I lost a clown and I'm bummed.

[SallyWho]

I've had my first pair of clowns in QT for a couple of weeks, and this morning one of them died. They first spent 10 days in CP, then got transferred to a sterile tank while I thoroughly sterilized the first one. About 36hrs later, they were back in the first tank with sterilized equiptment and fresh filter media straight from the display's sump. Five days ago, I dosed prazipro. Yesterday, I noticed one of them was lethargic. This morning, I did a 50% water change (using RODI to mix saltwater). Waited an hour, gave a second dose of Prazipro, and an hour later, fella was sucked to the powerhead with zero gill movement. He was eating up until yesterday, and I looked carefully for visible signs of disease- no white or red spots, no dusty looking film, no visible wounds. Parameters listed below (Red Sea test kits). Any ideas what did him in, or was it just one of those things? I'm pretty bummed- I've wanted a pair of onyx clowns for over a year.

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.0- 0.05
Nitrite: 0
Salinity: 1.024

 

[LAReefer4Life]

How much Prazipro did you dose? The second round you did that quickly might of had an ill effect.

 

[SallyWho]

It was five days and a water change between doses- still too soon? The instructions on the bottle say 3-7 days before redosing. I added 1/2tsp for 10g (bottle states 1tsp/20g).

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Thanks for clarifying. No that shouldn’t of had an negative impact. Did you check ammonia reading?

 

[SallyWho]

Thanks for clarifying. No that shouldn’t of had an negative impact. Did you check ammonia reading?

Yup. Zero. I wasn't sure I could trust my alert badge, so I tested that first.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Sorry for your loss. No big temperature or salinity swings? Chemicals used near by ?

 

[SallyWho]

No, not really. I mean, there was a storm with a power outage a few days ago, but the house didn't get warm enough to stress the corals, so surely it wasn't too warm for the fish. I had a battery operated air stone in there the whole time, too. That's the only big change I can think of. Everything else came through the power outage just fine. :/ Thanks for brainstorming with me, @pathot984.

I'm a night shifter so I'm headed to bed. I'll respond to any further messages when I get up tonight.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Happy to help. Is the remaining fish exhibiting any strange behavior? Or was there any aggression between the fish?

 

[SallyWho]

The remaining clown is hiding a bit, but still swimming and eating. No visible signs of illness, not swimming into the powerhead flow, not struggling to breathe. I didn't see any outright aggression between them- they hadn't paired and occasionally nipped at each other, but generally kept to themselves.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Hmmm... okay how did you sterilize the equipment and first tank? also was the tank used for the treatment of CP a well established cycled tank as the bacteria/biofilm found in the aquarium can degrade CP.

Also I've read that post CP treatment it is best to transfer the fish into a non-medicated observation tank for 2-4 weeks and after this point treat with additional medications if need be.

 

[SallyWho]

I just don't have enough tanks to have them in a separate tank for that many weeks . After the CP (during which I was adding prime and stability), I had to squeeze them into my frag tank just long enough to sterilize the first one. I tossed the pouch of filter media, took the tank with powerhead and internal hang-on filter into the bathtub, thoroughly scrubbed everything with a dedicated scrubber, added bleach (approx 1gal bleach to 9g water for a 1:10 solution), plugged the powerhead and filter in and let it run the bleach solution for 12 hours. Then I drained it all, refilled from the tap, set it under the faucet at a trickle and let it run another 12 hrs with constantly refreshed water to fully flush out any bleach. Another thorough spray out, and then set everything out to dry in front of a fan for another half day. Refilled with freshly mixed saltwater, tested for pH, ammonia, and salinity, and added the clowns back. I really couldn't leave them in the frag tank for long. I waited several days before the first dose of Prazipro, and they were both fine. It was about 3d later that the dead one began struggling. :/