Sick or old Ocelaris?

M

MadSkillzMan

New member
Hi guys

Ive got an ocelaris living with a tomato in a 20g. They get along great, however the ocelaris lately has been pretty..well weak.

I rescued him from a negective owner back in december. He claimed he'd had the little guy for about 4 years living in god aweful conditions.

Lately i notice the little guy not being able to swim agains the currents, and i really got bothered today when i saw him swim and get flopped over sideways onto a peice of LR. I noticed hes lost a bit of weight, atleast i think..but he is eating..he mainly dwells at the bottom now. He'll swim a little, then lay , then swim..etc etc

at night he sleeps on the bottom. He did this when i first got him, but im wondering if hes just old or sick

the tanks paremeters are good, and been sitting at the same for months now. Its a new tank, but ive been through the new tank syndrome with the red slime algae already.. got a small HOB fuge, skimmer, tons of LR and sand

The tomatos just fine, hes at the top/mid where my other clown used to be

Any info you can give me guys id appreciate it. thanks in advance.
 
Unless the guy you got it from bought the fish as an adult, I doubt it is old age. I had my older female ocellaris for 12 years, the once-male-now-female ocellaris for 7.
 
once male now female? huh?

i was also wondering if the season change had something to do with it?

see im sutmped, because i know when its something in the water, or its sick, it would get way worse, real fast. This has been going on a week now.
 
It is VERY unlikely it is age, but is possible. A. ocellaris have been known to live 25+ years...

Sounds more like internal parasites. Remove to a QT tank and treat with Hexamit.
 
post your water parameters for us.
A QT tank does not have to be large, a 10 gallon will suffice.
I would QT for a minimum 3 weeks, probably closer to 4.
Does the clown have white stringy poo? that is usually a dead give away for parasites.
 
Ammonia/Nitrite - 0
Nitrate ~10
PH 7.7 ..cant really seem to get the PH to climb, however this is what hes been in his whole life. i do keep shells in the fuge to get it up there
Salinity - 1.024

Phosphate- Unknown, though i dont imagine it too high, i have tons of macroalgae, and 0 red/green/brown algae

And no, this is not R/O water. Its dechlroed, im trying to get ahold of an RO, but easier said than done.

Wow that long for parasites? what should i setup in it? i dont exactly ahve all this laying around. I assume moving him is to keep the LR/Snails/Tomato safe from the treatments? And strangely, the 5 months ive had him, ive never seen him poo.

Ive done this fro FW, but ive only had to use small 2gallon tanks for about 2 weeks. so consequently thats what ive got laying around.

Again i rescued the fish. i realize i dont have the best setup, but compared to what he was in, its a hell of alot better. He was sitting in water with no filter/movement, hardly any light, salinity of 1.032, and BROWN water.

Thanks for your help guys.
 
Alright guys, ive got him temporarily in a 2.5gal tank. Hopefully i can get him in a larger one, but hes only about 2.5" in anyway

I treated him with CLOUT, the guy at the LFS claimed itd help if its worms. On the back it said itd treat hexamita, protozoan parasites, and a ton of other things. Im hoping this helps, as usually the last few sicknesses i had, these guys helped me cure

and on the good side he WILL eat flakes. I was going to try soaking them with garlic

thanks in advance
 
as long as he is eating something that is a plus
keep the water clean and he should start improving daily
 
Thanks! He is improving actually already. Im gonna clean his water first thing when i get home tmr, as all ive got in there is a huge chunk of chaeto, since the instrustions say itll kill any kind of nitrifying bactera (yet it says continue filtration..)

Little guy loves his garlic

Luckily since its a small tank, i can examine his feces whenever i find them to let you know if it was stringy or not

thanks for your help, i sure hope we get past this!
 
MadSkillzMan, just to let you know about clownfishes and to answer your question, they switch gender. They can only go from male to female, not female to male. If you have a male, and keep it alone for a certain period of time, it will become female. Just an easy and general answer. Get it now?
 
wow i didnt know that. Thats quite impressive! this little guy was alone for a looong time before i had him, and about 2 months before i got a tomato clown, so im guessing its by now a female.

How can you tell when this is going on?

and he (i should assume she) is eating, however i looked with a flashlight...and man is she thin, and her skin is so..unevenly colored and raunchy lookin
 
You cant tell when it is going on. Its just something that happens-the way God made them. Another thing, when you see a pair of clownfish, the biggest is always the female. In the wild, if the dominant female dies, then the most dominant juvenile will become female taking the old females place. Even as the juveniles get older, they wont grow big b/c the female is the biggest dominant one.

Not good that she is getting thin...what exactly are you feeding her? and how much how often?
 
Im feeding flakes and mysis shrimp, but shes in QT right now. I was feeding once a day in the big tank, but now im feeding twice or 3 times a day just to try and get him/her back to normal weight

only im noticing white patches on her today. they look like theyre healing, but i could be wrong. its not ich, possibly a fungus..but yea, this poor fishy isnt looking good even with treatment
 
try adding formalin to the water. it is an anti fungal agent and will help with the patches or any other infection she might come down with.
 
Oh alright, ill see what i can do. Poor thing is really being thrashed by this sickness. Maracyn II is readily available. Primafix doesnt seem to be doing much if anything, nor the clout.

How do you guys filter QT tanks? ive got blobs of chaeto and an airstone with many water changes, since clout will kill any nitrifying bacteria

Ive never seen a fish get so bad so fast. This morning he was doing better, and tonight hes just gotten worse where it doesnt look like he'll make it through the night..im sitll sure gonna try to save him though..
 
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