Clownfish is Malnourished :(

Hey,

I have a small tank, 25 litre, with 2 Clownfish and 1 hermit crab.

One of the Clownfish is fine, looks healthy, swimming around happily. The other is really malnourished, looks like he will die soon.

I noticed about a week ago, and took him to my local fish shop so they could diagnose what was wrong with him and they said he was malnourished.

Now he refuses to eat anything. I usually feed them Brine Shrimp, Krill and flakes and the other clown happily stuffs his face with food when I feed them, but the unhappy one isn't swimming well, he just seems to bury his face in one of the rocks.

Looks in a bad way, his back fin is completely gone, his other fins are pretty bad too. Looks faded, has wierd marks on his head.

Any suggestions on trying to get him to eat? The fish shop said it would be possible to get him heatly again, but he just won't eat anything...

Also had a strange death in my tank rescently too. Had a Royal Gramma who seemed perfectly fine. Was eating well, no signs of illness and then he just randomly died. No idea why.

 

Sounds to me with the damage to the fish that the 2 clowns may be fighting and the one not eating will eventually die if you don't get it into another tank or separate them to let him heal. It may even be too late at this point but thats what I would try ASAP

 

I've not seen them fighting. I initially thought that they were because the first thing I noticed was it's missing tail.

The guy in the shop said it was just malnourished. He said that due to the fact that it's not eating, it's tail and fins would disappear because it's trying to stay alive without food. He said it was looking very thin aswel.

I don't have a 2nd tank to move him to, it's probably too late for him

Also, if he dies, will adding another Clownfish to replace him upset the other (healthy) one?

 

what kind of clowns?

 

They are Ocellaris Clowns.

 

I would say as long as you get one similar in size to the other you should be fine

 

if you have to replace one, always get a replacement that is smaller with clowns

 

The ones I currently have were only bought a few months ago, I think the fish shop will still have the same batch of baby Clowns so a new ones should be the same size or smaller.

 

could had been a bacterial infection due to fin and tail rot. the clownfish i had which died did not eat for about 14 days and tails and fins did not disappear. maybe someone is nipping on his tail and was stressed by it. the tissue lost will not be recover if he is not eating.

 

some say garlic will help a finiky fish eat.