Urgent help please

[Coralgurl]

Yesterday I noticed my male clarkii fins appeared to be a bit tattered but he was eating fine, so thought maybe my female was messing him.

Tonight he's hiding in a corner of the tank he never goes to, his dorsal fins are basically gone (along his back), and he has white spots on him. Last night he ate like a champ, tonight nothing. Will post a pic ASAP.

I don't think it's velvet from what I read, with the fin issue it's not ich.

What is this and what do I do?

The photo is not great as this side of the glass I don't clean.

[FishingGoalie]

Hi

I can't help you with what i think the problem is but i do have an empty tank that i am not using with a filter and heater if you want to borrow it i can also lend you some live rock as i probably have over 300lbs of it hehe

[trilinearmipmap]

Similar thing happened to my Maroon clown pair after years and years of marriage. The female turned on the male and attacked him until he hid in a corner. I put him in the sump but he did not survive.

I don't know if it's the female's response to no offspring after a while, or the female senses the male is in poor health so she kicks him out. Nature taking its course one way or another.

[Coralgurl]

Originally Posted by FishinGoalie

Hi

I can't help you with what i think the problem is but i do have an empty tank that i am not using with a filter and heater if you want to borrow it i can also lend you some live rock as i probably have over 300lbs of it hehe

Thanks Hayden, I have a small 10gl tank I could set up if needed and extra rock in my sump.

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

Similar thing happened to my Maroon clown pair after years and years of marriage. The female turned on the male and attacked him until he hid in a corner. I put him in the sump but he did not survive.

I don't know if it's the female's response to no offspring after a while, or the female senses the male is in poor health so she kicks him out. Nature taking its course one way or another.

While I haven't seen any real direct aggression from my female towards the male, I am suspecting she's the issue. This morning, she was all nicely nestled in his anemone, she has her own, but it moved and she may not be happy with it. They are not paired, but when she swims over to his of the tank, he does this shaky dance (twitching) and stops when she moves away, but she's never nipped at him (as far as I know).

I thought for sure he was going to be dead this morning, but he's still hiding on the side of the tank. I distracted the other fish and tried direct feeding him, but he wouldn't touch the food.

I bought this guy as a baby, he was less than an inch big when I got him. He has black coloring on his tailfin, and he was a little beat up in the tank, so he was the one I picked. He's now like 4-5" and a sweetheart (for a clown...lol).

Ugh.

[Coralgurl]

Well, the good news is, I don't think I have a rampant disease going through my tank, bad news, my female is guilty of brutalizing him. My hubby saw her just going after him tonight. So we've placed eggcrate in the tank to keep them separated. I don't know if he'll survive, but he's got a chance now.

Im going to have to sell one if he does survive, I'll keep him.

[TimT]

My suspicion is that if "he" is 4 to 5 inches you don't really have a he. Especially if they are both the same size.

Something else to consider is that large clarkii clowns and tomatoes are known to grab tank mates and feed the anemone they live in.

[Coralgurl]

"He" was previously displaying typical Clarkii submissive behaviour to her up until this week. Even on Monday when I first noticed something was off with his fin, she would approach his side of the tank and he would do the shaky quiver thing up to the top of the tank, she would go about her business.

But there is only like an inch difference between them in size, so I guess I could have 2 females.

Re: feeding tank mates to their anenomes - REALLY??????? I did not know this. I've been buying a homemade frozen mix from Concept which has large chunks of meaty goodness in it, she'll grab the large bits and feed her nem.

She is approx. 3.5 years old, he's approx. 3 years old. I would think they are full grown at this point. The weird thing is, she is sharing the "new" nem with my occ clown, whereas before she'd chase it around if it got too close to her other nem.

[TimT]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

"He" was previously displaying typical Clarkii submissive behaviour to her up until this week.

The females will have dominance struggles as well. Something could have clicked in the larger one and now she wants to start a family. LoL This could be why she would suddenly attack the other fish. Sometimes it's just a size issue too.

I have personally seen 8" clarkii and blue stripe clowns. When you purchase mated pairs from Vanuatu or Fiji the female is usually 6"-8" while the smaller male could only be 3"-4".

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Re: feeding tank mates to their anenomes - REALLY??????? I did not know this.

Yes, I have seen it in person and on video.

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

The weird thing is, she is sharing the "new" nem with my occ clown

The new nem could be the occelaris's territory but the occelaris is not going to mess with a big Clarkii. Reverse the roles and she would attack the occ to drive it off, as you have observed. Sometimes clowns will share anemones with other fishes. ie juv Damsels and juv wrasses.