Sick Ocellaris Clown?

[RJinPV]

I have had a pair of Ocellaris clowns for almost two years now. They've both gotten along great and have been hosting in a pair of RBTAs. About two weeks ago the male "moved out" and left the RBTAs and took up residence in a corner of the tank. Eventually he started hosting in a green torch. the female would come visit and he would occasionally go visit the the RBTA too. They did not show any signs that aggression is what caused his choice of a new residence. He's been sluggishly eating until about 2 days ago. Now he refuses brine or miss shrimp. My LFS suggested a 5 minute freshwater dip so I just completed that (RO/DI water at tank temperature). There are no external signs of an illness. No frayed fins, spots, or fungus. What could be going wrong? All other fish are fine.

Alk =9 dKH, CA=440, Nitrates = 10ppm. Phosphates are 0.00 (Hanna).

The only things I have changed in the last week is that I started running carbon in a reactor a week ago and I started a low daily dose of Red Sea No3 PO4 -X about 4 days ago

 

[dbl]

@Humblefish and/or @melypr1985...might need some help here.

 

[melypr1985]

Well that is odd isn't it? Did the Fresh water dip show flukes in the bottom of the dip bucket? Breathing heavy? flashing/scratching? Hiding more than normal? Swimming into the flow of a powerhead or return?

 

[melypr1985]

You would have seen something like this in the dip if there are flukes involved:

 

[Humblefish]

Are your two clowns close in size? It's possible the male clown is going thru "the change" i.e. morphing into a female. It takes a while sometimes before things turn ugly between the former pair.

 

[dbl]

Are your two clowns close in size? It's possible the male clown is going thru "the change" i.e. morphing into a female. It takes a while sometimes before things turn ugly between the former pair.

I had originally thought the same thing...maybe one was morphing. But the non-eating seemed strange.

 

[RJinPV]

You would have seen something like this in the dip if there are flukes involved:

I did the dip in a white container and although I didn't see anything floating around I could have missed small scales. I think I am looking at loose scales in your photos that came off of the fish.

 

[RJinPV]

Everyone. Thanks for your replies but I am sad to say the little guy didn't make it. He died sometime today. This morning I had high hopes because he stopped his head down swimming and was swimming horizontal. He even went back to the RBTA for a little while. I still don't know what happened. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

He was breathing a little heavy and he has been hiding a lot in the torch or in corners. He was very sluggish. Even when he was eating he was tentative and slowly became more so until he stopped eating. There were no mad dashes or flashes or swimming into the powerhead flow.

The male has always been noticeably smaller than the female but when the break up occurred I had to look closely to figure out it was the male. He was only slightly smaller now, almost like he had grown a lot. The behavior was the same. The female would rush him and he'd do a side shimmy. I didn't think the males would go through a change unless there were no other females in the tank.

I am going to let things settle for a while to make sure other fish don't get sick, but I have one last question: Is it possible to introduce another clown later on and have the female accept it?

 

[Humblefish]

I am going to let things settle for a while to make sure other fish don't get sick, but I have one last question: Is it possible to introduce another clown later on and have the female accept it?

Yes, but get a juvenile that is noticeably smaller. She will just ignore it for several months, but that's better than her killing it.

 

[RJinPV]

Yes, but get a juvenile that is noticeably smaller. She will just ignore it for several months, but that's better than her killing it.

Thanks! I checked the link to diseases and nothing really fits the symptoms