Established Clownfish (5 years) Refuses to Eat

[jdoughe9]

So I've had a Clownfish in a fluval evo for the past 5 years. 2 other fish have come and gone a couple years back but he's been holding out strong. However, over the past week and a half he's stopped eating completely. Hoping someone can help.

Here's what's led up to now:
I decided it was about time to add another fish, so I recently got a tail spot blenny that I set up in QT for 3 weeks with copper treatment. He was eating well and seemed healthy, so I put him in the display tank.

After about a week or two the blenny was acting a bit lethargic one day and then disappeared completely. I figured maybe the clown bullied/killed him. A few days later my clown stopped eating. I tested my parameters but came up with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, minimal nitrate. I did a pretty big water change anyway. The next day I found my peppermint shrimp dead in two pieces. He was 1.5 years old so not sure if maybe it was just a bad molt from the water change.

I noticed a few days into my clown's hunger strike his poop seemed clear, so in case it was internal parasites I removed the carbon from the filter space and dosed with API general cure. I've completed two doses and need to change 25% of the water tomorrow according to the instructions. However I've seen no improvement in his appetite.

In parallel I've also tried feeding a variety a food. He normally is enthusiastic about regular marine flakes with garlic, but I've also tried marine pellets, mysis shrimp, mysis shrimp mixed with garlic, and live tigger pods. He won't touch any of them.

Other tank mates are just a pistol shrimp (also 5 years old), some snails and hermits.

I've rechecked the water parameters and they still appear to be normal. Normal pH. Temperature has been a steady ~78. The clownfish has so signs of external parasites and is acting pretty normal. I'm really not sure what else to do at this point and don't know how much longer he can go without eating.

Any advice on what to do next is appreciated. I can set him up in a QT but not even sure what to treat him with at this point.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Please post some pictures or a short video of the fish, this will help the #fishmedics help you

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have a video of the clownfish in question? (upload as a YouTube video) What are you using to test your water parameters? Do you have a photo of your tank?

 

[jdoughe9]

Hey guys, I've been using an API Master Saltwater test for the parameters. The tank is looking quite ugly at the moment with all the algae but here's a photo:

I've attached a video of the clownfish here. This has always been his favorite spot in the tank:

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey guys, I've been using an API Master Saltwater test for the parameters. The tank is looking quite ugly at the moment with all the algae but here's a photo:

I've attached a video of the clownfish here. This has always been his favorite spot in the tank:

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Well, other than being a bit lethargic, the video doesn’t show much.
The clear feces are from the fish not eating.
It may be the shorter quarantine of the blenny allowed some disease to get through - but the General Cure should have helped with flukes. However, GC shouldn’t be used in tanks with invertebrates in it.

 

[jdoughe9]

Thank you for the input! I was not aware of the effect on inverts, will note for the future.

I just completed a pretty large water change and threw a bag of chemi-pure elite back into the filter to remove the medication after the 2 doses. I plan on going to the LFS later today to pick up some alternate foods to try to get him to eat again. Any suggestions there?

I also have the QT set up and ready to go. But I'm kind of keeping that as a last resort since he's really tough to catch and don't want to stress him out too much. Last time I had to QT him for ich back in 2021 I had to tear out all my rocks and go down to like 10% water to grab him, and he still put up a good fight.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for the input! I was not aware of the effect on inverts, will note for the future.

I just completed a pretty large water change and threw a bag of chemi-pure elite back into the filter to remove the medication after the 2 doses. I plan on going to the LFS later today to pick up some alternate foods to try to get him to eat again. Any suggestions there?

I also have the QT set up and ready to go. But I'm kind of keeping that as a last resort since he's really tough to catch and don't want to stress him out too much. Last time I had to QT him for ich back in 2021 I had to tear out all my rocks and go down to like 10% water to grab him, and he still put up a good fight.

This is a tough call. It is unlikely that the fish will spontaneously just being feeding again, even if you change the offered food items. I wish I had some clear indication of what you could treat it with - it is not showing any real signs of external infection, and that's what bath medications like copper and GC are best at curing.