sudden death of a clown fish

[Boga]

Came from work, feed pellets, the clown was OK, I saw him eating at least 3 or 4 and then swimming with no problems. One hour later noticed that he is not near RBTA. Looked for it for about 10 minutes. Finally he gets out from behind some rocks, barely swimming, his jaws were stuck in open position. I net it out easy and placed it in sump. Twenty minutes later he is gone. He was a healthy and peaceful fish.

Checked Ammonia=0, pH=8.2, salinity=1.026. The other fish do not show any signs of ill.

 

[waldo]

Wow that sucks they were a nice pair

 

[reeffreak]

Came from work, feed pellets, the clown was OK, I saw him eating at least 3 or 4 and then swimming with no problems. One hour later noticed that he is not near RBTA. Looked for it for about 10 minutes. Finally he gets out from behind some rocks, barely swimming, his jaws were stuck in open position. I net it out easy and placed it in sump. Twenty minutes later he is gone. He was a healthy and peaceful fish.

Checked Ammonia=0, pH=8.2, salinity=1.026. The other fish do not show any signs of ill.

Any other clowns in the tank ? What size was it? And type of clown ? How longs your tank been set up.

 

[unibob]

Could something happen to get into food? Were the other fish eating as well?

 

[Boga]

It was a Picasso.  Also I have his budy, a Platinum. It was about 2 5".

The tank was setup over 16 months ago, but fish were introduced few months ago.

I will check the food. It is out of children' s reach. The other fish did eat the same pellets.

 

[Boga]

Wow that sucks they were a nice pair

Yes, it does suck big time. I hope I can figure out what happened.

 

[Boga]

Could something happen to get into food? Were the other fish eating as well?

Checked the food again ... looks OK and stinky. Unless I had something on my hands .... ?

 

[unibob]

If all other fish ate, and the other clown was one of the ones eating pellets I think its safe to say the food is fine.

I have heard clowns being prone to velvet more then other fish... Other then that they seem to be the most hardy fish. 

 

[Boga]

Thank you very much for inputs.

I am doing rigorous quarantine. Any new coral or invert spends at least 30 days in a fishless QT. I understand that this may not clear 100% against velvet or ick.

Velvet or other parasite/disease? Should not give more signs of illness in advance? He was happy and eating now and in 90 minutes dead? Did not notice any signs of distress. Probably if it is velvet, the chance that the other clown will follow is pretty high.

When I first saw it was like paralyzed (mouth stuck open) and kind of floating with the water flow.

I am thinking more and more about a toxin and/or it got stung by my old torch.

I had a similar issue two and a half years ago with another clown, when he tried to host my torch. He got stung and had the mouth open for one week. He got better and never tried to host the torch again.

Toxin may be introduced by hands or a coral nearby. Maybe he ate something else than pellets from the tank?

My other fish seem to be OK for now, no signs of anything, gave them pellets and veggies.

 

[Boga]

Quick update.

Everything is normal. All fish are doing well. Nothing to trigger any suspicion.

 

[Poseidon]

thats very strange... it also sucks not to have an explanation, so you have no idea what you couldve done differently..
hopefully everything else is fine !

 

[Boga]

..............  it also sucks not to have an explanation, so you have no idea what you couldve done differently..

This is what is bothering me. Not knowing why. The first casualty in saltwater fish. If something went wrong, I want to prevent it if possible.