Emergency clown help

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

lbaier

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 19, 2003
Messages
93
Location
Albany, NY
I just got 2 false perc mailed from saltwaterfish.com, it's big back fin is all eaten expect for one little piece.... or just missing. should i put it in the tank? will the fin grow back? also the same fish dosen't have the black around the eyes that my other false percs have.
 
Can you post a photo of this fish? Have you contacted saltwaterfish.com?

You should still follow thru with the acclomation procedures. Do you have a quarinteen tank setup?
 
I would highly suggest a quarentine for all new critters for your tank, especialy any with unhealthy sings. Tank a look at this article for some quick info.
 
I'm starting to think the fish missing it's back fin is a true perc.... it doesn't have that black around the eyes, and it's yellower....the other false's are chasing it to the corner, i'm setting up a quarentine now, i don't have a digital camera or a scanner so i can't get a pic of them to you, someday :)

it makes me sad they aren't getting along
 
BillyZ said:
especialy any with unhealthy sings. Tank a look at this ...
If only I could type.. i might actualy sound inteligent!

anywho.. I would guess the other fish are picking at it becuase something is wrong. It seems, at least to me, fish can sense when another is ill or weak and start attacking it to "remove it from the herd".
 
the other false's are chasing it to the corner

how many clowns do you have? How long have you had the others and what size are they in compairson to the new ones?
 
i have two others i got a week ago, they're the size of the new one with the missing big fin.... about an inch and a half... the other one i just got the other day is a little smaller, they're all around the same size. the really mean one has blacker colors around it's back, i'm guessing it's the female.

i have one blue devil damsel that the first 2 clowns put in place so he doesn't pick on anyone, the little clown we got the other day gets along with the other two fine, a few chases but he holds his own. the wounded one is alone in the corner, but i'm thinking it's a true perc and that's part of the attacks.

the female clown had a tight grip on the bottom of it and actually whipped it away just with it's mouth. we got it in a little seperate fish thing that you put on the side of the tank and are setting up a quarentine tank.

but i also wrote saltwaterfish.com because i think they sent me a true instead of false. the wounded one has no black around it's eye and it alot yellower than gold.

this is a mess!!!!!!
 
You didn't give a tank size, but I imagine that unless you have a large tank, too many clowns could be a problem as well. Clowns have an elaborate hierarchy, basically the female claims a territory (often fairly large), and accepts one other clown to become the male in that territory. The others remain juveniles on the outskirts until a "spot" opens for them to fill, often by the death of the male. With so many clowns in a tight spot, there may not be enough room to have all of the roles, and the clowns could be combining forces to take out the injured one as mentioned above, thus ensuring that they are higher in line.

The possibility of one not being a false could also explain the aggression, although it is not so easy to tell by the inclusion or absence of a spot, or by color so that is a tough call. True perculas often have a thicker black band on the white stripes than false perculas do, but again this is not exact science either.
 
We have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with 4 clowns and a blue damsel and one of the clowns is sick. Is this too much? I was told by my local fish store that this was ok. What do you think?
 
If they are small, I don't think that aggression would be first on my list. They may indeed realize that there is a weak link among the crowd. I'd keep him in QT and wait for him to recover and then try introducing him again. Be sure to keep ammonia and nitrites at 0 while in quarantine.
 
How long do you think it will take for the fin to grow back? saltwaterfish.com said that i could mail it back but they wouldn't promise to refund me, they had to look at it first. i don't think i can let go of him, i named him stumpy.
 
once you name them your stuck you know that...maybe another tank in your near future :twisted:
 
Back
Top Bottom