i don't know where they slept. could this be one the reasons why my true percula died?

another thing ijust noticed is that my clarkii has a long piece of white poo hanging out. does this mean anything??

Sorry for the long post and thanks for all your help.

 

[theatrus]

You just dosed copper into your tank?

This WILL kill your inverts and render your liverock useless. You also need to check on copper concentrations in water when using any copper medication.

Copper is only marginaly safe to use in a quarantine tank or fish only system. Never dose medications into any system with any invertabrates, or generaly never into your display tank.

 

[HoopsGuru]

It's tough to diagnose a problem with only one vague symptom. If you can't see any outward symptoms: clamped fins, spots, flashing, etc. it still sounds potentially like an environmental problem...especially with the amount of fish you have in a new tank. Sorry, but you just haven't provided much to work with.

My suggestion would be to prepare yourself for catastrophe. Adding copper to the display tank is likely going to cause many more, and longterm, problems. Likely, the liverock and substrate may have already absorbed the copper and it isn't even doing anything for the fish. This was a major mistake and you may very well be looking at having to replace all your substrate, liverock, filter media, etc. if you plan on having inverts in your tank.

At some point in all this you have to pick up a reference manual such as The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Fenner because you are behind on knowledge and costing yourself a lot of money and unnecessary loss of fish lives. Mistakes happen, but you really need to go back to the beginning and start over after all the fallout from this has settled. If you can observe any more definitive symptoms it may help save some of the remaining fish.

 

[Brenden]

Dosing copper in your main was the worst thing you could have possibly done. The LR will absorb the copper and it will be impossible to know if you have the proper levels in the tank to "cure" anything. The LR and sand will be useless now. This will also kill the corals you have listed in your signature as well as shrimp crabs etc.

 

[Brenden]

opps I had a phone call. Looks like hoops posted before I hit the submit button.

 

[proverbs]

wow. this really, really, really sucks.

why didn't the guy at the LFS say ANYTHING about this?!? when i told him my problem, he said very confidently, "i kow what medicine you need. here, this will fix the problem."

this is the most disappointing thing that happened to me in a loong time. i'm a college student and basically every penny that i've made at my job (after i've paid all the bills) the past 3 months has gone to this new hobby. i've also spent countless hours working on the tank and getting it set up. i'm so pissed off, i can't even explain it.

and by the sounds of your responses, i basically did the worst thing possible and now have to start all over!!

and i wish i could tell you guys more - but that's all i really notice. the fish stay in one position and swim in place the whole day.

how long will it take for all the inverts to die from the copper? and and what is the percentage that the rock is ruined? should i just take everything out and sell the tank? i really don't think i will have the energy to start all over again.

 

[proverbs]

just tested my water again...

pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 20

is NO3 still too high? it actually went down from around 25 - 30 when i tested it 3-4 days ago.

 

[proverbs]

here are pictures of my tank before the disaster.