Sudden clownfish death

[MyFirstCar]

Clownfish was fine and happy when I went to bed, woke up to him dead in the sand. Any idea of what could have caused it?

Tank is 20 gallon mixed reef red sea Max Nano, with 2 (now 1) clowns, an urchin, emerald crab, 2 hermits, and a bunch of snails. Clownfish has been living in it for a year.

There had been some on-and-off bullying by the larger clown, but he looked fine last night.

 

[MyFirstCar]

Photos of the remaining clownfish in case I'm missing a symptom:

 

[Uncle99]

Year old clownfish and dead overnight.
I vote attack for some reason.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Photos of the remaining clownfish in case I'm missing a symptom:

Its hard to assess a dead fish without symptoms in which you stated fish appeared normal. Can be an array of issues, be it aggression, crashing into an object, as they rarely sleep at night ( I have 10 and with lights out they still are active) could have crashed into object which the upper mouth shows possible impact damage
Assure ammonia-temp has not become elevated and salinity has not dropped.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Clownfish was fine and happy when I went to bed, woke up to him dead in the sand. Any idea of what could have caused it?

Tank is 20 gallon mixed reef red sea Max Nano, with 2 (now 1) clowns, an urchin, emerald crab, 2 hermits, and a bunch of snails. Clownfish has been living in it for a year.

There had been some on-and-off bullying by the larger clown, but he looked fine last night.

Tough to see much in a dead fish, because decomposition changes things, so how long the fish was dead changes how its looks. However, this fish looks like it is missing a large number of scales. That could be from the other clownfish. Clownfish dynamics are strange - pairs sometimes break down for no visible reason.

Jay

 

[kevgib67]

I had two clowns together for well over a year. I was away on vacation for a week and when I returned home the female had beaten the male nearly to death ( he didn’t make it) . Mine had a lot of fin damage, unlike yours. I thought they were a mated pair. What made the female attack the male after being inseparable for that long is a mystery to me.