Clownfish red patch and odd behavior

needlehandssoftfingers · Sep 28, 2022

My clownfish has a red patch on his white stripe on his forehead and doesn't have an appetite. It seems like sometime he makes a fast movement/spasm but he usually changes direction fast anyway or plays with the WaveMaker current so hard to tell. Anything I can do to figure out what's going on? It's the color of coraline algae but it looks like dry blood? I can't get a good pic and I can't seem to upload a video?

With phone light the patch just looks dark grey

vetteguy53081 · Sep 28, 2022

needlehandssoftfingers said:
My clownfish has a red patch on his white stripe on his forehead and doesn't have an appetite. It seems like sometime he makes a fast movement/spasm but he usually changes direction fast anyway or plays with the WaveMaker current so hard to tell. Anything I can do to figure out what's going on? It's the color of coraline algae but it looks like dry blood? I can't get a good pic and I can't seem to upload a video?

With phone light the patch just looks dark grey

Clown moving so fast, cant see patch. What I do see is excess current and debris is flying by and clown struggling to swim against current.
Lower water flow a little and patch color you describe may be an injury with rash or infection.
Can you provide still pics under white light of that area?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 28, 2022

I can see the patch - this is something that we have been seeing in clownfish. It is definitely an issue, but I'm sorry, I have not been able to figure out the cause. Here is a recent thread that I started about this problem, but so far, no more information has been forthcoming:

Clownfish bruising/lesion?

All, Over the past two years or so, I've come across dozens of cases on the fish disease forum here of an issue with clownfish that we have not been able to identify. I've never seen it on any clownfish I've had myself, but the issue seems most common on designer clowns, which I don't work...

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