RIP Nemo

[Passinetti2007]

My clown died the other day. I woke up and saw I only had one fish swimming. I freaked out and grabbed the flashlight because my lights hadn't come on yet. I didn't see anything so I programmed my timer to turn the lights on and there he was in a cave in the back of my rock and one of my hermits was just starting to rip into him. He was light of color and appeared dead. I fished him out and flushed him but as I did he seemed to gasp for air like he was still alive but was too late.

He didn't seem odd or like he was sick. He acted normal that previous night. I had noticed my clown pair had picked the sand bed to chill in once the lights went out they would just swim in place close to the sand. Could it be possible that my hermit attacked him and dragged him into his cave.

Do I need to feed more so my hermits don't go hunting my fish?

 

[Passinetti2007]

Ok someone please help me, 19 reads and no replys come on somebody has to have something to say on this...

This morning my other clown was dead. My tank is fishless. I'm sad. I finally got my testing supplies last night and spent an hour testing my water chemistry. Phosphates were a tad high, but it's been a week and a half since my last water change (I have a 12 gal nano) nitrite and nitrate were okay in fact they were better then expected. My cal is high and I have no clue why I don't supplement. I think it is because I was in the water for over an hour trying to get my fission skimmer to start working right. The air hose seemed plugged and it wouldn't pump air. Messing with this seemed to startle my clown tremendously. He was really pissed off at me for being in there it seemed. After the skimmer was installed, it seemed to leak tiny air bubbles thru some type of filter where I believe the water is released. Could the air bubbles be what killed him? After I was finished at about 1 in the morning, He was gasping for air it seemed and right at the water surface which is unlike him. I went to bed and woke up at 7 and saw him being eaten by a hermit and my cleaner shrimp. Next he took a ride on the porcelain express. What happened?

 

[jad123]

Have you checked ammonia? Even though your tank is cycled it is worth checking. Did you look over the fish to make sure there were not dots or dust look on them to rule out disease?

 

[Meche]

nitrite and nitrate were okay in fact they were better then expected.

What were they? We need numbers. jad123 may be on the right track with ammonia poisoning, we need that number too. What is your pH and Alkalinity?

Gasping is a good clue. I think it is a symptom of ammonia but I'm not 100%. How long have you had your fish? How long has your tank been setup? What else is in the tank?

It could be disease but with such a small tank I would look at water quality first. Unless, of course, there was something obvious.

SteveS is highly knowledgable in the area of fish health, you might want to check out his forum and search for anything that may be related to your fish's symptoms.

 

[IAP Brian]

nitrite and nitrate were okay

There really is no ok level of nitrite, if it is present then you most likely have ammonia as well.

He was gasping for air it seemed and right at the water surface

This can also be extremely low oxygen levels. How much flow and surface aggitation do you have in the tank. The bubbling of the nano skimmer may not be enough.

 

[redrooster]

I ditto the previous poster theories. Most likely nitrate, ammonia, possibly just oxegen problems, but I have never seen that before (but I don't know much about nano's) Either way sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Jan]

how much flow/surface agitation should there be in a 12 gallon nano?

 

[Meche]

I'm not sure how to quantify surface agitation.

This tank is generally cube shaped right? Then I would say normal ammount. You start running into problems when you increase depth, or in other words, decrease surface area to volume ratio.

 

[Passinetti2007]

I appriciate the help guys. As for the numbers... Last night when I ran my test:

PH: 7.3 tested with a new out of box hand held meter that hasn't been calibrated yet, not sure if it needed to be and I don't know what good pH is?
NitrIte: zero, 0, ziltch, nadda, nothing = no amonia, rules that out.
NitrAte: 10 ppm
Alk: 10.6 dKH or 3.77 meq/L
phos: .25 ppm
calcium: 460 ppm (I don't suplement this so I have no clue why it's high)

They both didn't have dots or any sign of disease. They never gasped before like that but after I installed the skimmer it just freaked out.

I use salifert test by the way which I hear are the best of the best.

The skimmer puts off a lot of surface agitation so I'm sure that is not the problem

Well thats all the info I got thanks again for the help I'll do a WC tomorrow after school and look for a new inhabitant after I figure what is wrong with my tank.

 

[morgan]

sumtimes fish just die
but maybe theres a crab in ur tank ive lost a fish 2 a crab or maybe even a mantis if they sleep in the sand then there pretty much a free meal for alot of things

 

[Meche]

an actual pH of 7.3 would be bad. Hope your probe needs calibration.

What kind of salt are you using? What is your salinity?