Please help!!

the clowns were the very first fish we bought not including the chromis. the Wrasse was the last fish we got. we got her wayyy after the clowns. but the clown was perfectly fine. me and my dad didn't see anything wrong with him. oh and they ate.but i gotta wait till my dad gets home to take them out. they're too hard for me to catch.

 

If the tank is still at 87 F, I would say that is more likely the cause of the clown dying. The weird behavior of all the fish in the tank suggest to me that it is stress related, most likely from the heat. Even being 5 F over for a prolonged period of time is a very big deal in a saltwater tank

 

Yes - Ifs its bullying , remove the bullied or the bullies ( which do you most want to keep)

the above said , the species concerned dont have reputations for this kind of aggression - I know all fish vary in character , even within same species
but a gang mentality of Chromis and Butterfly , can only be as a result of other problems
fish are smart IMO and the Chromis and Butterfly have realised oxygen is short and that polutants are building up and have decided to try and reduce numbers by pushing some fish "out of the reef"

the above may be trying to associate human emotions and behaviour, with non human species ?
but strange allies are created in hostile envirorments and I reckon thats true in all animal species

Steve

 

okay i'll see if that will help. do you think it will get that one clown out of the corner of the tank and start swimming around some more? Also what do you think the chromis was doing to the fish? its such a weird process that they do. the butterfly will follow him until the chromis just turns around and just. . . almost bites something off of them. is what it seems like. but i'm not posative.

 

It couldn't hurt at all to slowly get your tank back to the proper temperature, in fact I would make that the top priority over separating the fish. The clown will hopefully come around if the params get back in order. He's lasted this long so hopefully he can manage a bit longer.

Sounds like the actions between the angel and chromis are a bit aggressive if they're nipping at one another. Neither will clean another fish of parasites or anything of the sort. I agree with Steve on fish picking off the weaker members in the tank to maintain sustainability for themselves.

 

you might be right about that. that really stinks though that we would have to get rid of one of the groups. i'll have to check with my little sister. she's the one who chose the smaller of the fish. but you would think that the butterfly would try to get rid of the chromis because of its size. but that must explain some of the things going on in the tank and explain why the wrasse died. we need to tell slocal about this.

 

very true. i'd rather try and change the temp. over anything else. and its the butterfly and the chromis. hehe. but i'm not posative if its nipping i think its more cleaning than anything else because the chromis did the same thing with our blue tang. :-/

 

The best way to solve the lack of oxygen would be to lower the temp of the tank back down to 78-80 F and possibly remove one fish to solve the nitrates.

You can put a fan blowing on top of the water to cool it down and help exchange gases in the tank.

 

ok i'll see if i can use the fan now and see if it helps. and you say one fish to solve the nitrates. okay wait hang on give me a minute to get the fan set up.

 

Sounds like your chromis is a nipper. It has been known to happen, even with these guys. Each fish is different.