Please help! Clown not eating

90sShooter

90sShooter

Active member
I bought 2 clowns over a week ago and they were both doing really well until just the other day one had white stringy poop and slowly lost his appetite. He has not eaten anything the last 2 days now (that I have seen(however the pod population has decreased dramatically since introduction of the clowns so he may be eating pods...)) but seems to be swimming around just fine. I don't see any white spots or any other signs of disease and the white poop is gone now (probably because there is nothing left in his poor little tummy) but he still won't eat...

What is wrong with my clown?
Is he going to be ok?
What can I do to get him to eat?

My tank is about a month and a half old and all my parameters are good except nitrates around 20ppm (using API reef master kit). I have never been able to get them to 0... :( However the other clown is doing great! eats like a champ and did since day 1, also has been hosting my Brain coral since the first night... I also have several softies, lps and about 15 SPS that are all showing great polyp extension and growth!

I am feeding frozen brine shrimp (which my cousen says are not very nutritious) and try to feed them pellets "with garlic" but they will not eat them... should I try another food source? if so, what? Mysis?

I have also read about feeding them some sort of medication food to clear the parasite, but if he is not eating then...?

Sorry for the rambling and random sentence fragments but any suggestions will be great! I do not want to loose my clown, he is soo cool...

Thanks in advance!
 
Brine shrimp are not a good source of all around nutrition for fish, so your cousin is correct.

May not be a parasite at all, sometimes clownfish will get have stringy excrement if they are not eating, like yours. There are a variety of things you could try to get this fish to eat, the easiest and probably most effective is going to be a variety of quality frozen preparations.

Frozen (not freeze dried) Cyclopeeze is fantastic, frozen mysis is also great. Frozen Formula 1 and 2 are also good. If it's available near you, "Rod's Food" is some of the best stuff you can get.

Try some variety, if that doesn't work and signs of internal parasites worsen/persist it may benefit you to transfer the clowns into a QT.
 
Well I just went to the store and bought some frozen formula 2 and neither of them show any interest... Even the clown that eats like crazy... so I threw some of the brine shrimp in and the one went crazy for it... the other clown still will not eat... I don't know what to do? :( What's wrong how come he won't eat? it's driving me crazy... he looks fine... he just looks sad... :( Any other ideas?
 
Try mysid shrimp. Mine love it. You could also try finely crushed flakes (Prime Reef and Formula Two). That's all my male perc would eat when he wasn't feeling well a while ago. It's like he didn't want to bother chewing or something. Make sure the pieces are smaller than its mouth.

Good luck! Hope the little guy starts eating again!

Oh also, mine don't like frozen formula two much either. I don't like polluting my tank with uneaten food, so I hook the frozen cube on a fish hook and line (a very large hook so they can't hook themselves!). They get to nibble on it and I can remove it once they're done.
 
Thanks for your input... I am thinking I am gonna have to get some mysis shrimp too... what a waste of $7 for the formula 2... :( I figured with all the other foods in it and nutrients that it would be perfect... The clowns did NOT want anything to do with it...
 
Oh and if you feed the shrimp, make sure the pieces are small enough for them to eat. Mine just try and feed the bigger pieces to their anemone, and when they were in QT, without an anemone, they wouldn't eat the larger pieces either. They really only like food they can easily fit into their mouths. I think that's one reason why they love brine shrimp so much. But this could just be my picky clowns!
 
brine shrimp can be very useful in getting fish to eat, as pretty much all of them seem to love it...unfortunately it's just not good as a whole diet.

I highly recommend picking up frozen cyclopeeze, this is the food that brought my clowns back from the brink of death a year ago. I would expect them to warm up to the formula2 once they're both eating well and get used to it.
 
I hope so... Yeah I looked for cyclopeeze at both petco and petsmart today... both did not have it... but I figured this formula 2 would do the trick... nope... I will try the LFS tomorrow for cyclopeeze... I hope that does the trick... I fear he only has a few more days without eating... :(
 
I see that you live in the OC. Have you tried Jeff's Exotic Fish yet? Off of Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, CA? If it is too far away, there is also one in Orange, CA off of Tustin Ave or something like that.
 
Live food is the best shot at getting fish to eat. If you are really attached to your clown buy live tubifex worms, live brine shrimp, and a baby brine shrimp hatchery, and try all three. If it doesn't eat any of the above, I would start thinking about a hospital tank.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12729789#post12729789 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 90sShooter
I hope so... Yeah I looked for cyclopeeze at both petco and petsmart today... both did not have it... but I figured this formula 2 would do the trick... nope... I will try the LFS tomorrow for cyclopeeze... I hope that does the trick... I fear he only has a few more days without eating... :(
Click to expand...
 
OK I will see what I can find... I will try to find some live food... and cyclopeeze.. I am off!

BTW he still did not eat this morning... But I do see my other clown picking off pods from the back of the tank... Maybe he is easting pods... The stringy poo is back... maybe that means he has been eating pods? I don't know... I am just hoping time will heal him as my tank is stable... I can't imagine he is that stressed....

Thanks all for your suggestions!
 
Would have little to do with your tank, more to do with conditions at the LFS he was subjected to. Parasites, etc.
 
Well may he rest in peace... :( I woke up today couldn't find him... and then there he was in the cave being eaten by a crab... Man I don't know what I am doing wrong but I just can't seem to keep a clown alive... The other one is doing GREAT but that is the third clown that has died in the last month... so weird... do you think the store I am getting them from is to blame? bad care/stock?

Looks like my hopes of keeping a pair are toast... What are the chances if I add another clown that they will pair up? I want a black/white clown... Although I am reluctant to purchase another clown... maybe I will just give up and stick with the one... and pick another fish...
 
Sorry about your clown!

You can find another small one, smaller than the one you still have, and they should pair up. The female from my pair jumped out of the tank, so I went and got another one. They are a nice little couple now.

I don't know what's wrong with the clowns you're getting other than it seems like it had internal parasites. Can you list any more symptoms they get before dying?
 
Are the clowns all coming from the same source. If so, I would remove the surviving clown to QT, and treat it. Obviously, don't buy any more fish from them either.
 
if you're getting them from petco...stop...is the LFS reputable? it could possibly be the store's tank condition...did you QT the fishes before you put them in your display tank?
 
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