Clown Fish Help

Mamaof4 · May 28, 2019

So I noticed yesterday that my clown fish is acting weird and looks like hell. She will not eat. My other clown fish is out for blood and trying to kill it. My sick clown fish had one smokey eye yesterday, but looks better today. On the black parts of her body looks discolored like faded spots. Tail is all tattered but I think that is from it being attacked. Also heavy breathing. Keeps laying on it’s side or swimming all crazy. Nothing normal. Did water tests and all came back normal. Only have 3 fish in a 30gal tank. Have had the same fish for over 3yrs. Posted pictures. Any help will be great. Looks like she is dying. Please help.

bluprntguy · May 28, 2019

I'm unclear on what the three fish are. Do you have three clownfish in a 30 or is it a pair of clowns with something else as the third fish?

Three clowns in a 30 is a recipe for at least one dead fish.

Mamaof4 · May 28, 2019

bluprntguy said:
I'm unclear on what the three fish are. Do you have three clownfish in a 30 or is it a pair of clowns with something else as the third fish?

Three clowns in a 30 is a recipe for at least one dead fish.

Oh sorry the sick one is a black clown fish, then I have a slightly smaller orange clown fish. (same species). The 3rd fish is a Royal Gramma. Very peaceful and hides most of the time in the rocks. The clowns run the roost, and up until recent the black one was the queen bee.

bluprntguy · May 28, 2019

Mamaof4 said:
Oh sorry the sick one is a black clown fish, then I have a slightly smaller orange clown fish. (same species). The 3rd fish is a Royal Gramma. Very peaceful and hides most of the time in the rocks. The clown run the roost, and up until recent the black one was the queen bee.

Clownfish can sometimes pick on a sick mate. I just had that happen with my true percs.

I'd suspect gill flukes since nothing is visible other than tattered fins. I'd pull them out and do a freshwater dip for 5 minutes and see if that helps. Inspect the bottom of the container after it's done and see if there are any little white things in the bottom. If you can confirm flukes, it's possible to treat with prazipro in the tank, but I'd perhaps pull the fish out (at least the clowns since they are usually easy to catch) and treat them with prazipro and Kanaplex simultaneously (for secondary bacterial infections that are pretty common with heavy fluke infestations). If you leave the royal gramma in the tank, you'll need to treat the tank with prazipro as well to make sure all the flukes are gone.