Please Help! I am new and I don't know what this is!

[Jakebudds]

Hello all!

I am relatively new to the aquarium hobby being that this is my first ever tank and I need some help diagnosing my 2 Ocellaris clowns. I have an EVO 13.5 and I've just made a few adjustments to the filtration system not to long ago by adding the InTank media baskets in both chambers. I've also recently got a Bubble Tip Anemone friend for the clowns and some turbo snails for clean up crew as I had a decent hair algae bloom. The algae is almost under control now but here is my problem:

Both of my clownfish have white chins and cheeks all of a sudden. The orange one also seems to be missing a chunk out of their chin. Where as the black one has the opposite, it has a white lump on it's chin. The kicker is that they both have the whiteish portion around the lips and on their cheeks. They are eating like savages as per usual, swimming around like they normally do and rubbing up on the anemone. I even caught the black one today sucking on the anemone's tentacles. They do appear to be breathing a little faster but I just did a 50% water change and they seem to have calmed down a bit in their breathing. At first I thought Ich, then I thought bacterial or fungal infections but I am lost.

I bought some Ruby Reef Kick-Ich and Rally that's on the way for delivery and should arrive in the next few days that I am planning to try as I do not have the means to set up a quarantine tank.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

My initial thought is the clowns are getting mildly stung by the anemone as they acclimate to it, that is pretty common. However, the clowns may also be settling their dominance, and have been battling each other....you may not see this happen, as when you are in the room, they stop.
I don’t see any ich on them. Fungal diseases are very rare in marine fish. Bacterial infections can be secondary to injuries though.

Jay

 

[Goaway]

Yup, agree with jay.
Lucky you. My clowns like the overflow box. I'm jealous.

 

[Rmckoy]

looks like they are battling for dominance .
lip locking as they fight .
common but one needs to submit .

this is why most lfs ( local fish store ) will sell one significantly larger than the other .

anemone do not need clownfish or vice versa .
a anemone should never be added to a new system as it normally takes awhile
To mature and stabilize .
not saying it can’t be done though

 

[fishguy242]

hi,welcome to the reef...
Dr Jay edited...

 

[Jakebudds]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

My initial thought is the clowns are getting mildly stung by the anemone as they acclimate to it, that is pretty common. However, the clowns may also be settling their dominance, and have been battling each other....you may not see this happen, as when you are in the room, they stop.
I don’t see any ich on them. Fungal diseases are very rare in marine fish. Bacterial infections can be secondary to injuries though.

Jay

Thanks for the speedy info all! That makes a lot of sense, I was really hoping that's what you guys would say lol. They've been going off and on fighting for a little while now ever since they turned 2yrs old a couple months ago. At one point the black one was like pushing the orange into the sand at night and the orange one would be all pale the next day when I turned on the lights. But I thought it was over because that stopped happening.

Is there anything I should be doing to minimize the fighting and/or help in the healing process to avoid bacterial infections? And what are the signs to look for in that regard?

 

[Jakebudds]

looks like they are battling for dominance .
lip locking as they fight .
common but one needs to submit .

this is why most lfs ( local fish store ) will sell one significantly larger than the other .

anemone do not need clownfish or vice versa .
a anemone should never be added to a new system as it normally takes awhile
To mature and stabilize .
not saying it can’t be done though

Yeah, I waited 2 years for my aquarium to stabilize before adding the nem. Just got him a couple months ago

 

[Jakebudds]

Yup, agree with jay.
Lucky you. My clowns like the overflow box. I'm jealous.

I had a watchmen goby that loved to jump into the overflow box through the little hole that connects them in the lid. Always amazed me that he could even get in there. Unfortunately, he died about a year ago due to what looked like a bacterial infection but I was new and didn't check him over before buying him from the LFS and within a week he was missing half his back. Poor guy, not trying to have that happen ever again.