Brown spots appearing on my clownfish

[josvanmeer]

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired two clownfish, a black ice (picasso) and a gladiator clownfish, the gladiatior is showing some brown spots it hadn't had before. What is this?



Just wanted to edit that otherwise the clown is acting normal, swimming and eating just like everyone else. I am not familiar with fish disease, maybe the bigger one has been nipping at him that might be it, the other one is a lot bigger than he is.

 

[Anchor]

It looks like one is larger than the other and the smaller one is getting beated on by thhe larger. They are trying to decide who gets to be the girl.. In most cases, the larger will end up the girl. Brown spots might be from the damage the girl is doing. If he survives, they will pair..

That is one possibility anyway.

 

[josvanmeer]

It looks like one is larger than the other and the smaller one is getting beated on by thhe larger. They are trying to decide who gets to be the girl.. In most cases, the larger will end up the girl. Brown spots might be from the damage the girl is doing. If he survives, they will pair..

That is one possibility anyway.

Thank you, I think that is the case as otherwise nothing seems out of the ordinary. They are usually hanging out close together so I hope he pulls through. I was hoping by getting a larger clown with the smaller one there wouldn't have to be much fighting to decide who becomes the girl. Did I make a mistake doing this?

 

[BighohoReef]

I agree it could be a dominance thing... does it look like the skin is damaged at all? Have you witnessed and picking on?

 

[josvanmeer]

I agree it could be a dominance thing... does it look like the skin is damaged at all? Have you witnessed and picking on?

They actually look to get a long quite well, they hang out in the same corner where the flow is at the lowest. Maybe at night when they stay close the nipping happens. I don't see the nipping throughout the day. I do notice the smaller one wiggling at her from time to time,is that part of the ritual?

 

[BighohoReef]

My clowns exhibit that behavior, I've never seen brown spots from nipping though. Are your clowns hosting in anything? could be melanization... There was a post on here a while back about it.

Brown spots on clown fish

any idea why brown spots have appeared on my clown fish? They both seem well and are eating fine. Should I be worried?

www.reef2reef.com

.

 

[josvanmeer]

My clowns exhibit that behavior, I've never seen brown spots from nipping though. Are your clowns hosting in anything? could be melanization... There was a post on here a while back about it.

Brown spots on clown fish

any idea why brown spots have appeared on my clown fish? They both seem well and are eating fine. Should I be worried?

www.reef2reef.com

.

They are not hosting any coral or anemone.

 

[josvanmeer]

I just wanted to update this thread since some people come across these threads by search engine. Most likely caused by nipping, but the brown spots went away. He had to spend a few days on the other side of the tank, apparently the female didn't let him close, which healed him up. After few days he swam back to "female" and portrayed having "seizures" etc, which apparently is a submissive thing for them to do. They are now paired up and behaving nicely.