Skinny clown

uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
I bought a pair of false percs from this website a week or two ago. From the start, one has been plump, bold, and had beautiful color. The other is somewhat smaller, not quite as plump, and a bit paler. He's also a bit more timid, tending to hide in the rocks until feeding time. The little guy eats voraciously and otherwise appears healthy. Should I be concerned? What, if anything, might be wrong?
Water parameters:
0 ammonia (though it ticked up to .25 while my toadstool leather was shedding)
0 nitrites (never been above 0)
10-20ppm nitrates.
8.0-8.2 on the ammonia
Salinity 1.26 and stable
Any thoughts?
 
wla1610

wla1610

Member
Are you just feeding them brine shrimp? You should get a mixture in their diets because brine shrimp alone will not be enough. I lost a few clowns when I first started this hobby due to bad advice of using only brine shrimp. Alot of people recommend mysis shrimp, squid, etc. I use a mixture of mysis shrimp, formula 2 flakes, blood worms, and a brine shrimp flake food. In the mixture I also add a little bit of Kent Garlic Extreme.
Now I'm not an expert on clown fish nor will I be any time soon, but if your smaller clown is getting pale/translucent in color that usually means he's not getting enough nutrients. You need to get him to eat some food with more protein. I hope it's not to late for him.
I'd get the feeding on your fish done tomorrow asap. I hope everything goes well and let us know if he starts eating again :)
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
I appreciate the advice, but the little guy didn't make it. I normally feed flakes, but picked up the frozen brine + spirulina in the hope that he would try that. Mysis were next, but I didn't want to overfeed (both because of the tank parameters and because my other clown eats anything I put in front of him).
So I rather unceremoniously packed the dead clown in salt and mailed him back to swf.com. I'd only had him ten days or so (same for the other clown), and he just never seemed to take to things. He was a bit pale and lethargic from day one, and he just kept eating less and less (unlike his plump, active tankmate).
swf.com will replace the little clown, but will it be a problem that the larger clown will then have been in there for a month or so? Should I request an extra small clown to reduce the likelihood of territoriality issues?
 
wla1610

wla1610

Member
I wouldn't worry about overfeeding. That was also another problem I had initially.. Now I tend to overfeed :). Only thing you have to deal with then is more possible nitrates in the end. Thats not a big deal though either. Its easier to take care of then a dead fish :(
Hmm, The new fish question. I'm not good at answering that one. It could be an issue when you get the new fish but it's hard to say. The best bet might be to travel to fish stores in the area to find a smaller one or a larger one.
Good Luck
 
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