Something wrong with my clownfish! HELP!?

Question

I have two false clownfish (the most popular kind) one is larger than the other, I'm assuming he's the male. Since yesterday, he has been hanging out by the top of the heater, and sticking his head out of the water. It's not like he's gulping for air, but it's just weird. There are no signs of sickness other than this. He will only let the other (smaller) clown near him, and all others he chases away. I don't know what's wrong.
We only have 5 fish (1 domino damsel, two blue damsels, and the clowns) there are about 10 snails and a couple crabs, live rock and sand in the tank. We just added some soft coral the other day (before he began acting this way) and the tank is 55 gallons. It has been established for approx. 1.5 months with NO problems other than this. We did have a semi-agressive gramma that we removed yesterday. Please help... my fiance wants to take him out of the tank in fear that he will give something to the others, but I'm afraid he'll die. We have no other tank avail.

Answer 1

I answered your other question based on the info you posted here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtzosUfu7ch9gkVKeaa_yjvty6IX?qid=20070605201002AAxVov7&show=7#profile-info-tftcFzK2aa

Another thought or two occurred to me - is it possible the other fish are harrassing him? All are from the damsel family, and all are territorial, so you're going to have territory issues between them. BTW, the larger fish is the female if they're both the same species and the same age.

Are the clownfish mature? There's an outside chance she may have laid eggs near the filter and is trying to keep all the other fish away from them.

Do you use carbon in your filter? Some species of corals produce toxins to prevent other corals from invading their space. It would be unlikely that this should affect the clown, but you never know. And is the coral in good health? If it's dying, it may be putting out some ammonia. Just wondering since the behavior and the arrival of the coral coincide.

Answer 2

Couple of things I can think of. Clownfish have an "odd habit" of hosting. A lot of times it's near a filter or a powerhead.
If the fish at the top is a female..it could be she's trying to entice the other to breed.
Last..and I hope this isn't the case: clownfish disease. Is this a wild caught specimen? There is a clownfish disease called brooklynellosis. The first area affected is the gills. Symptomatically, host fishes appear to bear skin lesions, a thick whitish mucus coating (Brooklynellosis is also known as "turbidity of the skin" disease), gasp near the surface (the gills are said to be the first attacked), are lethargic, refuse to eat, lose color, often succumbing with hours to a day or two after being initially diagnosed.
As a note, brooklynellosis cannot be treated like ich, velvet, etc. The fish will die. You do state that he is fine with the exception of hanging out.
I would think it's one of the first two reasons.

Answer 3

He is a she.
Clownfish are Protandrous hermaphrodites, the largest is aways female, the second largest a male and a number of lopwer neuter fish form the normal social structure for a clownfish. When the female dies the male becomes female and the largest neuter becomes male.
Leave her in the tank as you have no other option, check the water quality, contact a vet and maybe you should read up on the clownfish before you bought them.

Answer 4

well since you want an answer, there can be 3 reasons i can think of that it will do this.

1) Sudden temperature change can cause schock an d he will try to cool his head. (move it to a slightly cooler tank for a while see if he still does this)

2) Wants food (try hand feeding it)

3) Wants more oxygen (what you can do is remove some top water and let your filter like a little water fall so bubbles go down)

Answer 5

I agree with fiance.
I don't know much about salt water fish, but since you asked so nice (LOL) I thought I'd give it a shot.

Check all the equipment. Sometimes sudden changes in temperature make them do this.

If everything is OK. Get him out of the tank. You have to protect the other, un-sick fish.

Answer 6

Try making a 50% water change to see if this helps. It will reduce Nitrites, Nitrates & Ammonia. Ammonia will burn the gills, but if this were the problem it would be affecting more than just one fish.

Answer 7

At best your tank is just barely cycled. Six weeks is the minimum time for almost any kind of tank. Test your water parameters,including specific gravity,salinity, pH,kH,ammonia ,Nitrite,Nitrate,and if you can O2 and CO2. I don't think your fish has an infection,I think you have water problems.

Answer 8

From the info you gave to us, I agree with copperhead.