Stoney Bologna
New Member
I have an ocelaris clown fish and his behavior the past month has been pretty peculiar. He is in a 40 gallon breeder. I have had him 6-7 months. Within the last month he has all but quit eating. His swimming behavior is very erratic and all over the tank. Normally, when he was eating, I would turn all the flow off and feed thawed mysis shrimp which I would rinse several times with RODI water to remove as much of the impurities as possible. I would feed the tank every other day and mix garlic enriched pellets in every other day as well. So day 1 feed shrimp day 2 no feeding day 3 feed pellets, day 4 no feeding day 5 feed shrimp and continue that cycle. All of a sudden one day I fed shrimp and he acted as if he was unaware of what the food was and seemed almost as if he was in fear of the food. He wont even come close to touching the pellets. I started feeding with the flow on so the shrimp are blown all around the tank sometimes he eats like a piece of shrimp because he cant get away from it but he actively tries to get away from the food. I have gone as long as 3 days without feeding. And his behavior doesn't change. I have gotten a garlic formula to soak the shrimp in and he still wont eat. About the same time his behavior changed and I started feeding with the flow on I added 4 dwarf blue legged crabs and 4 astrea snails to consume any food that didnt get eaten, the algae already growing in the tank and any subsequent algae that may grown from decayed food.
Swimming... he stays near the surface water. Tonight (which I am sure is not the first time) he jumped out of the water and hit the light fixture above the tank. His behavior of swimming at the surface still hasn't changed...
My question... has anyone ever experienced anything like this and if so what was the remedy... I dont want to lose him as I've grown pretty attached (His name is Marlin like Nemo's dad). I check my parameters on a weekly basis seeing as my tank is cycled and was cycled to what I would consider perfection. Ammonia for the entirety of Marlin's existence in the tank has been 0 same with nitrite and nitrate is 5ppm or less. I do water changes once a month but since putting crabs in I do water changes ever 2 weeks. I dont have a phosphate test but since there are no corals yet I dont see the need.
Just to answer the filtration question I am sure to get I am running a canister filter. The filter has a built in UV light and has 3 stacked baskets within it. To my knowledge the flow through the filter is from the bottom to the top so in the bottom basket I have a coarse sponge cut to fit snugly within the basket. Then the second basket has a fine sponge cut to fit in the same manner then the third basket, the top basket has some rubble rock to keep cycled rock ready for a new tank and a small bag of Chemipure Elite to maintain nitrate and phosphate levels.
My thoughts are that he has become stressed or he may have some sort of sickness and need to be medicated. I dont have a hospital or QT. Any thoughts or advice would helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Nick
Swimming... he stays near the surface water. Tonight (which I am sure is not the first time) he jumped out of the water and hit the light fixture above the tank. His behavior of swimming at the surface still hasn't changed...
My question... has anyone ever experienced anything like this and if so what was the remedy... I dont want to lose him as I've grown pretty attached (His name is Marlin like Nemo's dad). I check my parameters on a weekly basis seeing as my tank is cycled and was cycled to what I would consider perfection. Ammonia for the entirety of Marlin's existence in the tank has been 0 same with nitrite and nitrate is 5ppm or less. I do water changes once a month but since putting crabs in I do water changes ever 2 weeks. I dont have a phosphate test but since there are no corals yet I dont see the need.
Just to answer the filtration question I am sure to get I am running a canister filter. The filter has a built in UV light and has 3 stacked baskets within it. To my knowledge the flow through the filter is from the bottom to the top so in the bottom basket I have a coarse sponge cut to fit snugly within the basket. Then the second basket has a fine sponge cut to fit in the same manner then the third basket, the top basket has some rubble rock to keep cycled rock ready for a new tank and a small bag of Chemipure Elite to maintain nitrate and phosphate levels.
My thoughts are that he has become stressed or he may have some sort of sickness and need to be medicated. I dont have a hospital or QT. Any thoughts or advice would helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Nick
