will picky clownfish die?

[cain420]

i have this clownfish (one of the two - the bigger one) who is so darn picky with food, it just isnt eating.. {EDIT - PLEASE AVOID THE RACIAL REFERENCES}! Will this poor clownfish starve to death? Or will it start to eat eventually? What can i do??
both of em are seeming to stay away from the bottom of the tank since i added clean up crew.. is any of the above normal behavior??

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by cain420
i have this clownfish (one of the two - the bigger one) who is so darn picky with food, it just isnt eating..{EDIT} Will this poor clownfish starve to death? Or will it start to eat eventually? What can i do??
both of em are seeming to stay away from the bottom of the tank since i added clean up crew.. is any of the above normal behavior??
I had one die under similar circumstances. He just would never eat. A lot of people recommended mixing your food in garlic extract at the time, but he died before I got my hands on some. You could try that. People also recommended mixing up the food regimen to see what he'd eat, and several people told me cyclopeeze was a common favorite for clowns, and very nutritious.

 

[cain420]

lol i guess i will pick up some cyclopeeze and hope that he eats it.. i have bought him flake, pellets, frozen brine... and i guess i need a fourth and maybe some extract.. i just noticed too that it seems he is getting a few bubbles on him.. not good... cheap skimmer!!!!!!!!!! im bout to unplug it!
i sure hope she makes it... what can i do about the bubbles??

 

[uberlink]

How old is the skimmer? Sometimes there's a break in period. Are you using stress coat or any other additives in your water? Sometimes those can increase bubble production. On the other hand, my old Skilter skimmer never stopped producing bubbles...sometimes it's just a cheap skimmer issue and it won't change until you change skimmers.
I wouldn't unplug it, though. The bubbles won't hurt the fish, but having no skimmer might.
Check over on the disease board. There's instructions on there that recommend using fresh garlic extract instead of any kind of packaged garlic extract.

 

[murph]

Try some live adult brine mixed in with some frozen Mysis. If the clown wont eat live brine you may have a problem.
Most will say adult live brine have vary little nutritional value. I tend to think this is one of those things that got said once, repeated over and over and became excepted as fact. One thing about adult live brine and there nutritional value or lack of it, is that when I wanted a female cichlid to go gravid all I had to do was feed her live brine for a week. If there is no nutritional value to adult brine you will have to tell the umpteen female cichlids I prepared for breeding useing it because they seem to have a different opinion :joy: .

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Murph
Try some live adult brine mixed in with some frozen Mysis. If the clown wont eat live brine you may have a problem.
Most will say adult live brine have vary little nutritional value. I tend to think this is one of those things that got said once, repeated over and over and became excepted as fact. One thing about adult live brine and there nutritional value or lack of it, is that when I wanted a female cichlid to go gravid all I had to do was feed her live brine for a week. If there is no nutritional value to adult brine you will have to tell the umpteen female cichlids I prepared for breeding useing it because they seem to have a different opinion :joy: .
I tried live brine, my clowns wouldn't even touch'em!!! Cyclop-eeze frozen bar works just fine!!! Ever since then, they eat anything I feed. My fishes are pretty good about that, once I get them to eat something they like, they start to eat everything I feed'em. :happyfish

 

[cain420]

well, she passed away last night... guess the poor lil thing must not have been happy in the tank.. anyways, its a seaclone100. The other clownfish I have seems to be fine (will look alot closer as soon as lights kick on). I noticed that the other night, they were separated when they slept, maybe they knew she was going to die.. Everything else seems to be in order in the tank, as far as stock. The other clown, scooter blenny, and cleaner wrasse.. as well as clean up crew. I think I caught the death early - wasnt floating yet (sittin in the algae at the bottom). But I am going to retest the water, and maybe do a waterchange today.
I sure was hoping she would pull through! But I guess it was just meant to be.
Is it possible that even though one of em was bigger then the other, that they were both female? The lfs had a few in the tank I got em from, so I guess that isnt totally impossible.. But is it likely that one would just not eat if that was the case? Or more likely it was sick, or just sad to be where it was?

 

[nicole05]

sorry about your loss cain its frusting to try so hard but not knowing what will help i had cc star die last week

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by cain420
well, she passed away last night... guess the poor lil thing must not have been happy in the tank.. anyways, its a seaclone100. The other clownfish I have seems to be fine (will look alot closer as soon as lights kick on). I noticed that the other night, they were separated when they slept, maybe they knew she was going to die.. Everything else seems to be in order in the tank, as far as stock. The other clown, scooter blenny, and cleaner wrasse.. as well as clean up crew. I think I caught the death early - wasnt floating yet (sittin in the algae at the bottom). But I am going to retest the water, and maybe do a waterchange today.
I sure was hoping she would pull through! But I guess it was just meant to be.
Is it possible that even though one of em was bigger then the other, that they were both female? The lfs had a few in the tank I got em from, so I guess that isnt totally impossible.. But is it likely that one would just not eat if that was the case? Or more likely it was sick, or just sad to be where it was?
It probably starved to death. They do change ---, so one would be a female and the other one would be male. That's after they've bonded with each other. Should keep frozen bars of cyclop-eeze available to feed, they like that very much!! :happyfish

 

[cain420]

it was eating good for a few days and then just went on strike! Was the bigger one, so I am assuming it was the female.. I have heard that the males can go female, but not the other way around, so I am wondering if they were both female... were in a tank with a few others.
I think it is wierd how they used to sleep right by each other for about a week, then all the sudden, they wouldnt be together when the lights went out..
but i guess that is why there is no guarantee on marine life at the lfs...

