Clownfish Issues (eating etc)

Mcdonalds · May 3, 2023

Hey so for some background info I have a 24g cube. Three fish, blenny and what I thought was a clown pair. Everything was fine until my two clowns weren’t getting along AGAIN. I’ve had trouble pairing them and I thought it was established but maybe not. But one day what I thought was my make started beating my female up bad where she was darting away and hiding. I captured him in a breeder box like normal and figured I’d wait and see. That was two weeks ago, I did it to help the female recover her fins, but she isn’t fully healed which is a little off, and she’s hiding all the time (not being threatened at all by the two others) and has a hyperextended jaw? She is having trouble eating. She isn’t as interested and can’t suck food off of my target feeder as well and won’t leave the corner generally (until night where she sleeps in the upper corner. Video is posted below. I don’t think it’s a parasite, I think fighting could have done it? I’m not so sure, but thanks for the read and help.
Appreciate it

Jay Hemdal · May 4, 2023

Mcdonalds said:
Hey so for some background info I have a 24g cube. Three fish, blenny and what I thought was a clown pair. Everything was fine until my two clowns weren’t getting along AGAIN. I’ve had trouble pairing them and I thought it was established but maybe not. But one day what I thought was my make started beating my female up bad where she was darting away and hiding. I captured him in a breeder box like normal and figured I’d wait and see. That was two weeks ago, I did it to help the female recover her fins, but she isn’t fully healed which is a little off, and she’s hiding all the time (not being threatened at all by the two others) and has a hyperextended jaw? She is having trouble eating. She isn’t as interested and can’t suck food off of my target feeder as well and won’t leave the corner generally (until night where she sleeps in the upper corner. Video is posted below. I don’t think it’s a parasite, I think fighting could have done it? I’m not so sure, but thanks for the read and help.
Appreciate it

The hyperextended jaw is making the fish have trouble ventilating its gills properly. Looks like mechanical damage from fighting with the other clown, as you already know. Trouble is, there is not "treatment" for this other than time (unless it becomes infected). Best thing I can tell you is to try and give it smaller food items to see if it will eat and gain strength.

Jay

Mcdonalds · May 4, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
The hyperextended jaw is making the fish have trouble ventilating its gills properly. Looks like mechanical damage from fighting with the other clown, as you already know. Trouble is, there is not "treatment" for this other than time (unless it becomes infected). Best thing I can tell you is to try and give it smaller food items to see if it will eat and gain strength.

Jay

Thanks for the response. I’ve been feeding good frozen by target feeding with pumps off which definitely helps her eat. I’ll wait it out until she’s stronger.