Injured Cinnamon Clown! Need help

I'm an amateur, new to the saltwater family and I was given two Cinnamon clowns. Since one was larger than the other, I assumed they had determined sexes and everything would be fine...about 2 days ago they started to exhibit strange behavior, where they were twitching (like a seizure) and were following each other all over the tank...nothing too alarming at the time. I got up the next morning to notice that the smaller had just given the larger a major beatdown...torn fins (all of them), small bite marks on its body, the eyes looked glazed over...as if they've been attacked and now its resting on the bottom in a corner.

I tried to feed them this morning and the smaller one (not much damage) ate a bit but the other doesn't seem interested...just seems interested in staying away from the smaller fish....

Is there anything I can do to help my fish? Has anyone had any similar experiences like this?

Any and all help is appreciated....thanks again!!

Brock

 

The seizure movement is sometimes the way they pair up, or get ready to mate and it can get rough, too. Maybe some of the clown breeders here can help, and there are some threads about this kind of thing, if you search the forums. I did separate my maroon clowns when the female was sick and I put her in a hospital tank, and treated with medication and they were fine when I reintroduced the female back to main tank, however, they were a well established pair, and had been in my tank for months at that time. The stress of going to a new tank could have sparked the conflict for your cinnamons

 

Thanks for the info...perhaps some of the others on the forum will pipe in and offer some suggestions..I did treat the tank for various diseases...but I don't believe, nor do the folks at the LFS, that disease is the issue...they're fighting and the smaller got the better of the larger...they're separated at the moment and I'm just concerned that the larger won't eat...and am curious if a breeding net (for live bearers) would be a good idea to at least present her food in an isolated area??

 

The less stress the better and breeding boxes can be quite unnatural and stressful but in your case it sounds like the ill fish is being attacked by the other clown. I would try a breeding box, I would look for the biggest one possible. A homemade version of the breeding box with a large tupperware box with lots of holes drilled into it and polystyrene stuck round the edges at the top of the box would be a better option, to give the fish plenty of room. I would feed a small amount of defrosted brine and mysis shrimp (soaked in a garlic extract would be ideal) using a small pipette 2-3 times a day. By small amount I mean 4-5 small shrimp at a time. I defrost a few cubes of frozen shrimp in some tank water in a small pot with a lid and store it in the fridge, this usually lasts 2-3 days.

 

I would also try to maintain ideal water conditions, what are you using to measure your tanks salinity? Are you monitoring ammonia and nitrite? Do you have a protein skimmer in your system?

 

I tested the water the other day and the nitrates and ammonia levels were fine...yes, I'm using a protein skimmer (although it does appear to put bubbles in the water and is overflowing, which I don't care for) and the water is around 1.024.

From what I can tell...the larger fish has popeye...and I began treatment yesterday with Maracyn from mardel; this was recommended by a friend and confirmed by the LFS.

What do you think? See photo of protein skimmer and I'd love recommendations on that if you have any...it never really did this before...could it possibly be the vibrations from the sump pump? I have a rio 2100

 

The skimmer looks okay, skimmers tend to overflow like that when they skim too wet. Popeye is a very general term, it can be caused by bacteria, bad water quality or by trauma and damage to the eye. If the fish just knocked its eye then the damaged eye should return back to normal and the fish have good vision again (become unclouded). If caused by bacteria it can be more serious and the fish may lose sight in that eye. I have seen fish suffer from popeye before and in most cases the eye will recover by providing the fish with a stressfree environment and quality foods.

 

If you have any corals in your tank I wouldn't use that treatment in your DT. I would set up a hospital tank with sand and a few pieces of live rock. A lot of reef safe treatments can affect corals, if you don;t have any coral and have already treated your DT I would use carbon at a rate of 1g/litre after you have finished the treatment.

 

Yeah your cup is full of water on your skimmer.. probably need to raise the skimmer up in the water level a little bit so the pump is in less water. Should not look like that.

That pic of the cinammon looks rough, i would take the others advice here. Make sure you feed with some garlic soaked food too.

 

cde....I don't exactly know how to "raise the skimmer" and yeah, it fills up fast...even when I dump the water cup..it fills back up within a few minutes....what would you recommend? the pump is a rio 800 and this has only started to happen in the last few days..more recently when I started treatment in the tank...and I do have one frag of zoanthids but they seem to be handling the treatment just fine..

I've created an in-tank hospital where I've placed the injured clown and she appears to be doing better this evening...even fed her some mysis and she ate as much as she could see....I'm planning on keeping her in there for approximately 2 weeks and allow her to get better before reintroducting her into the tank....I hope that's enough...I know she won't be happy but I don't know what else to do.

Any other suggestions by anyone regarding these issues? I'll follow with a photo tomorrow...