Clownfish with ich?

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hollyk

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 6, 2013
Messages
7
Hi again,

So, my clownfish may or may not be sick. They are both acting fine and not showing any physical symptoms of ich, except that they, and one especially, are rubbing on rocks in the tank. My one little guy especially seems to be rubbing his belly on the rocks. It's not constant, but I've seen him do it a few times today now. Water parameters are fine, although they are due for a partial water change this weekend. Could there be a reason besides ich that would have them rubbing on rocks? I've just never noticed them doing it before, although they might. I'm just not home all the time to be watching.

Up until last week, they were the only fish in the tank, but I just added a starfish. I was told that I wouldn't need to quarantine the star before adding it, but now I see that I probably should have, and should never ever listen to the advice given by this LFS (everything they told me about the starfish was wrong from the beginning! :banghead: ) I don't know if the starfish could have brought something in from his tank at the fish store, but in any case, I now have to be careful how I treat my clowns because of the sensitive starfish's presence in the tank.

My only "spare" tank that could be used as a quarantine tank is a 5 gallon. I don't know if I should put the clowns in a hospital tank and gradually lower the salinity, if I should medicate them (and with what?), or just wait it out a little and see if they develop other symptoms? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
I would wait it out and see if they come down with something. Flashing can be stress related. Maybe they are just settling into the tank? I don't like to treat until I know something is going on and what it is.
 
Thank you both for the info! After the first night, I haven't seen my clown scraping on anything. And there have been no other symptoms. I've been trying to examine them both as closely as possible, but they look clean and they're eating fine and acting healthy, other than that one night of flashing. I've been especially watching their breathing, just in case there's parasites in their gills that aren't showing up on the body yet. But so far, no signs of anything amiss except for rubbing on that rock one night.

I am going to get a quarantine tank set up just in case for the future. It's hard because I don't have a lot of space in my apartment, and I thought that with just 2 fish, I probably wouldn't need one. But I'm also considering adding some corals in the future. In any case, it would be good to have.

The clownfish have been in the tank for about 4 and 5 months. I bought one after cycling the tank, let him settle in, and then when I was sure that he was doing well, I added another one. They've gotten along great most of the time; they actually bonded really quickly. They were both young, though, and I've noticed lately that my black clown chases the orange one occasionally. No injuries or anything, but they're starting to spend more time apart, where they used to hang out together all the time. The clown who had been flashing more is the clown that has been chased by the more dominant one. So maybe he is just stressed... In any case, I'll keep a close eye on both of them to see if there are any symptoms. I'm really hoping that they settle their fight over who gets to be the girl quickly! (I already know who will win; I wish I could just give them the memo so they can be nice to each other again! lol)
 
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