Need help to rescue clown

[hugodboss]

I have been trying to pair maroon clowns..they have been in the same tank for over a month..today I couldnt find the little one anywhere and decided to check one last place and I found him..

how do I get him out he looks like he has been beat up and ive decided to quit trying to pair these guys....any sugestion would be great thanks in advance...hugo

[steven_dean17]

Poor little feller. Try the bait and net, net and net, what ever it takes, cause it would be my guess he aint goin to make it much longer.

[hugodboss]

my net is way to big and im worried that if it died it would sink to the bottom...I think i should probably buy a net small enough.

[mouscacha]

You could try taking him out with your hand (if it can fit). Sick fish are too weak to try and swim away.

[hugodboss]

my hand doesnt fit...ive tried everything...i even grab a turkey blaster cut it in half to suck him up and still nothing it swuims to the bottom.... I dont want to disconect anything...im worried what to do if it dies in there then ill have no choice.

[phunkie99]

do you have a large enough hose you might be able to siphon him out??? Just a thought

[phunkie99]

Any luck?

[mouscacha]

sounds to me like you'll have to find that net that's small enough to fit. that's a pretty tight space if your hand can't even fit.

[a2fire2i]

is the overflow pipe glued into place? Since none of the above works, you could pull that out and hope it sucks him down into your sump. Just be ready to put it back really fast and fill it with water incase it dont..

[a2fire2i]

double post

[Sk8r]

Bad situation, one we all dread. I'm taking it you have a sump. He may get sucked up and end up there, in which case you can catch him before he gets sucked into the impeller of the return pump. Stopping the pump to reduce turbulence and trying to get a small net in there is about all I can suggest, maybe hose stuck on the end of a turkey baster, or even a sand cleaning siphon [larger end] if there's room: position it, suck hard, and try not to swallow water.]

If your tank has a bit of maturity, and he dies there, there are bacteria in the water that will continue the decomposition process, which will start with bacteria in his gut, and he will be gone in a few days.

Against such an event, I would have a ladies kneehigh nylon with some carbon, and a bottle of Amquel, plus ammonia test strips. That will protect your tank. Use the carbon first, a 20% water change second, and the Amquel only if both carbon and water change fail to lower the ammonia.

Sorry for your clown. Maroons are very large clowns [max size about 5"] and the most aggressive toward anemones, each other, and other tank occupants. If you don't have toward 100g or larger, I would advise against a mated pair of maroons.

[hugodboss]

I havent had any luck and tomorrow im leaving for 2 days.

its a tight space ive almost acepted lossing the clown and am getting worried about an amonia spike.

the last thing im going to try before i leave is the siphon thing you use to clean rocks in freshwater tanks....

question can my fish go 2 days without eating? maroon, tailspot goby, mimic tang and orange spot goby?

[Sk8r]

yes. And if this guy is going to check out in the meanwhile, best you not feed: the system's got enough to take care of. Put a big bag of carbon into the water flow which should take care of any ammonia while you're gone. Don't forget to remove it this next week.

[tinmanny]

I had a clown in the overflow and all I did was to pull the dorso like stated above even if you do it a couple times he will go right through and be in the sump mine has done it twice since the first adventure
I thought he died the first time he was there for several mos because I cannnot see in the overflow because of where it is located and when I was doing a major cleaning I pulled the dorso and the next thing I have a clown in the sump and one in the reserve tank

give it a try
Good luck
Manny

[hugodboss]

thank for that info i was about to go out and by one of those time released feeders or whatever you call them. I hope i can get this guy out of that spot it seems that my attempt of pairing them was going to work and something went wrong my little one took a beating the whole top fin is almost missing...and i really liked the features on this maroon

[Sk8r]

You might try pulling the pipe: not too hard to get it back: I had my tank running before I realized it wasn't seated. and that was why all the noise. ... Thot you'd tried that.
It'd at least give you more room to net him if he stays up there.

Put him in qt until you get back: having him hit the return pump impeller is not a nice moment.

[Canarygirl]

For what it's worth, I read a thread once where a guy had lost a pair of clownfish--didn't know how it happened--and then he found them alive and well in his overflow FOUR YEARS later. I kid you not.

[uncleant]

i saw a simillar thread on RC.... Get a very small fish hook and put some food on it. then when he bites it remove the hook and put it back into the tank.

[guardrail]

^^^^^
you will want to remove all barbs and the sharp part of the hook... a hook will tear up a trout or bass well i dont even want to know what it would do to a clownfish....

[phunkie99]

if you do try the siphon technique just make sure the hose is large enough for him to go all the way through. it would really suck if he got stuck in the middle of the hose. I don't know what you would do then cut it I guess and that would be tricky

[hugodboss]

thanks guys im going to try and get this done tomorrow...wish me luck. regardless he is in bad shape because the bigger clown really beat him up and they have been together for a month if he can be saved he has a lot of healing to do.

my wife wanted a nemo and was upset that i got a maroon because she said that out of all the clowns i had to get the mean one. thats after she just saw the shape the little guy is in.

Im considering selling him back to my lfs and see if i can buy a pair of perculas of something more peaceful what would you guys recomend?

[phunkie99]

which lfs do you go to? I just got some good false perc's from Sea in the City (not an ad) they also had a good looking pair of True's (this is a couple of days ago)

Good Luck