Wave maker almost swallowed my clownfish

[notthatkindareefer]

My little zombie clown was sucked up against the wave maker (little Hydor Koralia nano) and he has a bit of white “bruising” on his body now. Any idea if he will be okay? He’s swimming just fine and seems to be healthy. Just don’t want to leave him in the tank if this could case him to develop some kind of infection or ick. Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My little zombie clown was sucked up against the wave maker (little Hydor Koralia nano) and he has a bit of white “bruising” on his body now. Any idea if he will be okay? He’s swimming just fine and seems to be healthy. Just don’t want to leave him in the tank if this could case him to develop some kind of infection or ick. Thanks!

Is it eating well?

My concern here is that a healthy, strong fish is rarely caught be a way maker. Was it able to free itself?

Jay

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Is it eating well?

My concern here is that a healthy, strong fish is rarely caught be a way maker. Was it able to free itself?

Jay

He’s really tiny. But maybe that doesn’t make a difference. But he has been eating well as far as I have noticed. Let me throw in a few pellets and see if he will still eat. He’s very active.

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Is it eating well?

My concern here is that a healthy, strong fish is rarely caught be a way maker. Was it able to free itself?

Jay

Also no he couldn’t free himself I had to unplug the power head.

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Also no he couldn’t free himself I had to unplug the power head.

He just ate again. He moves fine (maybe a little sporadically) but he was doing that before. I’m more worried about some of the white blotching on his skin becoming a problem like ick or something. Can that happen? Or is he just gonna be a little beat up from now on?

 

[Spare time]

Try and post a picture or video of the fish under white light

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Try and post a picture or video of the fish under white light

Will do in the AM! He doesn’t look bad under the white light, but he is visibly damaged under blues. You can see little white spots on him like bruises.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Will do in the AM! He doesn’t look bad under the white light, but he is visibly damaged under blues. You can see little white spots on him like bruises.

There isn't any real treatment for mechanical damage except time to heal. I don't think there has been enough time for a secondary bacterial infection to set in yet.

Just try to feed it as much as you can (without leaving uneaten food in the tank).

Jay

 

[jda]

You can put sponge over the wave maker, but I agree with Jay that I have never seen a healthy fish get stuck to one.

I do not know what they are called, but they are made to keep anemones out of wave makers.

 

[jdmquip]

I’ve had mine get stuck in a power head and against the slots into my filter socks. Poor bugger was there all night.

 

[notthatkindareefer]

There isn't any real treatment for mechanical damage except time to heal. I don't think there has been enough time for a secondary bacterial infection to set in yet.

Just try to feed it as much as you can (without leaving uneaten food in the tank).

Jay

Thanks will do!

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Here’s a crappy photo of him (sorry you just can’t see the damage in the whites so I still ran a little blue). Tell me what you guys think. His top fin isn’t “opening”. But he eats like a champ and seems to get around fine. The damage is on his right hand side. No deep tissue damage it almost just looks like a little bit of lost scales.

 

[notthatkindareefer]

Here’s a crappy photo of him (sorry you just can’t see the damage in the whites so I still ran a little blue). Tell me what you guys think. His top fin isn’t “opening”. But he eats like a champ and seems to get around fine. The damage is on his right hand side. No deep tissue damage it almost just looks like a little bit of lost scales.

Just realizing here in these photos he looks perfectly fine so hopefully he will just recover in due time. Thanks everyone for helping out a newbie!

 

[Uncle99]

Maybe he got into a squabble?

 

[notthatkindareefer]

You guys were right. He must have some internal issues. Nothings spread to other fish, he’s just getting worse and worse. I am just going to let nature run its course and hopefully snag him before any ammonia spikes. Talked with a FS owner and he said something significant, “If you don’t know what it is, and I am not sure what it is (not ick or brooklynella), and it’s a clownfish, there’s tons of money you could spend trying to save him. But once he’s gotten to that point (he now has torn fins) it’s best to just consider him a goner, but leave him be and remove him asap upon death.” Which is the best advice I could have got. I know it’s “just a fish” but I like to give the utmost care possible for any of the living things I am responsible for and it’s always disappointing to have a loss. It was tough hearing there weren’t many options but sometimes it just gets to that point. Especially with fish. I’m not a softie I just don’t like feeling like I failed on something that relied on me to care for its life, reminds me of ranching cows back in the day, things just happen sometimes. Thanks for all the advice guys and gals! I’m going to stick to one clown for a while and make sure he’s doing fine before adding anything else. And hopefully learn something from this situation.