dead clown fish

Hi,
I've had my tank for over a year now and for some reason my clown fish die. I have a 20 gallon tank with live rock and some coral. Coral consist of mushrooms, birdsnest, two brains and a torch. I had a coral beauty and it was doing just fine for months until I added two clowns. When I added them the coral beauty died and the clowns died the next day. After checking to make sure the water was fine I added a sunburst anthia and that too was doing great until I added clowns. the sunburst anthia died and then the clowns died. the only fish I have that keeps surviving is a high fin goby that lives with he randal shrimp underground. Why can't I have clowns in my tank????????

 

thats kinda odd. whats your ammonia level? did you test for that? it could be high. or possibly stray voltage in your tank, but then your goby is still alive in both instances. im kinda stumped. did you buy these dieing fish from the same place?

 

I would say that 20 gallons is much too small of a tank for two clowns, a goby and a coral beauty. The coral beauty and anthias shouldn't be in a tank that small at all. Could have been lack of oxygen or too much ammonia.

 

yeah I got them from the same place, just the thing is they were healthy at the store aqnd my mother in law bought one from the same tank and hers is still alive and well. My coral beauty was perfectly healthy and when I added the clowns he seemed to of had ick. I just dont get it. everytime I get clowns the other fish seem to die and the clowns always die after. Everytime after they die I get the water tested and the water tests out ok. I had them replaced once and after the second tim I just took a store credit.

 

Maybe your tank got polluted or something :/
Check your Phosphates
Check your pH

 

yeah I thought it would be small, I asked the guy who owns the store and he said that it would be ok as long as water changes were done regularly. guess I was right to suspect that the tank is too small. But would they get stressed out enough to get ick and die after just a couple of days?????

 

Dwarf angels are extremely active. Most people recommend tanks of at least 50 gallons for them. Anthias as well.

Usually ich attacks are brought on by stress, so if the water tested fine, it could be the small tank, lack of oxygen, etc.

 

well usually it is stress and something else.. such as lack of oxygen from so many fish in a small tank.. since gobies arent that active i can guess that their oxygen requirement is much lower.

 

what kind of fish would be ok in a 20 gallon? lack of oxygen would make sense since my mother in law has a 30 gallon and her clown is doing fine

 

Small gobies, one clown, one firefish...but you can't have too many. The general rule is 1" of adult fish per 3 gallons of water.