Sad Clown Fish

Hey, looking for some input.  About a month ago I got a pair of ORA Ocellaris clownfish from Divers Den, and they have integrated well into the tank.  Two or three days ago, the male started to look sad, and isn't hanging out with the female now, less active, and hasn't eaten since.  He looks fine, all the other fish and coral seem fine, and I can't figure out what might be.  Any ideas?  The tank has three bar goby, a watchman goby, a flasher wrasse, and the clowns, (and various shrimp etc.) so I don't think he's being picked on.  The female seems to want to hang out with him, but he just seems, well, sad.  Any ideas?  I'm feeding good food, both Rods and the Marine Chips that I got from MACNA. 
Thanks

 

Do you have any mysis or cyclopeze you could tempt him with?

 

Have they hosted to an anemone? That always improves their cohesiveness as a pair.

 

Try some Berry White

 

So...any update on this? My money is on the Barry White recommendation.

--AJ

 

Do you know how old they are? My guess is that they were never a "pair" to begin with. Just hope you do not have 2 females in there ....if not they will find each other and learn to love one another again.

 

Barry White hasn't worked, yet. He seems a little better, and is actively tasting food each time I feed them, but I don't think I've seen him consume any of the food that he's tasted. He just spits it back out. They were like peas in a pod for a real long time, the female is much bigger. I guess I trust ORA and Divers Den re: they were a pair.

 

Clowns are natural hermaphrodites right?

 

No, they are sequential hermaphrodites, a process called protandry where males develop into females on the basis of behavioral cues and environmental responses. The change is terminal, that is, cannot be reversed. This system is common among polyandrous species.
 The opposite is called protogyny where females turn into males (such as in anthias).

 

Have you tried soaking the food in garlic to try to entice him into actually eating the food?

If that doesn't work then I'm wondering if he has an internal problem... I wouldn't let him go more than 3/4 days without eating. Do you have a hospital tank? I'd put him in QT and if he doesn't eat during the first 24hrs, I'd be treating him.

 

I do have a QT/HT. What sort of internal problem would you suspect? What would I use to treat?

 

Alright, he's back to normal. The last few days he had been tasting but not swallowing, (versus when he wasn't even interested three days ago), and now today after I got home from work he was just as energetic, and went nuts on the food I put in the tank (so I fed extra, just for him.) So, I'm hoping he just ate a bad bit of clam or something, and will be good from now on.


Michael

 

Happy to hear that the clown is eating ;-0) Here's a link that you might want to refer to in the future (there's others out there too):

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/Diseases.htm