My Maroon Clownfish are.....??ROTTING??

[saul t. waters]

I think my clownfish have something wrong with them....
The BIG clownfish has the following conditions...
Her righted fins are kinda pale or have a white color to them towards the edges...but are not ragged or torn.
She has 3 white dots, about 1/4 of a centimeter in diameter in a straight line... you can not see these dots when you look at her side straight forward, only sideways.... other than that she seems perfectly healthy.
Now the smaller fish has the following symptons...
He has ragged and torn fins... at first, about 2-3 months ago, i thought it was normal for it to have these ragged fins, because I was told it is comman for clownfish to have ragged fins every once in a while.
His "side fins" are not torn and ragged but directly under the side fins his body seems to be deterioting or rotting away, but it is not bloody. the rotting looks just as it sounds brown, darker than the maroon color, slightly yellow in some spots, and it is "sunken in" but it isn't smooth, but it has texture, kinda bumpy, with "rolling hills"
He hovers at the top of the water, which isn't really uncomman since he and she "broke up" about 6-7 months ago.
They both eat normal....
the setup is a 55 gallon FOWLR...
2 brittle starfish
1 chocolate chip starfish
1 flame angel
1 royal gramma
1 cleaner shrimp
scarlet and blue legged crabs... 1 snail
we just moved about a month ago... i use well water now but conditioned.
Also i know the two clownfish are not fighting because they stay at opposite ends of the tank...

 

[iceburger]

you should prolly test your well water for heavy metals, copper and large amounts of iron are sometimes present in well water, especially if the pipes to the well are old...

 

[beth]

What are your water readings, and what are you feeding your fish?

 

[paul anonymous]

you know what.. i am curious about what other people have for answers about this! I recently bought 3 clown fish: ocellaris clownfish, black and white ocellaris, and a maroon clown. Bought and introduced all at the same time. Its been at least 2weeks now and the 3 clown fish are getting along great. no harrrassing, no rough play or foul plays. I noticed it the other day. The left side fin of my maroon clown its looking like its rotting away slowly but surely. The rotting of the fin looks just as SAUL described his to be. Mine is still alive and its been a couple days that i've noticed this disease. I have no idea what may have help caused this. The behavior of the 3 fish are friendly and if anything the maroon fish is more territorial than the other two. He is pretty capable of protecting his area, thats if u ask me. He eats plenty of frozen shrimp, flake & pallets. onces every other day I treat the food i feed them and prepare it with suppliments of Kent Marine C, vita chem(great for any fin healing), selcon. Anyways, obviously the suppliment is not doing much help. Maroon fish is nice fat and chunky after every feeding time (2-3x daily). Maroon fish is always one the first fish to have the first bites. Anyways I'm going to continue more research of this. WISH ME LUCK people.

 

[beth]

Can you post pictures of your clownfish?

 

[paul anonymous]

its really hard to take a stolen picture of him. Nowadays, he found an area of the tank (back corner) he likes to keep it to himself and keeping the other two clown fish from trespassing near his area makes it difficult to take a snap shot. Only time he comes out of his boundary is around feeding time. His belly is pretty big after every feeding time, so no issue on him eating. Even when around feeding time he swims too fast for my camera to get a clear visual pic. The fin that seems like it was rotting and deteriorating or "cutting away" it seemed to slow down temporally. When it first started he had this White Crusty little outline of where you could tell it was going to be gone soon and now that white crusty thing is not showing up anymore and the rotting and deteriorating has slowed down, i think. But the thing is now, day 7, the dorsal fin looks like its starting to do the same(maybe). I am afraid my maroon clown now is not going to make it soon if this continues! I've been feeding him variety of dry and frozen food only. Any of my LFS does not carry live food i could get for him. Anyway with all that said, i supplement all the food i give him at least once a day of Kent marine C, vita chem(supposedly great for fin recovery), and/or selcon, and kent zoecon(supposedly helps fin) hoping any of those will slow the the process or better yet cure whatever this is he has. Its hard to research something that you don't know, you know? All i could do is hope someone out there could verify what this illness could possibly be. Its a possibility stress maybe a factor in this but i dont not see any rough plays from the other fish for the last 2-3weeks. all my fish are friendly and he dominates the the other two clowns as far as ive seen. So i don't know, beside of his fine "rotting away" little by little his his health wise and character is pretty stable. it hasnt really affected his swimming behavior yet since his fine (left side) is only about 20-30% gone. Like i said, everything has slow down as it seems but im afraid its going to continue and when it comes back its tottally going to take it completely off. I wish it wasnt my maroon clown thats getting sick like this, i wish it was one of my other two instead because my maroon was the most expense($50) and most beautiful out of the 3.
Anyways.. it always sucks for ANY Fish to go through these kinda things. And I'm feeling helpless!!!
Hope someone who reads my forum can give me some ideas What This illness could possibly be. Names would be a great help.

 

[paul anonymous]

Alright, here is a few pictures I ran into that i can find that looks CLOSE to what my maroon is looking like to give someone an idea what i've been trying to describe. (pay attention to the Fin Only)
My maroon fin (left side) has somewhat of that same Crusty white outline where it would have BEFORE it begins to deteriorate
Same side of the fin where my maroon fish's fin is beginning to disappear except for mine is at the TOP Side of its Left Fin(maybe 25% of it) its what it looks like ATM and not at the end of its fin like its showing in this pic(more like the top section of it, closer to the body)
another picture
(remember all these pictures are from website i ran into) these are not my fish. Mine looks a little more beautiful/healthier than these! lol

 

[beth]

The two lower pics are clownfish suffering from aggression. The top is poor environment and/or malnutrition.
It does help you much.