New Clownfish Not Eating! Help!

Cnnr · Jan 10, 2016

Hi, I recently a week ago bought two mocha clownfish, one being lighter than the other. Fort the most part the lighter one swims about, however they both share a cave in which the darker one spend lots time in.

The lighter one picks at the food but at the same time the darker one swims through the food but does not take one bite.

I hae a lot of flow in the tank I don't know if that effects it, however i turn off all pumps when feeding.

I have tried everything in the sun. Algae clip, frozen miss shrimp, frozen reef pods, reef frenzy and even spearing.

What do I do?

Bakerrr1010 · Jan 10, 2016

I wouldn't worry about turn your pumps off while feeding. The ocean current is costantly moving. What size is your tank? Maybe get an anemone to have them host too it??

Pepcrylic · Jan 10, 2016

An Anemone is not the cure for your clown not eating. Clowns do not need an Anemone. Was the fish treated in a QT for flukes?

Bakerrr1010 · Jan 10, 2016

I'm not say it's the answer but may help... I've seen my clown fish ten times happier with hosting to an anemones. Both ends are way healthly and growing much better

40Gallon · Jan 11, 2016

My guess is flukes

Pasadenaclearcop · Jan 11, 2016

If it hasn't eaten in a week I would try to fresh water dip him. Fluke is what I'm thinking. But your running out of time to get him healthy.

Thle009 · Jan 11, 2016

Are they tank bred? If so, try flakes and/or pellets. My Lightning clown refused to eat frozen until some one brought to my attention that it was captive bred and therefore might off been trained with pellets. Long story short that did the trick. Good luck.

Cnnr · Jan 11, 2016

Thle009 said:
Are they tank bred? If so, try flakes and/or pellets. My Lightning clown refused to eat frozen until some one brought to my attention that it was captive bred and therefore might off been trained with pellets. Long story short that did the trick. Good luck.

Thank you everyone for helping me with my situation. I don't see any visible signs showing flukes however it does stay in one of the caves for the most of the time.

Yes, they are tank bred!

Justiful · Jan 11, 2016

Try Decapsulated brine shrimp? Fish Roe? like http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Live-...3&cadevice=c&gclid=CMynpcr3osoCFc1ffgodjkwIDw

Cnnr · Jan 12, 2016

Well, I went to the LFS today where I got the clownfish. I got the flake-ish pellets called aquadine which is the food they fed them. Good news, the clownfish had interest and started nibbling at the food. Progress, yay!

Couple questions: the clownfish isn't as active as my other one still, however it does come out more when I have the pumps off. does that mean that the pumps are too much for him to handle?

no visible signs of fluke however the clownfish does have a bigger bottom lip, making it easier to show desperation more than my other clownfish. does this mean anything?

Once again thank you for everyones help

Thle009 · Jan 12, 2016

Great to hear. My guess, it has been starving and therefore a little weak to handle the flow. Try to nurture it back to health . As for the swollen lip. Do you have either frogspawn or hammer coral by chance. If so your clownfish might got stung from trying to host it. That's normal and will go away once your fish immune system get used to the coral. Good luck