fading clown fish

[seapony]

help have a 50 gal reef aquarium with with 5 damsels and one yellow tang. mostly coral and live rock. added an anemome and clown fish about three months ago. the amemome died , but the clown buddied up to one of my soft corals, cant remember the name. when fully closed it is about the size of a biscuit. open the branches are about three to four inchs logwith little flowerettes on top. light green in color. The clown is eating fine etcc. bu;t it has been losing color. the yellow parts are fading and the brown parts are gettin blotchy. it rubs up aganst the coral and tries to feed it when it when i feed it. It also was getting jagged edges on its fins. I have used metaflux??? smells like menthol. the fins are getting better but not the color. again it seems to be doing well. not gasping or moving slow etc. Just looks like it got in a fight. heres a pic.

Merging this topic with the other post about the clown.

 

[michealprater]

the clown buddied up to one of my soft corals, cant remember the name. when fully closed it is about the size of a biscuit. open the branches are about three to four inchs logwith little flowerettes on top. light green in color.

Sounds like Goniapora, but I thought they were hard corals . When it closes does it remain soft or have a hard skeleton ball? Clowns are very attracted to Goniaporas, however the coral does not like being hosted and ultamatly the coral will die because it wont open anymore. Does the coral close when the clown tries to feed it?

As far as the clown what kind of diet do you feed it. I noticed that diet has a lot to do with maroon clowns color. I think that is the clown you are describing. If you could post pictures it would help alot.

 

[seapony]

help cant having hard time posting photo

 

[seapony]

fading fast.

think Im getting the hang of this. Attched is a pic of my clown and the coral that he has adopted. I feed my fish omega one marine flakes via automatic feeder. twice daily. lights come on at 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and then again at 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. feed my coral- coral vite once weekly and also coral life intervebate food once weekly. have one white floresent light and one blue. 48" like i said fish eats fine. but looks bad. have had him for about 3 months. any help will be appreciated

 

[Anemoneman]

I am distressed to see a fish as beautiful as a this in such bad shape. Lets see if we can get it healthy again. Are there any other symtoms like erratic swimming, rubbing it's body, frayed fins, raised bumps or listlessness?
Hard to tell from the pic but could be Marine Fungus, a really bad case of velvet or simply malnutrition. Try feeding frozen food preparations and/or soaking the flakes in Selcon or other marine fish vitamins. Do some large water changes to improve the water quality (that may be the problem).
On another note, your lighting schedule is unconventional and certainly doesn't mimic nature. I wonder if the short & frequent "days" could be causing stress to your fish. I would try a 10-12 hour lighting schedule for a while and see if that helps. If you want to watch your fish in the evening, turn the lights on later in the day.

Mark

 

[seapony]

thanks a lot. will change lighting schedule. I t does rub up against the coral skeleton. and its fins were getting frayed. i treated it with a liguid that smell like menthol but this really plays havoc with my protien skimmer. it sends out millions of little tiny air bubbles. It does not suffer from listlessnes. will try feeding suggestions. thanks again.

 

[michealprater]

Make sure your temp is up over 80. Soaking your food in reef safe garlic will help too. Follow all the thinks anenomeman said, he is dead on.

 

[Anemoneman]

With the itching against the coral skeleton it may well be Marine Velvet. This is almost always fatal but you can try a hospital tank treated with copper. It will affect other fish so I would remove it to a hospital tank right away. Finrot is a bacterial infection that can be cured with antibiotics. Again, do this in a hospital tank. I guess if it were me and diagnosis was not clear, I would dose with copper and an antibiotic at the same time.

Mark

 

[maiceman]

Michael:

You said

[Clowns are very attracted to Goniaporas, however the coral does not like being hosted and ultimately the coral will die because it wont open anymore. ]

Would this also be true of frog spawn? I have noticed mine is not opening as full and the color of the polyps (green tip & almost transparent tube) is not as strong as in the past (green tip & brown tube).

By adding a bubble anemome will the clowns switch to it or will I need to remove the coral for a period of time?[/quote]

 

[michealprater]

I have heard of frogspawns tolerating it, but not always. It almost always means doom to a goniapora. If you were to add a bta, there is a chance the fish could switch to it. However, if your clowns are like mine, they will try to host anything you put in the tank. Mine try to host a devils hand, hammer, torch, and xenia. However having them go from on coral/anenome to another this may give the coral time to open up and get the light it needs. Hope this helped.

 

[EMS503]

I really hate to say it but if that is Marine Velvet, Put the fish down.
It wiped most of my fish out I tried all the meds. But then read up a little more on this and they say if you can see it, its to late.
Garlic and any Ich meds. along with moving temps. & lowering salinity do not work. the fish will hang in for about a week and then die. your pictures do look like Marine Velvet. As for Frogspawns and corals of this type some Clowns will go to them and some won't. My Clowns won't go near the Seabae Anenomie, Torch, Frog Spawn or Anchor coral. They have a power head hosting them when they are resting