Clownfish pale face: Normal?

DerekB4

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My tank has been cycling fishless for about 4 months. I added a pair of clownfish 2 weeks ago. Just have a small cuc and 2 clownfish. One morning both clownfish were swimming on separate sides of my tank. I’m wondering if they fought for dominance or one of them is sick.

The one with the pale face seems to be swimming normally. Not breathing heavy. He’s not an active eater as the other one though. He was also swimming in the power head yesterday, it seemed more like hosting because he was swimming with it not against it. He is not doing that this morning


does he look sick?

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Jay Hemdal

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The shots are a bit blurry. It also helps to film them under whiter light. Maybe you could get a short video?

That said, I see some damage to the clown's right pectoral fin, I think they are fighting. It may or may not settle down, and you are unlikely to really see overt aggression because when you approach the tank, they are going to stop and watch you. You could try setting up your phone to video them when you are out of the room.

jay
 
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DerekB4

DerekB4

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I’m having trouble loading the video but I caught the other one getting aggressive and the other one backing down. It probably didn’t help that I had to put them in at separate times. I put the injured one in first with another clown but one died. The ones I have now both have slightly different markings

I guess I’ll keep an eye on him make sure he doesn’t get worse. Was hoping it wasn’t velvet or something.
 

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Jay Hemdal

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The one is getting harassed, and that likely caused the damage. They need to be isolated from one another. However, the little one is breathing so fast, I'm unsure if another issue isn't going on here. Just tossing this scenario out there - you got them at different times? Did they come from different dealer's tanks? I'm worried that this one may have velvet, and the other one still looks good because this one came in with it, and it hasn't started on the second one....

Jay
 
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DerekB4

DerekB4

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Yeah I got them from different dealers tanks. The injured/sick I got first. I have an empty 10 gallon tank but haven’t set it up for QT yet. Do you think I should treat for velvet and be on the safe side?
 

Jay Hemdal

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Yeah I got them from different dealers tanks. The injured/sick I got first. I have an empty 10 gallon tank but haven’t set it up for QT yet. Do you think I should treat for velvet and be on the safe side?
I think you should for sure isolate the fish, but if it has velvet, the other one will likely catch it also (sigh). You may end up treating both in copper, with a tank divider. Just to mention, if this IS velvet, it kills really quickly, so time is of the essence....

Jay
 

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