 

[uberlink]

I had the exact same thing happen. I bought two clowns from this website. Both looked fine when I first got them, though one had much deeper, nicer color. After a few days, the less colored one started getting picky. Within a week, he had stopped eating altogether and got all scrawny looking. Died within ten days or so. swf.com replaced the fish for free, and his replacement has been healthy as can be. Sometimes they just aren't healthy from the start, and there's not much you can do
Still sucks to lose one, though...sorry to hear it.

 

[mikeyjer]

That happened to me once with my first clown. I had it for a long time and suddenly one day it just stopped eating and died just like that.

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by Murph
Try some live adult brine mixed in with some frozen Mysis. If the clown wont eat live brine you may have a problem.
Most will say adult live brine have vary little nutritional value. I tend to think this is one of those things that got said once, repeated over and over and became excepted as fact. One thing about adult live brine and there nutritional value or lack of it, is that when I wanted a female cichlid to go gravid all I had to do was feed her live brine for a week. If there is no nutritional value to adult brine you will have to tell the umpteen female cichlids I prepared for breeding useing it because they seem to have a different opinion :joy: .
im sorry if in duplicating anyone elses response to this one but i had to stop it here although your response makes sense to you .your statement here(female cichlid)
is the whole ideal use for brine shrimp.brine is a fw species not found in natural seawater although great for fw fish it has no good value to sw fish do to its origen.sw fish have been known to die of malnutrition due to the hobbiest and LFS habits of feeding brine shrimp to the fish.yes the fish may eat the live brine until it becomes too weak from lack of nutrients the fish evenually dies from illnesses that could have been prevented with a good well rounded diet and proper nutrition.you must remember these are not fw fish and should not be kept as such .i bet the thousand of sw fish that died from improper diet(brine) will also have a different oppinion

 

[mbootag]

Thanks for the info unleashed did not know that.

 

[murph]

I would love to find some definitive studies on this. Technically brine shrimp is not a natural diet for freshwater fish either.
A diet of one particular food item no matter what is not a good diet whether it be brine, dry frozen etc.
What was being discussed here is getting a finicky fish to go on its feed. Often times live foods are the only ones excepted until a fish adjust to aquarium life.
On the other hand trends and methods that become excepted in this hobby are vary rarely based on any kind of scientific evidence and are more akin to fads based on anecdotal evidence at best. This is basically the reason new comers are presented with so much conflicting advice from the outset.

 

[cain420]

well, i think the other clownfish will die tonight! I think I am beginning to HATE clownfish..
Hardy fish my but!
It was sitting in the exact same spot where the other one's carcus was found and looked dead..
I went to scoop it out, and it moved...
I seriously doubt that clownfish sleep pretty much motionless....

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by cain420
well, i think the other clownfish will die tonight! I think I am beginning to HATE clownfish..
Hardy fish my but!
It was sitting in the exact same spot where the other one's carcus was found and looked dead..
I went to scoop it out, and it moved...
I seriously doubt that clownfish sleep pretty much motionless....
Mine does!!! It just sits there motionless while it sleeps. I scared it one day with a flash light. :happyfish

 

[cain420]

i sure hope that is what its doing... id hate to lose the other clownfish too..
geez... i feel like a worried parent! lol
oh wait... i am a parent!

 

[uberlink]

Mine sleep almost completely motionless in a low-flow corner of the tank; either there or completely motionless in a soft coral they have taken to. I was worried early on, but they are totally healthy. I think this is pretty normal.

 

[cain420]

i guess the fact that the one that died was acting like this the night it died has me concerned, which is a good thing - means i care about the fish. I did pick up some frozen cyclopeeze today at a different store then where i normally went (they dont carry it there)..
Another quick question if ur still there.. is it likely that a cleaner wrasse can live off of a brine shrimp/flake food/cyclopeeze diet? It sure does eat alot when I feed, but I hear that parasites are a necessity in their diet! Of course the lfs didnt mention that..
I am also assuming that all the lil white bugs on my glass are the copepods that everyone says my scooter blenny needs to eat.. He seems to be doing great, some big poop out of such a small fish!
I think I may have gotten alot of pods from swf.com with my cleaner crew package. I never saw them on the glass until I put the crew in..and now there are at least 100 on the glass alone... i didnt add the water from the package, just netted the inverts out of the bucket and into the tank..
added by edit following morning:
the clownfish is alive! that lil booger just wanted me to worry!