Clownfish not eating

[Jorden]

Hi Guys,

Need some help here, i have 2 clownfish and 1 maroon clown, recently i realise that they are not eating well, they will eat the pellet and then spit it out, doing it repeatedly till the pellet reach the ground and ignore it. But after awhile the pellet will be eaten but the clownfish afterwards, is this a normal sign?

All my clownfish are around 2" in size, they were eating quite vigorously in the past. Wonder what's wrong with them but there are still swimming fine and nothing unusual spotted on them.

I need help and advise on this.

Thanks in advance..

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[poomoon]

Are they new in your tank ? If not, any changes you did recently ?

Previously when my clowns were new, same thing. Easily for the first week they grab the pellets and spit them out .... After that, they were already ok. Though when I try to feed a different type of pellet, they spit it out again.

[Jorden]

Thanks poomoon for your reply.

Yes, initially both my clownfish are in a 2ft tank(but they are already eating and spiting for 1 week) and my maroon clown is in a 1.5ft tank, but due to changing of the bigger tank i have to put them together and i realise that my maroon clown is also behaving this way.

I wonder if it is some illness or what.

[poomoon]

Maybe just move to New tank syndrome lol ... Just observe next few days

[marine_boy38]

Maybe the pellet has turned bad already that why they spit it out.

[marine_boy38]

Can try feeding mysis shrimp for a while to get their appetite back first. Or try different pallet.

[solasido]

Maroon clown is aggressive. Did they fight over food before?

If so they could still be traumatized.

I just encountered similar thing.

I have got 2 small black ice snowflake clown in my tank about 1 inch. They are aggressive eater, hungry kids.

Afterwards I bought a clarki clown about 1.5 inch. They fight on food, afterwards my black ice does not want to eat.

They just spit out the flake or didn't show interest on food. They also refrain from roaming around.

Then I moved the clarki to another tank.

After 1 week, my black ice appetite back to normal.

[FuEl]

Do not mix captive bred clowns with wild caught clowns, unless the wild caught clownfish has been quarantined. Brooklynella hostilis is very common among wild caught clownfish and they are deadly not only to wild caught clowns, but to the healthiest captive bred specimens as well. <10% of wild caught clowns actually end up surviving long term in aquaria primarily due to this disease.

[solasido]

I see, thanks Jun Kai

I got the pair from you. They are now very healthy and start hosting on my hammer coral one each since 2 days ago, sometimes they share the same host.

I quarantined the clarkii before trying putting it onto the main tank, but only about 1 week+ (I googled that the recommended period is at least 3 weeks, but after 1week+ looks healthy, eating well, I could not help waiting longer to put in main tank).