Strange Clownfish Death

My perfectly healthy clownfish died last night. He was stuck to the power head this morning. I figure that he got too close in his sleep and it sucked him right to it.

(The power head is an AquaClear 10)

This is the second clownfish that I have lost this way. The first one was sick and so I can understand if he got too close and couldn't get away. It is just so strange. Fish are pretty smart right? They would know to stay away from filters and power heads shouldn't they?

Has anyone else had something like this happen or have any explanation as to why this would happen?

 

What are your parameters?

 

SG = 1.024-1.025
Alk = 2.9-3.6 Meq
PH = 8.0
No2 = 0 ppm
No3 = 2.5 ppm
CA = 400 ppm
NH3/NH4 = 0 ppm

The parameters are pretty good except for the alklinity being a little high. But he was fine last night around 7 pm when I checked him.

 

No they do not know enough to stay away from power heads or over flows, hence the reason so many end up in the back chambers of AIO tanks.

How long have you had these clowns?

 

+1 Exactly... Kinda like the deer staring at the headlights coming toward him.

Many animals on this planet have an extremely short memory and attention span, and while evolution has given them instincts, man's modern machinery is rarely in the "program".

 

To Corailline
This little guy was almost 3 years old.

Thanks to Mr. Bill and Corailline for explaining, I get it now. It is just weird that he was fine and then now he is gone.

Is there any way to make sure that it doesn't happen again?

 

There was great advice on here on covering them......I can't remember who the poster was....you use a type of netting and zip ties....

 

Weird, I have never had an other wise healthy clown get stuck to a PH.

Boy 3 years old that is frustrating, and it was bigger clown.

This is not really strong PH, must have been a freak thing I hope.

 

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking, because he never really went near the intake. Occasionally he played in the stream coming out, but never too close.

I'll have to look this up, thanks for telling me!

 

My guess would be more that it died and was sucked in vs. just sucked in and died. That is a relatively weak PH. I have a few week old Molly (less than 1 cm) that has no problem swimming away from a Koralia 750, which flows 10 times as much as yours.