Clinically depressed clownfish?

[BorgDrone]

Hi all,

 

I was just wondering if my newly bought clownfish maroon is OK? I just bought it 3 days ago. At the store, he was pretty mobile and jumpy inside the bag before acclimation. But since I put him in the tank, he doesn't swim to check out around much. He hardly eats (or none at all)? He test taste a few of the dried brine shrimp flake and spit them out. He also stay in one corner and just rise up and down whenever the cleaner shrimp came by to harass him.

 

So today I got the water tested at LFS and it was fine, but I went further by replacing 10% of it - no budge on the clownfish. I also tried feeding them frozen brine shrimp - still no difference. He tested a few but spit them back out.

 

What should I try next? Get him a coral? If so which kind? Thanx.

 

Tank:

4.6 gallons

 

1 new maroon clownfish

 

1 snaky starfish

1 cleaner shrimp

1 hermit crab

1 snail

1 tiny conch?

[chufa]

Your tank is too small for a maroon clownfish, and it may be feeling stressed.

 

I would say 20-30 G is the minimum size for a maroon clownfish.

 

I would much rather keep an ocellaris or percula clown if I had a tank your size instead. Maroons need more space, and they can get very big.

[SeaMountain]

Well if it makes you feel better about your clown... Mine was a happy fish. Playing among the LR and corals. Always had his grill plastered up against the glass whenever I came home to greet me. Even the girlfriend was getting jealous...

 

Then yesterday I found him shrivelled up on the floor behind Physh1's auto-topper... He went carpet-surfing... :::sniff::: :::sniff::: :*(

 

We never saw it coming. He seemed so happy. Please everyone take time to talk with your clownfish. Make sure they're not hanging around with bad crabs or something. A clownfish is a terrible thing to waste...

[BorgDrone]

Hey all,

 

Not sure if it was really clinically depressed or what, but last Monday he seemed to have recover and moved around the tank and all. Last Thursday, he was still swimming around. Water was still in good shape from water test.

 

Then on Friday night, when I came home, he was barely waving his fins and kept getting suck into the grill of the water filter thingy. When I use a toothpick to pry him out, he would try to swim around but would bump into the glass constantly and all and his caudal tail would sink as if he was drowning, and a few min later, he would get sucked back into the grill register. I notice some his skin were like pale white skin. There were a bunch of flake still floating on top. When I feed him, I don't feed him much.

 

I asked my sister to see if she fed him, she said she did fed him, she didn't see him eat at all so she tried to feed him some more but never see him eating them. It was past midnight anyway, I figured I won't get much help from anybody that hour anyway and that the fish must have been stressed out by something so I should leave him be rather then try to do anything more. By morning he was sand-surfing - aka dead. The starfish was trying to chew on him I think.

 

I removed him and had the water check at LFS and it all seem normal. Just a little ammonia spike was noticeable on the test, so I had 20% water replacement (~1 gal) just to be safe.

 

I described this symptom to my cousin, who is an experienced marine aquarist, he said the symptom I'm describing is a classic of overfeeding. Do you guys agree? If so what can be done next time immediately to rectify that situation?