Clown Not Eating

[Miss_Bangarang]

I have had a pair of clownfish for a little over a year in a reef tank, no other fish. The male began to refuse to eat a few weeks ago. He has a bit of an appetite, but then he'll spit food out right away. Almost as if something is irritating/uncomfortable about eating? The only thing I've found he'll eat is a few small bits of brine shrimp for some reason. He's gotten noticably skinny, while the female is quite content with getting fat on all the leftovers from trying different foods to get him to eat.

Otherwise there aren't any outward symptoms other than there was something white and small around both gills for a few days. Definitely not ich, had more of an oblong look and bigger, but not fuzzy. Couldn't get a good look because he was hiding a lot and now it's gone. No clamped fins and swimming fine, if pretty lethargic.

I don't know much about meds, in 25 years I've only dealt with 2 new fish that came with ich, been lucky! He really seems like he needs some intervention at this point, though. Since he's gotten so frail I'd like something I could treat him with by bath if there's a good broad-spectrum option to tide him over while I try to get some weight on him, then throw the pair in QT for a couple months in case there's something parasitic that needs to be starved out of the tank. Whatever is going on doesn't seem to be a quick killer, seems like he'll starve before anything else.

Suggestions?

 

[DeniseAndy]

The oblong object could have been a parasitic copepod or possibly Lymph, but was it fuzzy in appearance? Definitely sounds like something is going on. What all is in the tank? Inverts wise? You could try some prazipro or metronidazole to treat for internal parasites. Downfall is if he is not eating you need to take him out and treat him with metro in another tank. Can be a smallish tank with just a hob filter, pvc tubing, heater if needed.
I have never really used prazipro. I do however use metro on most my fish in qt.
Good luck. I hope he recovers for you.

 

[Miss_Bangarang]

Thanks for the suggestions! It wasn't fuzzy, it looked more like a skin protrusion, but it was both gills and pretty symmetrical. Those darn clowns are so "wiggly" when they swim/tread water I never really got a good look at it. I do have snails and coral in the display.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Take him out into a little 10g at most and begin metronidazole treatment. If there are no outward signs, I would guess internal parasites. Hopefully this will help him. You can bring the female with. Will not hurt. Good luck!

 

[ngoodermuth]

A picture might be helpful, but it’s possible like mentioned above he has a gill parasite or secondary infection from the same.

Not eating, losing weight, and lethargic makes me think could be intestinal parasites as well. Any white stringy poop?

If you can catch him, you could do a 5-minute freshwater dip to check for flukes. You can treat flukes with Prazipro in a reef setting, however if he has something more going on or a secondary infection he might need meds in QT.