Welcoming a new Clown/ Feeding

[cinematek]

Hi all. My tank has been up and running for 2 months now. I added 2 oscellaris clowns about 3 weeks ago. One did great and the other died in about a day.

The survivor seems to have settled in nicely, eats whatever we feed him and looks very healthy.

Then, last sunday, we went and bought a new oscellaris. He ate pellets in the store and seemed very active. After acclimating, at first, the existing clown was very aggressive towards him. Now they seem to co-exist very happily, but the new clown won't eat. He occasionally takes a bite and then spits it out, but that's all.

We are feeding frozen mysis and New Life Spectrum pellets on alternating days.

Any advice on how to get him to eat?

 

[skippy2]

Try cyclop-eeze. I have never seen a fish turn that down.

 

[bilge rat]

like crack
tried varying their diet with flake
they just spit it out...at me it seems like somtimes
and wont eat it...gonna throw in some silverside
and maybe try to mix the flakes with something more appealing

 

[cinematek]

He didn't make it...

He didn't make it...

Well, that's clownfish #2 that didn't make it. The original one is still swimming strong and seems happy, but when I woke up this morning the newer fish was sitting on the bottom of the tank, gasping, with long white stringy stuff coming out of its butt. Within an hour of waking up he had died.

Any ideas?

 

[cinematek]

I would like to try again with another Oscellaris so that I'll have a pair, but I feel like I'm missing something about either selection or care, since I have now lost 2 of 3 fish.

 

[Slakker]

1. Set up a QT tank, quarantine ALL new arrivals, just to be safe.
2. Wait a couple weeks to a month now before adding another clown. Give the existing one more time to become comfortable and time for you to be sure it's healthy. Sounds like the last clown was sick, perhaps with internal parasites. These could spread to the existing clown. Waiting a few weeks before adding another fish will also ensure that your biological filtration has time to catch up to the new bio-load.
3. If the fish you have starts showing signs of illness, transfer it to the QT tank immediately and begin appropriate treatment.

Sorry to hear of your losses! Hope I was helpful.

 

[skippy2]

Maybe you should try another clownfish from another LFS. Maybe they are just getting in unhealthy fish.

 

[cinematek]

The two clowns I lost were actually from two different LFS. However, I have reason to believe that all the LFS in my area (SoCal) probably get their fish from the same supplier.

Hmmm...

 

[Slakker]

If they're CB, they probably do.