Clown dying

Well a couple weeks ago I noticed my false perc doing the sidestroke in the morning. I thought he would be gone by evening but I left him in there. Miraculously he was alive when I got home, and each day he slowly seemed to be doing better, starting to swim around more. Yesterday he started acting funny again, hiding in the rocks. Right now he is on his deathbed. All my params. check out fine, and the other clown is as healthy as ever. The only thing I can think of that might be causing the problem would be that I added my MH when he first started acting up, but they have only been on for a couple hours each day. I have slowly been bumping up the time they have been running, and I just started running them a full 7 hour day. Temp is staying steady. Any ideas?? I'm not heartbroke, just wondering what went wrong, with the other one doing well and everything. Oh, and we wont hardly eat, this has been for weeks now.

 

What have they been fed and how often? This may be a bullying issue if there wasn't enough since the other clown is doing fine.

 

Probably should try some garlic, should have thought of that. I haven't seen the other clown pic on him. They used to eat side by side. But the other one is a lot bigger, so things might have changed. It still hasn't died yet, it is hiding behind a real small rock with it's tail up. I went to grab it thinking it was dead and it darted away and swam like it was no biggie. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. What kind of garlic can you use, can I pick up a certain kind at the grocery or does it have to be the kind the lfs sells?
BTW I feed a very small pinch of flake food once every other day. They have been with me since early January so I don't think the type of food is the issue.

 

Actually it sounds like your feeding is an issue. Just FYI a lot of people feed flakes twice a day, and they tend to supplement with frozen a few times a week. If they are only getting fed a little bit once every other day than I would lay down money that your female clown is getting it all and the male is starving as a result. It may already be too late for him but you should try target feeding him (while feeding the female at the other end of the tank at the same time).

The fact that you've had them since January doesn't mean that your fish isn't starving. If anything it supports the case that he is starving to death. Fish take many months to starve to death.

 

All I have are the 2 clowns. Before I was feeding once a day and my nitrates were climbing rapidly. I moved down to my current feedings and nitrates have been holding steady. You should only feed what your fish can eat in a couple of minutes, and I am still overfeeding compared to this rule. I know of one veteran reefer that feeds his 5 fish once every 3 days and they have lived over 5 healthy years. My decision on feeding amount was based on research and talking to many avid reefers. Overfeeding often can lead to many more problems than underfeeding. I know that food amount is not the problem, I would put money on it.

Thanks missionsix66 for the garlic tips, if he makes it through the night (not likely:-/) then I'll go get some tomorrow. Tried to give ya some karma, but you were the last one I gave it to so I hafta "spread the wealth" before you get any more!

 

yes you are only suppose to feed what they can eat in a few minutes, multiple times a day, I am with mandarin on this one.

 

It also depends on the inhabitants of your tank. So far I have about 35 snails, 1 emerald green crab and the 2 clowns. Sure if I had a full blown cleanup crew, 6 fish and all sorts of random scavengers than I could feed more but if I fed multiple times a day my tank would crash. I can't feed a small enough amount the way it is. I am picking up a cleanup crew soon and another fish. I have talked to too many people that have been doing this for years that only feed minimal amounts and have pristine, healthy tanks. Trust me, there is plenty of food left over for the male to eat, I turn off my main PH during feeding so that they can eat most of it, and when I turn it back on when they are finished picking there is food flying around everywhere. Agreed missionsix66!