Clownfish Not Eating

I'm a little concerned about my male clownfish. The last two feedings, I've noticed him more cowering in the "clown corner" and not eating. Today, I was deliberately watching him at feeding time and he would come out like he was going to eat, but just wouldn't or would spit the food out. I've had this mated pair of clowns for a year now. I've seen no spots, torn fins, or other strange behaviour. The other fish in the tank (including the female clown) are doing great and eating well. On the outside, the male clown looks perfectly normal, other than he's not eating. Anybody have any ideas? I thought about mixing garlic juice with the food tomorrow, but I normally feed every other day and this was feeding day. I usually feed Rod's food. Like I said, I've had this pair for a year now and am a little baffled by this.

 

not sure sorry to hear. Maybe give the garlic juice a try, is he being bullied by someone?

 

I've had periods where the female in my pair of clowns get a little "moody" and scares the male away from eating. It lasts a couple of days and then everything calms down again and they're happy. Maybe this is what's going on? There's nothing else in the tank that would pester him is there?

 

I don't know if he's sick or not, but I've noticed with freshwater fish in my past that when they are sick, and it's not visible yet, rejecting food is usually the first sign. But that doesn't mean he's sick! I'm just offering my experience...

 

Also, his breathing seems to be a bit labored, meaning he's opening his mouth a little wider than necessary on each breath, and he's breathing a bit faster than normal. The female clown is acting perfectly normal and fine. Nothing in the tank is bothering him at all, he's just chillin' in the clown corner in an unusual way and not eating. We'll definitely be trying garlic to get him to eat, but that won't exactly help us identify what this thing is with him.

Tank critter inventory:
-2 O. Clowns bonded pair
-1 six line wrasse
-1 Molly Miller Blenny
-1 Yellow Watchman Goby w/ Tiger Pistol shrimp
-Purple Firefish
-Pygmy Angel

Also we have a cleaner shrimp, a pep. shrimp, an adult brittle star, and 2 serpent stars. Everything else in the whole tank (46 Bowfront w/ 70lbs of LR, about 60 gallons total system volume) and none of the other fish are acting oddly.

 

Hi Triplmon and Jwin

I take you use / have a ground probe?
read a few articles recently to try and understand the stray voltage issue better
it seems the voltage can effect the lateral line, the laterel line picks up the electrical signal - in the same way as it would pick up a signal from a predator.

Albert J Thiel described in one article that its like a person using a disc sander
it does not hurt, but after a while it gets irritating

If you do have a ground probe? ignore my post

Steve

 

We have a ground probe...we (meaning my mom) had an issue with the Sonic Scrubber where the battery bay opened underwater and fried the Scrubber. But after asking my mom, who just told me the story today (so I assumed it happened recently), that the Scrubber accident actually happened weeks ago, so that kind of removes it from any possibilities because I doubt an electrical or chemical problem from that battery bay opening would take weeks to develop, and then wouldn't effect the other inhabitants of the tank.

And we do indeed have a ground probe wired up. So that rules that out. Keep the potential scenarios coming and we'll try to find one that fits. Maybe he's just "having a moment" (I'd like to hope so). We'll let you know how the garlic feeding goes.

 

I wouldnt worry their pretty hardy and "clown corner" rofl!

 

You said it has labored breathing, I've had a clown do that twice before under different circumstances. The first time was after I moved my tank. After getting the fish back in the my newly set up tank, one of the clowns started getting the labored breathing, this was about 5 hours after putting them in. It lasted through the night and all the next day. By the second day it was fine and acting normal, nothing ever happened to the other clown. The second time was when I didn't let my water change water sit for a long enough period and did a water change. The salinity in the tank dropped a bit, nothing dangerous, just a change from the norm. One of the clowns developed the labored breathing and unfortunately didn't make it. I don't know if any of this helps at all, just sharing my experience with the labored breathing episodes. It seems to be brought on by some form of extreme stress, in my cases at least. Hope yours gets better.

 

Well here's the update. No labored looking breathing what so ever, he's been venturing out of his clown corner to the front of the tank and acting pretty normal. Fed them with some garlic mixed in today and he ate a fair amount, still spitting some pieces back out, but he at least was showing some interest in the food and eating most of it, so it looks like he'll be ok

It must have been one of those "things" that just happens with aquariums...and of course all the other fish went nuts for the extra snack.