clown fish shed??

[mike90]

do clown fish shed? my percula has a white membrane type substance over his face and body and i wasnt sure if this was some sort of shedding process. any ideas? he has become a bit more inactive also.

 

[trido]

Sounds like a sick fish to me. Ive never heard of a tank fish shedding.

 

[atnixon]

Clown fish do not shed no, and i certainly agree that it is suffering some an ailment..

I would suggest its shedding excess slime, and when this happens, it is usually down to elevated ammonia or nitrates as this is how the clown fish will allevaite the pain...

Hope that helps

Niko

 

[Anonymous]

more likely an indication of brooklynella

 

[mike90]

well he wound up dying anyway.

 

[atnixon]

such a shame to hear that Mike90....not good to hear of the loss mate....

Niko

 

[Anonymous]

it was 99% brooklynella

ALL clownfish should be dipped in fw with about 4 drops of formalin/gallon with an airstone, for as long as they can take before 'keeling over', prior to introduction to a tank at home-it's a safe bet that any clown you buy is carrying it, if it's not already in your tank from other fish/water/inverts purchased previously

if there are NO inverts/live rock in the tank, you can also add formalin to the tank directly, but this will lower pH, depress the biofilter abit, and is less effective

a few searches on brooklynella will yield more info

 

[IslandCrow]

I agree, that sounds like brook. In my very limited experience and from what I've heard, it needs to be treated very quickly or the fish stands very little chance of surviving. The one fish I've had come down with brook died within two days even after treatment.

Now, one side note to vitz's suggestion to treat all new clownfish with a formalin dip is that there is some anecdotal evidence that formalin may lead to sterility in clownfish. This is by no means a proven fact, but something you may want to weigh against the benefits of pre-treating if you're planning on ever breeding clownfish.