Maroon Clown hasn't eaten in days =(

Hey guys,

This is probably futile, but maybe someone has had the same problem before. I appreciate any help.

We purchased two Yellowstripe maroon clowns from liveaquaria.com, and put them in our tank on Thursday last week. One is larger, maybe 3.5 inches, and the other is maybe 2 inches. They got along great and they had moved into a bubbletip anemone the second day (they also appeared perfectly healthy).

They ate a little bit that day, and the smaller maroon eats a little bit each day, but the big maroon hasn't eaten at all for 5 days now. I've tried soaking my hikari pellets in Garlic X-treme, soaking various frozen foods like mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and some herbivore cube deals (all san francisco bay foods).

A couple days ago his mouth seemed to not close all the way, and looked like he may have had slight discoloration of it. The mouth looks better now, but his cheeks are now sunk-in, he looks emaciated and his eyes almost look sunk-in. Just about an hour ago our peppermint shrimp crawled over and was almost picking off the clown's face.

They never leave the anemone, it's weird.

Oh, they're the only ones in the tank aside from a 6-line wrasse now. They don't fight, and seem to get along fine. The tank is a year old, fully cycled with something like 60lbs of live rock.

Ammonia is 0, same with nitrites/nitrates. Salinity 1.024. Everything I can test for looks fine. ph is 8.4 and temp is ~82.


I'm pretty sure the big guy is going to die within 24h if he doesnt decide to eat. If there is anything you guys can think of that could help I would be in your debt, these are beautiful fish and it would be a shame for the big guy to die.

 

I should also mention that he just kind of lays on/in the anemone.

 

try lowering the temp a little bit.. My tank is at 79-78degrees. (if you do this, do it slowly or you'll stress your fish)

does he shows signs of a parasite? fungus? keep soaking the food in garlic.. try other types of food that he might like. give him a lot to choose from.

maybe a water change?

 

Yeah, I've been trying to get the temp down a bit, it's been hovering between 80-82 lately. I did a 20% water change the day we got them.

Now that I think of it, that day or the day after he looked like he had some dust or something on his upper half. I thought it was dust from moving a rock around in the tank, but that seems kind of wrong. I should also mention that he had some slight discoloration on one of his sides a couple days ago that went away within a day. It looked sort of purple-ish. I sort of thought I was crazy, might have been something, though.

 

Well, I'm starting to think it is Brookynella, and it seems people treat it with formalin dips. It's recommended that you use 37% formalin, but I don't think the stores in the immediate vicinity sell that medication. I work in a lab and happen to know I have access to formalin, anyone think a 1:3 dilution with water would work the same as the medication? Kordon LLC - Kordon - Formalin-3

 

Worth a shot, however dips can be extremely stressful to fish, especially when they are already sick. However if it is brookynella, you may not have a choice but to give it a try. Hopefullly somebody else on here has some experience treating this.

 

Guess it wasn't meant to be. I just found the big guy dead at the bottom being eaten by crabs when I went to see how he was sleeping. I'll try to get some formalin to treat the little one if he looks bad, but I'm pretty demoralized at this point.

I've kept my water parameters perfect for a year and we've had just horrible luck with clowns of any type (random deaths, two jumpers and now this).

sadface.

 

You may be getting wild caught ones, which don't last long. If you can get some tank raised ones, they are very hardy. Mine are like battle tanks, and very nice disposition too. Sorry for your loss.

 

Sorry for your loss I recently lost a clown too due to being picked on by the yellow tang.

 

I have the exact opposite problem with my maroon clown he dosent stop eating
sorry for loss