5 new clowns, mysterious death, plus fin defect?

[maevepotter]

Hello,

Just got these baby clowns from the fish store and one has already died within two days. Seemed very healthy. I heard the owner say they do formalin dip as we were leaving. Is this the cause maybe? I've also noticed one of the other clowns has a damaged fin, with some white on it that it generally keeps to it's side though it can use it. See the YouTube video. What is wrong with it?


Thanks
Meghan

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hi Meghan,

What size is that tank they're in? It sounds like theyve been fighting with eachother. Generally you only want to keep two clowns in a tank as they'll pair up and attack any other clowns. This can be noted by the damaged fins you were referring to. Unless the tank is extremely large, i'd return or rehome the other three clowns and only keep 2

 

[maevepotter]

This was just the holding tank bc it was mature. I've only had them since Thursday late night. The clown that died was the biggest and they all were getting along fairly well. The littlest is with the damaged fin and there was some amount of charging it but not very much. I'm going to put them in a larger tank, trying to decide between a 20h, 29 and 40 or go bigger

 

[Crabs McJones]

This was just the holding tank bc it was mature. I've only had them since Thursday late night. The clown that died was the biggest and they all were getting along fairly well. The littlest is with the damaged fin and there was some amount of charging it but not very much. I'm going to put them in a larger tank, trying to decide between a 20h, 29 and 40 or go bigger

If you want to keep all 5 you're going to need to go much bigger. Even more than 2 in a 40 breeder isn't a good idea unless its a harem tank.

 

[Aardvark1134]

Yeah when most people say you want a bigger tank to keep more than 1 pair...they usually mean a 6-8 ft one.

 

[maevepotter]

It will be a harem tank. I have 2 large carpet anemones for their tank and was thinking about some bubble tips also. Do you think that would work?

 

[Aardvark1134]

A harem tank is usually about 20+ from the same batch gotten as babies
Have a video

and 4.5 year update

 

[maevepotter]

Thanks I've watched some videos in that series. These clowns are from the same clutch. The lfs gave me a replacement clown from the same tank where I got mine on Thursday. I figured with a nice uneven number like five and a good amount of anemones, as well as at least a 2' tank and frequent feeds, these clowns would have a chance at a harem tank... Harem nano if you will. Any experience with this?

 

[maevepotter]

I think the fish may have flukes or brook. I've put the one that's in the video in a paraguard bath and gave it a brief freshwater dip, but I think it's on its way out. It's losing its color and flailing. Anything else I should do? Can you ID what's wrong?

 

[maevepotter]

Yup, poor little thing is gone.