Clownfish and ick

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Soukup31

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
44
Every time I get a clown it dies. It ends up with ick or getting sick.. Is there a way to keep them from getting ick? Or sick for that matter? Help please!
 
Awh man that sucks! Unfortunately I'm not familiar with clownfish and the precautions with ick. I like clown though and I would love to get some later on! Hope someone helps you out!
 
How many have you gone through? What size tank is it and how long has it been set up? Clowns are considered quite a hardy fish so something must be wrong. Tell us more about your set up, filtration, how much live rock, orher tank mates? How do you acclimate? Do you have any other fish that are fine/not effected? Clowns aren't known to get ich unless its from another fish. Do you QT fish before you introduce them?
 
I don't qt and I have kept damsels and gobys before none of which died they were re homed. I have a 10 gallon with about 14lbs of live rock a hob refugium and a hob filter full of chemi pure elite
 
There could be any number of reasons they are dying. If its a 10 gal, I would be careful about over crowding. How often do you feed? Do you track your water parameters? What were your water parameters last time you tested? is your local LFS a privately owned retailer? Or is it a large company? large companies typically use one big Eco system, becareful about getting fish on a connected system, if one tank has ich, they all do. Do yo take your time with acclimation? Should take about an hour if not more. I don't use a qt either, the only time I have caught ich was when my fish were purchased from petco. They used one big Eco system, (are their tanks are connected). I prefer to buy my fish from a private retailer who has all separate tanks. Also, with live rock, I'm assuming you don't use copper to attack your ich, it takes about a month for ich to starve out. I personally would wait two just to be safe.
 
My parameters are all zero and yes I do buy from petco. The one here is all separate though, nothing is connected and no I don't use copper I have In the past with a qt but I don't have room anymore. I bough another one and this one just seems to be happy and thriving! Fingers crosses
 
My parameters are all zero and yes I do buy from petco. The one here is all separate though, nothing is connected and no I don't use copper I have In the past with a qt but I don't have room anymore. I bough another one and this one just seems to be happy and thriving! Fingers crosses

How often do you feed, one thing that always killed my clowns was I fed every other day. Since I have dropped to once every 5 days they thrive
 
I feed every two to three days and my clown acts like I never feed him and he is fat an sassy
 
I feed every two to three days and my clown acts like I never feed him and he is fat an sassy

They always act like that.they act no different if you were to feed them every day lol. But they will be fine when decreasing their feeding. They can and will graze off rocks for food as well
 
I feed twice a day but not much, and here and there i miss a day. But I guess ill drop my feeding down
 
I feed twice a day but not much, and here and there i miss a day. But I guess ill drop my feeding down

that will probably help a lot. I used to do the same thing till my LFS noticed a trend of me buying clowns and told me to hold off on feed to every few days.
 
But does holding off on feeding make fish more aggressive towards each other as a survival of the fittest kicks in ???
 
But does holding off on feeding make fish more aggressive towards each other as a survival of the fittest kicks in ???

not from what I witnessed. I have two clowns, a Atlantic dwarf angel, a yellow coris, and a foxface. They don't fight at all
 
not from what I witnessed. I have two clowns, a Atlantic dwarf angel, a yellow coris, and a foxface. They don't fight at all
OH...you're lucky you don't have any damsels . They are always fighting for food :fish1:
 
I've had damsels before I guess it depends on which ones. The yellow tail and stripe have never fought
Those are the two I have. They will dart from one end of the tank to another if they see food falling and about to go in someone else mouth :lol:
 
Those are the two I have. They will dart from one end of the tank to another if they see food falling and about to go in someone else mouth :lol:

When I feed, I pour enough for all in my tank and I pour my food on two sides, this way it gets distributed and they aren't all going at eachother like maniacs lol
 
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