Hey Everyone,
Haven't been on here in a while (moved to Florida for a year) and looks like there are a lot of new faces
Anyway, I was hoping someone might be able to offer some advice. I've been in this hobby a while (over 10 years now) so I've dealt with a lot of different fish diseases and issues but I'm stumped on this one.
I've always been a fan of your every day Ocellaris but my boyfriend has always really liked the designer clowns so I picked up a pair of something called "Flurries". They settled in just fine and did great except the female had occasional spats with my Flame Angel but they didn't seem to hurt each other, more just the female clown defending her territory. No torn fins or abrasions. The female did have a large black spot near the base of her fin at one point but I just assumed it was from a coral sting and it went away.
Woke up one morning and found the female dead in a corner of the tank. She had a slight tear in her back fin but otherwise nothing noticeable. I saw the male trying to host my mushroom rock with the Flame Angel picking on him so I assumed it must have been the Flame that killed the female. I got a nice large BTA and paired up the male with a standard Ocellaris male I had in my coral tank. They paired up almost immediately and hosted the BTA. Flame left them alone and everything seemed fine.
Now another month later and last night I glanced over and noticed the male designer clown on the opposite side of the tank from the anemone on the bottom. He looked like he was struggling to breath and couldn't keep upright. I immediately took him out and set him up in a quarantine with plenty of oxygen and dosed the water with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. No visible signs of infection but I just didn't know what to do. This morning he seems to be staying upright and swimming a lot easier but he is still breathing a bit heavy and won't eat. I did notice he has a bit of dark discoloration near the base of his fin, possibly a sting from a coral or the nem?
Tank parameters are all fine and all my other fish are acting normal. Any idea what could be going on with the little guy? I would really hate to lose him too. I've never lost a clownfish before so I am just surprised. Are the designers more sensitive or could it have something to do with genetics due to inbreeding? Maybe I'm just fishing here (pardon the pun) but I know this happens a lot with other animals when there is a small gene pool due to selective breeding.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to see if there is something I'm missing here. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Haven't been on here in a while (moved to Florida for a year) and looks like there are a lot of new faces
Anyway, I was hoping someone might be able to offer some advice. I've been in this hobby a while (over 10 years now) so I've dealt with a lot of different fish diseases and issues but I'm stumped on this one.
I've always been a fan of your every day Ocellaris but my boyfriend has always really liked the designer clowns so I picked up a pair of something called "Flurries". They settled in just fine and did great except the female had occasional spats with my Flame Angel but they didn't seem to hurt each other, more just the female clown defending her territory. No torn fins or abrasions. The female did have a large black spot near the base of her fin at one point but I just assumed it was from a coral sting and it went away.
Woke up one morning and found the female dead in a corner of the tank. She had a slight tear in her back fin but otherwise nothing noticeable. I saw the male trying to host my mushroom rock with the Flame Angel picking on him so I assumed it must have been the Flame that killed the female. I got a nice large BTA and paired up the male with a standard Ocellaris male I had in my coral tank. They paired up almost immediately and hosted the BTA. Flame left them alone and everything seemed fine.
Now another month later and last night I glanced over and noticed the male designer clown on the opposite side of the tank from the anemone on the bottom. He looked like he was struggling to breath and couldn't keep upright. I immediately took him out and set him up in a quarantine with plenty of oxygen and dosed the water with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. No visible signs of infection but I just didn't know what to do. This morning he seems to be staying upright and swimming a lot easier but he is still breathing a bit heavy and won't eat. I did notice he has a bit of dark discoloration near the base of his fin, possibly a sting from a coral or the nem?
Tank parameters are all fine and all my other fish are acting normal. Any idea what could be going on with the little guy? I would really hate to lose him too. I've never lost a clownfish before so I am just surprised. Are the designers more sensitive or could it have something to do with genetics due to inbreeding? Maybe I'm just fishing here (pardon the pun) but I know this happens a lot with other animals when there is a small gene pool due to selective breeding.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to see if there is something I'm missing here. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
