clownfish needs help- losing tail

[allen63]

My clownfish lost about 3/4 of his tail overnight last night. Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Here is all the info I can think of:

The clownfish was added to my 12 eclipse 3 weeks ago. It is a tank raised half striped black percula shipped from liveaquaria. The tank has been running for 2 1/2 years. It has a healthy yellow clown goby (in for over a year) and two hermits (in for 2 years) and about 20 lbs live rock, no corals, no bio wheel, stock lighting. I have been doing weekly 1.5 gallon water changes with the catalina island seawater from petco for the last 5 weeks before that monthly with instant ocean. I tested today as follows:

ph 8.2-8.3

ammonia- below .025 ppm

nitrite-0

nitrate-between 10-25 ppm

sg- 1.025

temp- 81

He is still swimming normally and eating like a pig. He is a brine shrimp nut and I have been trying over the last week to get him to eat other foods by mixing them in with the brine. He wont eat flake. He has eaten marine cuisine frozen and yesterday ate some frozen krill chopped up really small. I can't really see anything else wrong with him. He also gets along peacefully with the clown goby. I am not sure what to do, hopefully we can help him (her)recover from this. It is a really neat little fish. Thanks for your help, Allen

[Six]

Hrm. Does the tail looked chewed on at all? Or just kind of wasting away and getting shorter?

 

It could be something (invert wise/hitchhiker wise)that shows aggression towards it when you arent watching (night usually) or a bacterial infection.

 

FYI- it's always good to QT all new fish before adding them to your tank so you can medicate or fix any problems before they bloom in your display.

 

GL

[allen63]

His tail basically rotted away in the night. All the clear part is gone. He is still eating and swimming around fine. He is breathing normally and not scratching on the rocks or anything. He didn't get any worse throughout the day. His fins are ok so far. I think he has lost a little color. If it's bacterial what is the best treatment? I really don't think it could be the goby, they eat side by side and seem peaceful to each other. Thanks again, Allen

[Six]

Well, you'll want to make sure it's not the water quality. Bacterial infections are usually secondary to some type of lesion. The fish get hurt from another inhabitant or from shipping, get a wound, and then get an infection. Many fish can heal fine from just a lesion, but water quality problems can cause infection.

 

I'd get your water tested and see what that tells you. You'll want to do some water changes regardless, it will 'freshen' the water and help aid in healing. Sometimes this alone will be enough to clear the infection. Most times actually. It's just time consuming... but it's better than adding unneeded medications and chemicals into your tank. Plus it will save you money by not having to buy costly medicine.

 

Yea, I'd do a small water change, 25% or less and get that water tested to see what may be causing the problem. If you do a water change twice a week and still no improvement, then you'll want to treat the fish. That's a whole other ball game if it's a reef tank.

 

GL

[allen63]

Thanks for the help Six, I did do a 20% water change already tonight. I hope that helps, I will continue to do them every other day or so hoping he gets better.

I spent some time staring closely at him this evening to see if there was any other damage and watching his breathing. After a while, the yellow clown goby came out of the rocks and they both stared each other down face to face for about 5 seconds, then the goby attacked the clownfish. It looked like he bit him in the side, then they separated. The clownfish did stand up to him, but he got the worst of the skirmish. What should I do now, figure out some way to separate them? Thanks, Allen

[Six]

I guess 12 gallons is a clown goby's territory, LOL. I'm not sure what you can do short of splitting them up into different tanks. Dividing the tank you have is usually stressful on the fish and most likely wont work since the fish are small enough to get through most dividing contraptions.

 

Unfortunatly, I'd find a home for one of the fish. It sounds as though if you choose the goby, you may not be able to add any other fish if he's that aggressive towards a larger fish. I'd personally keep the goby since youre is doing well which means you've housed one ten times better than most people can.

 

You can always set up another tank

 

GL

[allen63]

The clown goby - clownfish situation in my tank has become much worse. I moved the clown to a new hospital tank setup (20 gallon long)2 nights ago and he died last night. To make it much worse the clown goby is now scratching his gills on the rocks. The stress and new tankmate must have allowed ich to get to him. What can I do to save the clown goby now? Thanks, Allen

[Caesar777]

Six, you are the master of this domain.

[Six]

I guess I found a niche, LOL. I used to mod another site back in tha day. LOL. Old habits die hard.

 

Allen- for the goby, stress has enduced a possible case of crypt, which you did the right thing to rid the tank of the stress, though I am sorry to hear the clown died. As long as the water stays clean, everything is as normal as possible (dont decide to rearragnge the rock or change your filter or something drastic, haha) he should be fine. give him a little TLC, good food, and clean water, and his imune system will take care of the rest. Until he is visiblely showing crypt spots, and many of them, then you should worry. one spot or two is easy to get rid of with the before mentioned tonic techniques.

 

GL