Clown fish mouth won't close, cheeks look dented in

Hey guysm stumbled upon this website while googling what is wrong with my clown fish. Recently I noticed it seemed to have gotten smaller and today when I was feeding I saw that its mouth won't shut. It seems to try to get food but since its mouth is open sometimes it just falls out. Both the clownfishes tries to host the frogspawn coral. In the tank there's also two small damsels, a red shrimp and a few crabs. The damsels are fine they never have any aggressiveness towards the clowns so I don't believe it is from fighting. The cheeks look like its dented in, from the cheeks I believe it is from hyper extension. Any thoughts?

Tank: 10G
livestock: two clowns, two damsels, shrimp, few crabs.
Age: >8mths

PS: the other clown fish is almost 3 times this one's size, I know they are supposed to go one big one small when they pair up but is that big if a difference normal?

 

did it eat a bristleworm? Sometimes fish will get really big, swollen lips after they eat one

 

First off, Welcome to 3reef. This is a great place for knowledge.

I think your fish looks on the skinny side, as you mentioned. The coloration is also not what it should be if it were healthy and happy, in my opinion. I've never had experience with a fish that has a problem with it's mouth, but my guess is that things might not turn out great for this guy. Obviously keep feeding him and let time do it's thing. There isn't much else you can do really I think (if there even is anything that needs to be done). Hopefully someone will come along and correct me.

Good luck.

 

Pretty sure it's just trying to bond

 

hi, it looks like to me the torch coral is not the best host for the clown, it may be having a reaction from the stinging cells of the coral and anemone for his host may help him if you can keep one. i hope this helps

 

Thanks for all the replies, I am not sure if it ate a bristleworm or if there even is one in my tank. It is very skinny like you said and I am not sure what should I do, solitary feeding sessions? Also the frogspawn seems to be okie with them hosting it, at first it was stressed from them constantly touching it, but now it seems to be fine and just let the clowns do what they'd like.

 

Never heard it called that, but yeah basically just try to put some food where he/she can get to it easy. If you see it eating food on a daily basis I would say it has a good chance.