Clown fish help

Mark Peterson wrote: 1stupidpunk wrote: ...try smaller feedings of things that don't float on the surface... What do you guys think would be the best food for a clownfish? What is their natural food on the reef? What food would be less likely to cause a blockage in the digestive tract?

i have 5 different clowns, one of which i got from reef boy (thanks, he is doing well!), and i feed them omega one micro pellets, which they seem to like, and do really well on.


Edited by dbb123 - June 20 2014 at 11:56pm

You are doing great to bring this up.
Did you know that the larger clownfish is the female? Yep, the smaller one is the male. All clownfish grow this way as they live together. The larger, female clownfish is always the dominant one of the pair. This chasing and shimmying means that she likes him.

Don't worry, she won't hurt him too bad. It's part of the pairing up process. The shimmying is part of it. It's all kind of a love dance.  You can help keep the aggression from going overboard by getting a long thin stick and when she looks like she is being too mean, try to poke at her with the stick and chase her a little. Don't worry, she won't let herself be poked but when she chases him and you poke and chase at her it will scare her a little. Each time this happens she will learn a little better that you don't approve of that action. You are the Alpha (click and read). Usually 30-60 minutes of your stick training will be enough to help them be friends and not be so rough with each other. Please read this Reefkeeping Tip, don't just skim it, read it because it goes into a little more detail about the whole new fish and training thing. http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34014

You are becoming a great hobbyist.

In 1997 I had a pair that were so rough in the mating dance that his lower jaw got ripped/broken. She was not as rough with any of the other 4 clownfish in the tank because she really liked him the best. In time his jaw healed, I sold the other four and a year later they had babies. Below is a pic of him caring for the eggs.

Aloha




Edited by Mark Peterson - June 18 2014 at 8:13am

Awesome. Glad to hear it. Those are good pellets.

ReefdUp wrote: The swirling still has me worried. Is it still doing that?

That is a concern, but he is feeding flake food witch can cause bloating and abnormal swimming.

The swirling still has me worried. Is it still doing that?

Did you not read the link I gave earlier? fresh frozen.

Forget the peas. Now we know that you are indeed overfeeding.

Have you read either of the two links that I referred you to?

+1 ASAP. It's a blessing the fish has lasted this long. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Let me try again.

Swimming in circles is BAD news. It's often a sign of an internal bacterial infection, which is hard to treat at the hobbyist level.

Swim bladder problems are rare in non-deep sea fish. They usually stem from internal bacterial infections...see above.

I wouldn't recommend trying to treat with antibiotics or puncturing the swim bladder at the novice level. Peas can help clear blockages, so let's just hope there's a blockage. I would stop feeding other foods for a couple days as well. Then, resume with sinking pellet food. Eventually go to a nice frozen mix that includes protein and veggies.

I seem to remember hearing long ago about Green Peas to deal with constipation/bloating but had forgotten all about it. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with it, so I did some quick research and found an article which seems pretty good. http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_constipated_fish.php

It's good info. Mahalo Nikki.

I'm taking the rest of my comments, inspired by Geoff/1stupidpunk, back to the recent thread about better foods.  http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=68390 This is good discussion.

Aloha


Edited by Mark Peterson - June 17 2014 at 12:24pm

What is best for our fish and what is found naturally in their environment are not always the same thing. I have yet to see a reef with garlic oil or brine shrimp.