Reef Discussion

[malau]

Hi all,

I received a pair of clown fish from work few months ago. At the beginning they are both fat. In the last few weeks I found that the male clown is very skinny. It still willing to eat but sometimes it spit the food out (no matter is mysis or dry food) and eat again.

I also noticed that it has white stringy poo sometimes...

Just wonder is that because due to worm or some other things?

 

[Agent M]

I don't know much about fish health so certainly there could be an underlying cause, but without knowing the cause, going back to basic principles of animal husbandry, ie. clean surroundings (good water quality) and good food with consistent, regular feeds would be the ticket for a skinny animal needing to gain weight.

I would try to get some nutrition into him by handfeeding him off some tongs or chopsticks every day. Turns our pumps off and hold a block of mysis right in front of him so when he eats the food he gets a bigger mouthful of shrimp rather than having to use up energy chasing them down one at a time. Also provide nori on a clip for him for when you are gone during the day. Each feeding time, give him as much as he will eat for as long as it takes until he stops showing interest in the food - you may need some patience! Do this once a day minimum, but ideally feed him mysis in the morning, when you get home from work and before you go to bed.

This is going to sound silly, but write down your observations each night - how much he ate, how enthusiastic he was, anything you notice about his poop. This is a really good way of seeing if there is any improvement, as weight gain or loss is difficult to judge on a daily basis with your eyes alone - whereas writing down your observations will give you a better picture.

 

[Scottrotton]

Hey I had this issue the other week, my clowns weren't eating correctly, I also had colour loss and stringy poop. They seem to be almost back to normal, at one stage I was sure the male would die as he couldn't even swim.

What I did.

- as @Agent M stated above keep the water clean, and keep testing for any change in conditions
- Get some decent food in them somehow, mine wasnt eating the usual pellets so I tried some flake food which they accepted
- I dont know if this worked or not but I bought something called Garlic + from LFS and soaked my Mysis Shrip in it for 30-45mins I then drianed and fed it to them, soon after that they seemed to start recovering. Maybe it was just that they had eating but who knows.

Be prepared to pull them out if they die to avoid a tank crash.

Good luck but clowns by all accounts are hardy fish and hopefully they will pull through

here is my thread

http://www.thereefuge.com.au/threads/clown-fish-disease.5680/