Clownfish Wedged Between Wavermaker & Nem Guard

[Zaxh]

Woke up this morning to only finding one clownfish, they usually host the rock right under it, so I’ve been working on trying to get them to host a different location, but difficult when it’s only a 10 g tank.

The male clown, unfortuntelty wedged itself in between the guard and the jebao 10, and as far as I can see, there’s no visible injuries. He probably was stuck for about 6 hours or so. He is stressed and cannot swim right. He’s alive, and unfortunately I don’t have clove oil because honestly I never thought this would come, but another part of me is optimistic and feels that he just needs a little bit of rest. I put the breeding box against the return pump, so he can get more oxygen. should I go to the store and get glove oil? What should I do?

 

[blaxsun]

#fishmedic

 

[MnFish1]

He looks like he has a severe injury. I'm not sure I would rush to clove oil or euthanasia yet. I would just see how things go over the day. PS - most fish do not survive this type of issue when they look like this one does.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Another thing to consider - did this clown wedge itself accidentally, or did it have some preexisting issue that caused it to swim erratically and get stuck? The latter is more common than the former.

Jay

 

[Zaxh]

Another thing to consider - did this clown wedge itself accidentally, or did it have some preexisting issue that caused it to swim erratically and get stuck? The latter is more common than the former.

Jay

I’ve had these two clowns for a while, watch them super closely. I wanted to get a reef tank, so I upgraded my tank and got a wavemaker. They’ve always hung out on the rock under the wavemaker about 8 inches below and when the lights shut out they swim vertically. They’ve been doing this for months, and at the same time I’ve been trying to get them to host a different corner or a rock until I eventually get a nem or a frog spawn (not guaranteed ik) but I made a drastic mistake with the nem guard because those are supposed to sit flush against the wall, whereas I had it angled, leaving a crack big enough so that the fish could get trapped.

The fish were healthy, it’s just a shame. Currently it looks like it’s getting in betterish condition, but new marks are showing on both sides. Kind of pale ish whiteish. I think in an hour or two I’m going to do clove oil. Im very upset, never had a fish die on me like this before.

 

[Jipolley]

I just got 2 clowns and one of them seemed to be sick since introduction to the tank. After talking with a more experienced hobbyist they will only get stuck in properly placed pumps or overflows if they already have a preexisting illness or injury. The smaller clown got stuck in my gyro flow overnight and unfortunately died. I believe even without getting stuck he would've eventually passed on, but definitely a hard way to lose a fish.

 

[MnFish1]

I just got 2 clowns and one of them seemed to be sick since introduction to the tank. After talking with a more experienced hobbyist they will only get stuck in properly placed pumps or overflows if they already have a preexisting illness or injury. The smaller clown got stuck in my gyro flow overnight and unfortunately died. I believe even without getting stuck he would've eventually passed on, but definitely a hard way to lose a fish.

Sorry to hear about this - but - in case my post was the one you''re refrencing - it does depend on the flow/pump and the size of the fish. For example very small fish - fry, etc - can/will obviously be sucked into a pump. However if a 3 inch fish is sucked into an average sized pump - with a covering, that suggests sickness/weakness of some kind