Will my clown manage to be single for a while?

[crosswinds]

Hello everyone!

I had to put one of my clowns down today. It had somekind of sickness that i dont even know what is was.


I noticed that she got really tired after laying her last batch of eggs, the day after i saw her on the bottom of the pot with heavy breathing. She were like that for three days, and today she have lost much of her color and could not even take the flow. During this ive noticed an egg stuck in her opening, She managed to pass it after a day, then came two more, so i thought maybe she would recover but..


She did not have any visible signs of an infection, no bumps, spots or anything, and she kept her color until today.

I also dont know what happend, if she caught some parasite or something when i added some snails 2-3 weeks ago or if it was birth related.

Im also worried that my male will catch this, he is still fine though, and is watching out for the eggs that is still left in the pot.


Since i dont know what sinckness this was i dont want to add another clown too fast. What would be the recomended time period? 10 weeks? Will my male manage to be alone this long or is there a change of him getting stressed?

He is the only fish in the tank. I only had these 2. The tank is almost 3 years old.


Best regards,
Daniel

 

[syrinx]

Should be no problem. I have had pairs lose a mate and live alone for years without a new one.

 

[crosswinds]

Oh okey, thats good.

Just out of curiosity, do you know what happend to your clowns?

 

[syrinx]

Various things, I never remember any illness or parasites. Most of the clowns I put into tanks are CB, and have been QT`d. Some pairs were years old- the one I remember the best was a maroon pair- male died about 5 or 6 years in, female was 17 when she passed. She would never accept another mate.

 

[sh0ck]

He should be fine alone.
And change to female over time.

 

[crosswinds]

Hey!

Thanks for your responses.

Yep, he still seem to do just fine, i have yet not tried to feed him since she past away last night, he seem a bit lost still..


Just crossing my fingers that he dont catch whatever she did..

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I went through a very similar situation where my female died for no reason at all. This was after 6 weeks of QT and the pair being in the DT for about 5 months. One day, for no reason, my wife called and said there was something wrong with Bonnie. I left work and by the time I got home she was laying in the sand dead. I never found the cause.

I had considered buying another Female, but was advised that if I did, the male would turn female during the 6 week QT period and I would be left with 2 female clowns that would end up fighting to the death. The only option would to either not QT the new clown, which I was not prepared to do, or remove the male and add him to the QT with the new female.

In the end, I actually didn't do either because of the risk and only have one clown. He has since turned into a female and likes to hang out with my Tang.

 

[jesterisdead]

I have a small 10G with a nem and a clown in it for a year now and they are doing fine just being with each other.

 

[jt_milstead]

Just remember leaving the signle clown alone for a period of time could lead to it changing sexes...