sick (possibly dying) clownfish

[mattsilvester]

Hi all,

My clownfish is looking seriously unwell. He has had a bit of a hard time in the last few months. He had a battle with a flame angel, and ended up with an infected eye (pop eye). The flame angel was removed, and the clown fish was treated sucessfully, and went back to normal life (although I think he is now blind in that eye as a result). However, about a month back he started becoming very inactive, just lying in my sacrophyton mushroom coral (which he thinks is an anemone). He stopped feeding. I also noticed that his fins seemed a bit tatty and damaged, so I thought prehaps he was getting a hard time from one of my tangs (yellow / regal / mustard mimic). So 2 days ago I put him in a q-tine tank, in the hope of fattening him up, and getting him back in shape.

Since I put him in the q-tine tank he is just sitting motionless or swimming just above the bottom, not feeding, and breathing quite rapidly. His colour is quite faded, and since he has not eaten for a month he is quite thin. He is quite capable of swimming and maintaining his position in the water, it just seems he has no will to do so. There is plenty of cover for him to hide if he wants, but he is perfectly happy to hang around the front of the tank.

Can anyone tell me what might be wrong with him, and what I might be able to do to help the poor little guy.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Regards,

Matt

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

What did you treat him with? Sounds like it could be some sort of bacterial infection..
What kind of Clown? Is it wild caught or tank raised?
Any white slime on its body?
How long have you had him?

 

[mattsilvester]

I think he was wild caught.
I treated him with 'Waterlife Myxazin' which is a non copper based broad spectrum bactericide, and it seemed to do te trick nicely.
I have had him about 4 or 5 years, and in that time he has never had anything wrong with him (side from the pop eye).
He doesn't appear to have any white slime on his body that I can see.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Matt

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Hmmmm, Not familiar with that product...and I see your in Ireland, I am not sure what products you have available to you...I would possibly try another antibiotic, if you can order from liveaquaria.com, you might try Furan-2..I have had good luck w/ that product

 

[mattsilvester]

thanks for the help Kim.
Unfortunately, to get any kind of antibiotic here in ireland you have to have an perscription........ so it would mean going to a vet, and that would probably be pretty expensive, and pointless - I went to the vet a few years back for an antibiotic for a fish and he looked at me like I was from another planet!

Thanks again, I guess I will just struggle on with the treatments I have and hope for the best - but the outlook doesn't look good for the poor little guy!

Regards,

Matt.