Clownfish died overnight. Need help on why?

[Aj050]

Good day all,
Last Thursday I've added my first 2 fish to my DT. 2 juvenile clownfish. The first days were great. They've both been eating good (Hikari pallets and frozen mysis). Suddenly yesterday I've noticed 1 of the 2 fish started to go pale/light orange.
Waterparameters are in check I think.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite >0.5
Nitrate 35
Salinity 1.026/35
Phosphate 0.067
Temp 24.8
Tommorow I found him laying dead between the rockwork. No signs of disease or fins been eaten.
Tank is cycled for over 3 months before I added them. Other clownfish looks normal. No heavy breathing or lack of eating.
What could have caused the death of my clownfish?

 

[hds4216]

Your nitrates are pretty high, and it's ideal to have nitrite at 0. Did you do a water change after you finished the cycle? And did you acclimate the fish? If so, how?

 

[Aj050]

I been doing 10% waterchanges every week from week 6 till now during the cycle. So roughly 7 changes.
The fish are acclimatished by first letting the water temperature get equil by placing the bag in her DT for an half hour.
After that I drip acclimatized for 40 minutes until water was tripled in volume. Then placed them in the tank.

 

[hds4216]

Have parameters been stable?

 

[Aj050]

Nitrite is slowly decreasing from 0.8 to 0.5 atm.
Salinity always 1.025/1.026
Nitrate 35 to 30.not rising.
Ammonia is stable for the last 3 week at 0 or undetectable
All testkits are salifert.
Salinity with RedSea checker and always checked with Salifert 35 ppm fluid before testing water from the DT.
Testing every 2 days and logging this in Aquarium Note app.

 

[Dbichler]

Nitrites and nitrates have nothing to do with this fish’s death. Especially if tank cycled 3 months with no other fish additions. However need more info breathing, behavior, any visible signs of infection and eating enough. Pics always help.

 

[Aj050]

I can tell you that. Breathing was normal, no redness on the skin of gills. I've added 2 pictures to the thread the first one is Friday evening where they were swimming both. The second one is from yesterday morning. My thoughts were that he or she lost the vibrant colors that he had. The other one is still bright orange.
They have been eating the following:
Tuesday Hikari S Pallets
Friday Hikari S pallets
Saturday Hikari S pallets
Sunday morning defrosted mysis. At noon some pallets.
Both were chasing the food and eating normally.
Yesterday I thought the fish that died was turning pale. Lost his orange so to say.
Yesterday evening he laid on the rocks like he was sleeping (?)
This morning found him between the rockwork. No signs of harm.

 

[Dj City]

If you have nitrite, you are not cycled.
You should have nitrAte.
Nitrite is deadly to fish.

Check your parameters again. If you have nitrite, you will have dead fish.

 

[hds4216]

Nitrites and nitrates have nothing to do with this fish’s death. Especially if tank cycled 3 months with no other fish additions. However need more info breathing, behavior, any visible signs of infection and eating enough. Pics always help.

I disagree, nitrite could be a contributing cause of stress that exacerbates other health problems.

 

[Dj City]

Nitrites and nitrates have nothing to do with this fish’s death. Especially if tank cycled 3 months with no other fish additions. However need more info breathing, behavior, any visible signs of infection and eating enough. Pics always help.

Nitrites KILL fish.
If you have ANY nitrites, the tank is not cycled.

 

[cshouston]

If you have nitrite, you are not cycled.
You should have nitrAte.
Nitrite is deadly to fish.

Check your parameters again. If you have nitrite, you will have dead fish.

Wrong. Nitrite is only toxic in freshwater. Nitrite is relatively harmless in saltwater. Once ammonia is down and nitrate is up, nitrite is inconsequential and not even worth testing for.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

 

[Aj050]

That's what I thought. Nitrite for clownfish is lethal in the 300 ppm range. But the death gives doubts. But, and correct me if I am wrong, wouldn't this also affect the other clownfish? I just fed the other one and it's thriving and his colors are more vibrant then the one who died.

 

[Aj050]

I've added a video of the other clown. I can't see something wrong with it. But I could be wrong.

 

[Dj City]

 

[Dj City]

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[Dj City]

 

[Aj050]

I do understand your point. I am very aware of the fact that nitrites are far from wanted in a reef tank. My thought for now is that my clown was already somewhat weakened by stress and that my nitrites fueled this stress. Is that what u are saying DJ?

 

[Dj City]

It is a possibility.

Don't let anyone tell you that nitrite in a saltwater tank is not harmful. It absolutely is.

I don't know why your fish may have died but you have to look at what is or may be wrong and if you have nitrite in the tank, it is something to look at.

Your tank is still very, very new. It is not in balance yet and it will be a long time until it is.
Nitrites in an unestablished tank is cause for alarm and action.

How much do you feed?
How often?
What food do you use?

 

[Tamberav]

I would trust reefkeeping.com with it's scientific articles and sources are listed over googling answers. We all should have learned about proper sources for our work in highschool.

It doesn't look like you did anything wrong. It's hard to pinpoint exactly the issue without an autopsy and scrapes for a microscope.

Sorry you lost him Hopefully the other one will continue to thrive. Keep a close eye on him.. I always worry about brook with new clowns and velvet and such. Sometimes fish can die from these diseases with no outward signs and would probably need a gill scrape. Hopefully it is nothing like that and the other clown had some genetic issue or some internal problem that is not contagious.

I would suggest testing the salinity of the bag water next time before acclimating. This could also be a potential issue depending on the store. I recently had two fish accidently packed in 1.006 salinity (They left the RO on by accident in the water they use to pack/ship fish) - so thankful I tested it as I had to set up a QT at hyposalinity. If I had added them to my DT or did a drip, they would have perished.

 

[Aj050]

I feed my fish daily with Hikari Pallets S. At most about 10 pallets. Had the fish only for 4 days. And 3 of these days I fed pallets. Sunday they've had Mysis shrimps.