Clownfish turning brown - please help!

[wrightkelly16]

Hello,

I completed a 50% water change yesterday and cleaned the sand in my tank as there was cyanoalgea and now one of my clownfish turning brown. What should I do? Is this fatal?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and sorry for your trouble!

I'd suggest reading through the link below (particularly the "Aquarium Parameters," "Water quality," and "In-depth Information" sections) to figure out what info you can share here with the community to get the best diagnosis and (if needed) treatment advice possible:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Also, for future reference with these sorts of issues, posting in the forum linked below can get you help faster:

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[littlefoxx]

Clownfish turning brown? Do you have pictures?

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Take pictures under   white   light.

@Jay Hemdal
@vetteguy53081

 

[ptrick21186]

Ya pics would help a lot here. Never seen a brown clown fish before.

 

[littlefoxx]

Ya pics would help a lot here. Never seen a brown clown fish before.

Only ones Ive seen are mocha storms which is why I was curious what kind of clown they have

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,

I completed a 50% water change yesterday and cleaned the sand in my tank as there was cyanoalgea and now one of my clownfish turning brown. What should I do? Is this fatal?

This is not a disease treatment issues as many especially wild caught perculas are mocha version and will even turn black In lieu of brown
If fish is eating and breathing and swimming normal, should not be of concern

 

[wrightkelly16]

Hello,

I completed a 50% water change yesterday and cleaned the sand in my tank as there was cyanoalgea and now one of my clownfish turning brown. What should I do? Is this fatal?

 

[wrightkelly16]

UPDATE: I have included a photo here. You can see one is darker in the white area than the other. This was not the case 3 days ago. Today is 2 days after sand cleaning and 50% water change and my fish is eating and swimming around. I hope he continues to recover over next couple of days and gets his color back. I wonder if this was just shock from salinity and temp change too quickly or stress from cleaning tank with new tool.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

UPDATE: I have included a photo here. You can see one is darker in the white area than the other. This was not the case 3 days ago. Today is 2 days after sand cleaning and 50% water change and my fish is eating and swimming around. I hope he continues to recover over next couple of days and gets his color back. I wonder if this was just shock from salinity and temp change too quickly or stress from cleaning tank with new tool.

I'm not an expert, but maybe a severe example of "Bruising Disease" as I've heard it called? Maybe @Jay Hemdal could confirm or correct me here.

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...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[wrightkelly16]

I'm not an expert, but maybe a severe example of "Bruising Disease" as I've heard it called? Maybe @Jay Hemdal could confirm or correct me here.

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...

www.reef2reef.com

Oh this is interesting. Thank you for attaching this forum. Yes seems my fish could have a severe case of this. I wonder what survival and recovery rate is?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Oh this is interesting. Thank you for attaching this forum. Yes seems my fish could have a severe case of this. I wonder what survival and recovery rate is?

That sure looks like it. Trouble is, we don’t know a cause and therefore no treatment. Some mild cases do recover, but this seems really severe.

Jay

 

[wrightkelly16]

That sure looks like it. Trouble is, we don’t know a cause and therefore no treatment. Some mild cases do recover, but this seems really severe.

Jay

I feel terrible if he’s in pain. He seems to be excited to eat today and is swimming around like normal - not showing any symptoms of being sick other than the discoloration.

I will keep you all updated over the next week in case it’s helpful information for anyone else who might experience this.

 

[enzopc]

I had the similar problem with my wild caught clown after a constant worsening over time, the fish began to recover slowly and progressively, to date it is almost completely cleaned up, I think it is important to avoid stress, good food.
I also used small quantities of H2O2 (in 3% solution) dosing around 3 ml per 50 litres, but I don't know if this really helped

i hope you fish will stay better , please share your experience about this, im interested to understand and follow this strange disease, also because i want put the new clown together my other

 

[Idech]

What do you have for biological filtration in the tank ? I see no rocks. To me both fish look bad but I may be wrong.

Can you post a full tank shot ?

 

[wrightkelly16]

I had the similar problem with my wild caught clown after a constant worsening over time, the fish began to recover slowly and progressively, to date it is almost completely cleaned up, I think it is important to avoid stress, good food.
I also used small quantities of H2O2 (in 3% solution) dosing around 3 ml per 50 litres, but I don't know if this really helped

i hope you fish will stay better , please share your experience about this, im interested to understand and follow this strange disease, also because i want put the new clown together my other

I attached more pics and a video of full tank today. I turned the lights back on so you can see full color. (Was trying not to stress further for a few days) I will buy some H202 in case that may help. I feed them marine s by Hikari and also brine shrimp every so often. 30 gallon tank. I have snail and fire shrimp also. Terra whisper bio bag filter.

Thanks I will keep posting their progress. I am open to anything else that might help.

 

[wrightkelly16]

What do you have for biological filtration in the tank ? I see no rocks. To me both fish look bad but I may be wrong.

Can you post a full tank shot ?

Here is a video with lights on today. Was trying to keep them off for few days to avoid further stress. I don’t have live rock but have tetra bio bag filter and am good about changing every month. The folks at specialty fish store said I didn’t “need” live rock. This tank is 1 year old. I also have fire shrimp and snail. Used to have skimmer when I had coral but coral was not doing well and removed it 2 months ago and took out skimmer.

 

[wrightkelly16]

Here is a video with lights on today. Was trying to keep them off for few days to avoid further stress. I don’t have live rock but have tetra bio bag filter and am good about changing every month. The folks at specialty fish store said I didn’t “need” live rock. This tank is 1 year old. I also have fire shrimp and snail. Used to have skimmer when I had coral but coral was not doing well and removed it 2 months ago and took out skimmer.

 

[wrightkelly16]

More pics

 

[Idech]

Here is a video with lights on today. Was trying to keep them off for few days to avoid further stress. I don’t have live rock but have tetra bio bag filter and am good about changing every month. The folks at specialty fish store said I didn’t “need” live rock. This tank is 1 year old. I also have fire shrimp and snail. Used to have skimmer when I had coral but coral was not doing well and removed it 2 months ago and took out skimmer.

I just think you’re not helping the situation by not using what nature needs for thriving. A tetra filter is for freshwater, not saltwater, and even less for a reef tank.

You need biodiversity and micro organisms won’t be living in that tetra filter.

You have room in your tank for dry rock. In a few months, it will become live rock. Why not go this way ?