Lost my male black and white clown

[Goodfuga]

I looked at my tank this morning as usual before i left for work and didnt see my male clown anywhere. I was in a hurry and figured he was hiding somewhere so i left for work. Came home for lunch and started seareching for him, only to find that somehow he got past my attempts to block the overflow cutouts at the top and was sucked down into the filter socks. Dont know if he made the journey and lived for awhile or not, but by the time i found him he was gone. Pretty sad, we have only had them for a couple of weeks and they were doing so good. Got a mated pair of black and whites and now the female is all by herself. I guess i need to do a better job of blocking the overflow spillway allthough he was still small and the female has no problems. I am planning on putting some silicon to help make the slits smaller and hopefully avoid this in the future. Also I didnt have a filter cover on my standpipe which may have saved him. I plan on remeding this tonight. They liked to sit up in the top of the tank and pick out food as it got sucked into the overflow. I guess he went chasing after one two many mysis shrimp.

Well the focus of this post is too see if anyone else has had a mated pair that lost the male, and any advice on how soon to wait to introduce a new mate and any other tips. The female looks really lonely and I loved watching them play together. Here is one of the last pics i was able to take before he died. He is on the bottom.

Basic Info - Female is still young less than 2" but was definatley bigger and more aggressive than the male so I am fairly positive it is the female.

Tank 70gal with 20gal refugium/sump. 155lbs live rock. Coralife 125 protein skimmer, mag 9.5 pump, two 750 powerheads on a wave cycle.

Readings ammonia - 0 nitrite - 0 nitrate - 0 calcium 400ppm alkalinity 10 dKh 0 phosphate pH 8.1 temp 78

Critters - 2 margarita snails, 1 turbin, 1 mexican turbo, 3 small hermits and 2 mexican red leg hermits, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 tiger conch

Corals, various zoa colonies on a live rock, small lobo and small hammerhead frag.

Tank has been up and running for a little over a month and water has been stable for the last two weeks.

I do 10gal water changes every week - 2weeks. Plan on increasing to 20gals over the next few months as I add more bio load.

I appreciate any advice offered. Hopefully my experience will help others be more careful when fish proofing an aquarium . Its like having little kids and having to put covers on all the electrical outlets.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Goodfuga

[mFrame]

Man, I feel for you. I had a mated pair of Osc clowns and a mated pair of Clarkiis in two separate tanks. I lost my female Osc and male Clarkii in the same week, not sure what killed the Osc but the Clarkii jumped. Both pair had been laying eggs regularly. I wanted to get rid of the Clarkii's, so I haven't tried to pair my female back up.

My osc, however, I immediately got a similar sized osc. Big mistake. My male decided he wanted to be dominant (female) and beat the holy crap out of the new one, nearly killing it. After about two weeks the dominance seemed settled and the newcomer healed up nicely. Now my former male is the female, the new one is male, and they're hosting in my bta. No sign of eggs yet but they're definitely paired.

So, that said, my advice is not to worry about timing for getting a new mate, but worry more about size. Since you lost a male, make sure that your replacement comes from a tank with many clowns in it and that your candidate is one of the smaller ones, which should insure it's male. Get him home quick and introduce them. Make sure there are tons of hiding places in the tank, don't freak out if there seems to be a bit of violence, and everything should work itself out. Keep in mind that any clown left alone will assume dominance and become female, so any clown you add after should be smaller. When they're similar size they fight it out, when one is significantly larger than the other it's usually less of a contest.

Make sure to do the changes you discussed to prevent it happening again, and good luck!

[+Hydro]

You can put some plastic or nylon window screen over the over flow and glue it on with super glue. It won't be too restrictive on the water flow but you will need to watch and make sure that it doesn't get clogged up and possibly overflow the tank. You mention putting silicone to make the slits smaller, if you do it will raise the water level in the tank. I'm not a fan of the strainers over the pipes, they get clogged up and raise the water level if not cleaned out once a week or so.

It may not be a problem in the future. I don't have screen on my overflows or filters on my over flow pipes on my tank. I have had several fish over the years get washed down in my sump and I have never had one die or be injured. Maybe this was just bad luck...

[Goodfuga]

You can put some plastic or nylon window screen over the over flow and glue it on with super glue. It won't be too restrictive on the water flow but you will need to watch and make sure that it doesn't get clogged up and possibly overflow the tank. You mention putting silicone to make the slits smaller, if you do it will raise the water level in the tank. I'm not a fan of the strainers over the pipes, they get clogged up and raise the water level if not cleaned out once a week or so.

It may not be a problem in the future. I don't have screen on my overflows or filters on my over flow pipes on my tank. I have had several fish over the years get washed down in my sump and I have never had one die or be injured. Maybe this was just bad luck...

I figured it was bad luck. He was just barely small enough still to fit through the slits and I think if i had of found him earlier in the day in the filter sock i mave had been able to save him. I think over the course of the day the water flow just crushed him. I think i am going to try and just add a couple of zip ties to block the large middle gap on the side. I think that is where he got sucked in. That should make the opening small enough to keep everything in but not restrict the flow. I will try that first before I take a chance on restricting my flow. I have a mag 9.5 pump and if my overflow gets clogged up the tank will overfill in about 5 secs. I do have wood floors but the girlfirend would kill me. Thanks for the advice.

[Goodfuga]

Man, I feel for you. I had a mated pair of Osc clowns and a mated pair of Clarkiis in two separate tanks. I lost my female Osc and male Clarkii in the same week, not sure what killed the Osc but the Clarkii jumped. Both pair had been laying eggs regularly. I wanted to get rid of the Clarkii's, so I haven't tried to pair my female back up.

My osc, however, I immediately got a similar sized osc. Big mistake. My male decided he wanted to be dominant (female) and beat the holy crap out of the new one, nearly killing it. After about two weeks the dominance seemed settled and the newcomer healed up nicely. Now my former male is the female, the new one is male, and they're hosting in my bta. No sign of eggs yet but they're definitely paired.

So, that said, my advice is not to worry about timing for getting a new mate, but worry more about size. Since you lost a male, make sure that your replacement comes from a tank with many clowns in it and that your candidate is one of the smaller ones, which should insure it's male. Get him home quick and introduce them. Make sure there are tons of hiding places in the tank, don't freak out if there seems to be a bit of violence, and everything should work itself out. Keep in mind that any clown left alone will assume dominance and become female, so any clown you add after should be smaller. When they're similar size they fight it out, when one is significantly larger than the other it's usually less of a contest.

Make sure to do the changes you discussed to prevent it happening again, and good luck!

I am going to the LFS today and see if they have a group of small black and white clowns. I have been reading up on this problem and your advice follows right along with what i have been reading. I will see if I can find another George for Wheezy and let you guys know how it turns out. Thanks again, its nice having people willing to take time out to lend some advice or a few encouraging words.