What happened to my clownfish?

[KeepAFish]

I set up my tank in January and my first addition was a pair of black ocellaris clownfish. Today, my tank seems to be doing well, but one of my clownfish is acting strange.

I always had one healthy clownfish (lets call her Betty) and one that struggled (we call him Jack). At first, the larger clownfish, Jack, seemed okay, was a healthy eater, very active, and paired with the smaller counterpart. After a few weeks, he stopped eating, developed long, white, stringy poop and started to thin to the point that you could see the lines from his skeleton. Meanwhile the smaller clownfish, Betty, grew in size and became larger and rounder (today, she seems like she may even be carrying eggs).

After more than a week of declining health, we started to get Jack to take flake food and then treated the tank with Prazipro. The poop cleared up, detached, and normalized. We added a UV sterilizer Friday, March 24th, meanwhile, his appetite continued to improve. Last night, Jack seemed to rest inside one of the caves that the clownfish occasionally hang out in. When he would rest, he would lie still for a bit, but would eat and pep up. Tonight, we came home late and turned on the lights to feed the fish. We noticed that Jack was now laying on the side of a rock motionless. Betty is eating normally, active, etc. and all of the other are active, eating, and seem healthy. Jack did not take any food, would pep up for a moment, but then lay back down. He did move to another spot and laid back down again.

Hoping for the best, we treated the tank again with Prazipro tonight (it has been about 10 days since the last treatment).

Please offer any help you can.

 

[Idech]

The experts will want pictures and a video if possible, under white light.

 

[John Bolden]

#fishmedic @Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

 

[jabberwock]

Well, first of all you got the names backwards. The bigger one is Betty, the small one is Jack.

Your tank is pretty new. What are the parameters? Can you post a full tank shot?

 

[KeepAFish]

I couldn’t get the videos to upload. I added YouTube links:




Here is a still shot of my clowns from tonight and for reference my tank on Sunday.

 

[jabberwock]

So your tank is plenty big! Probably just young. It does not look overstocked. Slow down and let it mature a bit. Not sure what you can do for the clowns.

 

[KeepAFish]

Well, first of all you got the names backwards. The bigger one is Betty, the small one is Jack.

Your tank is pretty new. What are the parameters? Can you post a full tank shot?

Correct. Jack was the larger fish at first, but when his appetite waned, Betty out grew him. Jack filled out since he started eating well again a couple weeks ago.

Tank parameters:
Salinity: 1.024
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
PH: 8.15 during the day and 8 at night
Temp: 78
Phosphates: (API test for saltwater) between 0.0 and 0.25

 

[jabberwock]

So it could be internal parasites (stringy poop), and a weird dynamic for the smaller clownfish to outgrow the larger one, so could be some aggression issues. Apologies, I am not an expert. Just kind of spit balling here.

 

[KeepAFish]

So it could be internal parasites (stringy poop), and a weird dynamic for the smaller clownfish to outgrow the larger one, so could be some aggression issues. Apologies, I am not an expert. Just kind of spit balling here.

Betty, definitely seemed to stress out Jack in the beginning when he was trying to get him to bond. We think that weakened his immune system which caused the parasite/stringy poop. After the stringy poop cleared up about 10 days ago, he started to eat very well, no more poop issues, and he has filled in so you no longer see his skeleton protruding like before. He is still not as large as Betty, but is usually active and a healthy eater. He was even very active and ate very well this morning. Also, it has been about 2 weeks since Betty would harass him.

I did expect them to gender differently, but it seems like early in the bonding cycle, the healthier one (initially smaller) took over dominance and size and transitioned to female before her counterpart could recover.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I couldn’t get the videos to upload. I added YouTube links:




Here is a still shot of my clowns from tonight and for reference my tank on Sunday.

I dont see anything to notate disease or injury but I believe I see tail nipping which may suggest the fish is intimidated by the larger one which would Likely be a girl. There is a thing with clownfish known as clown Hierarchy in which the female clownfish are much more dominant than the males. They become greedy and try to eat most of the food that gets into the tank (which is one reason the males don't grow as large). They often get aggresse to protect their home whether that be an anemone, a nesting site, a clay pot or the entire fish tank. If it attacks your hand when you're trying to clean the glass or it won't let any other fish near its spot, you most likely have a female clownfish.
You also mentioned turning the lights on for feeding. It takes fish in general a couple of hours to come to. Run lights at least 6-8 hours especially before feeding time.

 

[KeepAFish]

I dont see anything to notate disease or injury but I believe I see tail nipping which may suggest the fish is intimidated by the larger one which would Likely be a girl. There is a thing with clownfish known as clown Hierarchy in which the female clownfish are much more dominant than the males. They become greedy and try to eat most of the food that gets into the tank (which is one reason the males don't grow as large). They often get aggresse to protect their home whether that be an anemone, a nesting site, a clay pot or the entire fish tank. If it attacks your hand when you're trying to clean the glass or it won't let any other fish near its spot, you most likely have a female clownfish.
You also mentioned turning the lights on for feeding. It takes fish in general a couple of hours to come to. Run lights at least 6-8 hours especially before feeding time.

I am hoping you are right and he didn’t have a chance to wake up.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Tough to see clearly, but the clown isn't breathing too fast, so you can rule out gill disease, but it does seem very weak.

Prazipro only treats tapeworms and external flukes. Tapeworms don't cause white stringy feces. I wonder if the clown has an internal protozoan infection? That can be treated with metroplex, but that needs to be done in a treatment tank.

Jay

 

[Sharkbait19]

Have you been feeding any mysis shrimp? That can cause white poop as opposed to a parasite. Intimidation from the female can keep the male from eating, and therefore thinning out.

 

[KeepAFish]

Tough to see clearly, but the clown isn't breathing too fast, so you can rule out gill disease, but it does seem very weak.

Prazipro only treats tapeworms and external flukes. Tapeworms don't cause white stringy feces. I wonder if the clown has an internal protozoan infection? That can be treated with metroplex, but that needs to be done in a treatment tank.

Jay

I can move him out and treat him with Metroplex. If I just treated the tank yesterday with Prazipro, is it ok to treat him again? Or, do I need to wait?

He is still lazy, but will bounce back for short periods of time.

 

[KeepAFish]

Have you been feeding any mysis shrimp? That can cause white poop as opposed to a parasite. Intimidation from the female can keep the male from eating, and therefore thinning out.

Yes, when he had white poop, we were feeding marine cuisine, which has mysis. We mostly feed brine with spirualina, and veggie flakes and pellets now. The marine cuisine wasn’t being eaten much.

We don’t see much harassment from the female, but I have heard they can act differently when you aren’t watching. When he was bigger, he would be the one to nip at the other, but the female has always been very attention hungry and does stay by his side.

 

[KeepAFish]

Here’s a video from this morning at 8am.