sick looking clarkii. Help

[dantodd]

Something's wrong with my female clarkii
We went on vacation for 6 days surrounding Easter. I setup an auto feeder which seems to have worked though I'm sure my spawning clarkii weren't too happy with it. The female gave herself a pretty nasty case of pop-eye while I was gone. She has done this a couple times in the past when I've made changes to the tank.

The clutch they were sitting while we were gone hatched on Tuesday which means they should have laid another nest yesterday.

I didn't really expect them to keep on schedule because of the changes. I fed them live brine Wednesday and Thursday morning and surprisingly she looked nice and gravid late Wednesday and early Thursday! Yipppee...

Well, I didn't get home until after lights out last night but I could see that there were no eggs. Not too surprising but a little disappointing because she did start to look like she was gravid and was doing some (thouh not much) cleaning Thursday morning.

This morning the news is quite scary. She is obviously no long gravid and is not going anywhere near their anemone. The anemone is in the front right of the tank and she is staying in the back left behind the rockwork. The male is not leaving the anemone. Neither fish will eat either. and she appears to have some damage to her forsal dinand some ruffled up scales. She also is refusing food today. He is also refusing food but that's not too surprising since he never eats until she does.

There are no other fish in the tank with them and her ovipositor it NOT sticking out but I can see where it is which I haven't noticed before.

I'm very concerned for her....

Any suggestions or anyone else experience this with a positive outcome?

Help.....

 

[OkiNano]

Hey, I just wanted to wish you good luck with your clarkii female and thank you for all your help with my clowns. Do you have any inverts in the tank that would harm her? I've also heard of rare cases of anenomes attacking their hosts, but again I am a newb. But good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[dantodd]

Thanks, there is one other anemone other than hers and one moonrock. I don't see any dark spots or the like that you'd expect to see when a fish gets stung.

Her anemone isn't looking to thrilled right now either, it's almost like the whole tank knows something is wrong. I'll keep everyone up to date, for better or worse.

 

[MarinaP]

You might find this thread useful

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=754590

 

[dantodd]

Thanks Marina,

She isn't/wasn't bulging at all this morning. Either she reabsorbed the eggs over night or she just dropped them into the water. I suspect the latter as I can't see her body absorbing a full clutch of eggs in one night. She was pretty close to normal laying size on Thursday morning. She lays large nests too, 1500+ eggs.

I only mentioned that her ovipositor was a little swollen because of that thread! It has fully retracted over the last hour and that portion looks normal anyway.

She still refuses to go near her mate and her anemone but she is swimming/breathing normally.

 

[dantodd]

Well she's taken a tiny bit of flake food and is now hosting in the BTA. She's never gone into the BTA. She seems to have abandoned her mate. Her stripes are very grey which I am sure is because she's under a lot of stress. She actually looks happy in the BTA right now though she's still pretty beat up looking.

I wonder if he kicked her out of the LTA.

He also ate a little of the flake that I put in about 10 minutes ago.

Here is a picture of her, it's hard to see much but you can see the pop-eye, some of the scrapes on her face and the color loss on her stripes.

 

[dantodd]

OK.

Now I'm going totally nuts.

It is the male who is causing all the trouble.

He is now over at the BTA charging the female. and she is showing all the submissive behavior you would expect. In fact he just took a bvig chunk out of her tail even though he is only half her size.

I can try to get movies but ut is really getting pretty scary to both her and me.

Now, they are both showing some submissive behavior but it is still the male showing the female his tail and and alternately charging her. I'm going to try and get video this is most bizarre especially for 2 fish that are already (were) spawning.

 

[TOURKID]

shouldent you qt for popeye anyway? i havent had to deal with this one yet. but maybe she would fair better in a qt just till she gets over her illness and wont have any stress while healing... and then she can kick her males butt for even thinking about taking over!! i havent heard a story like this yet, i always assummed the male was completely submissive to his girl.