Sometimes clownfish will refuse to eat. And whatever you try it will not yield results. There is nothing worse than seeing your clownfish not eating.
While, in most cases, it is nothing you need to worry about, there are still things you should be aware of.
Fish are not like dogs or cats where you can easily notice if something is wrong. Often, there are underlying problems that can’t be noticed until it’s too late.
In this guide, we’ll talk about the reasons why your clownfish isn’t eating, and what you should do to prevent this from happening in the first place.
Let’s get started!
Observe Your Clownfish Before You Make Any Assumptions
Before you make any rash decision, it is important to observe your clownfish for a while. Keep eye on it, monitor the situation.
Sometimes it seems that it’s not eating, however, it’s the quite opposite. Your clownfish may eat small amounts of food without you realizing it.
If the problem persists, you should start looking for the reasons that may cause the problem. Don’t worry! Most of these things are not serious and will go away in no time.
Possible Reasons Why Your Clownfish Is Not Eating
While there are a lot of possible reasons why your clownfish is not eating, the following are the most common.
Adjusting to a New Tank
It’s not uncommon for clownfish to stop eating when it has been transferred to a new tank. It’s pretty normal. As soon they get comfortable with the new environment, they’ll start eating.
The Tank Is Not Cycled Yet
While I believe you’ve added the clownfish in a fully cycled tank, there still hobbyists that do the quite opposite. Clownfish are known as hardy fish, therefore used by people to speed up the process of cycling the tank. I would not recommend doing this which may end up bad for the fish.
Their Diet Has Changed
Sometimes they are used to different types of foods compared with the ones you’re offering. If they are still not eating, try feeding them with live foods to increase their appetite.
Wild Caught or Tank Raised
Wild-caught clownfish may take some time to adjust to flakes and pellets. On the other hand, clownfish born in captivity are get used to these types of foods from the start.
Nothing to worry about, though. Once your clownfish get hungry enough, they’ll start eating.
Problem Occurs More Than Once
If your clownfish shows signs of lack of appetite on more than one occasion, you should look for other reasons. Maybe there is something wrong with water parameters. Or, your clownfish is sick. All these things demand further investigation.
How many days can clownfish go without food?
Leaving our fish without food it’s not something we want to do. But like with other things in life stuff happens. We run out of food, we are not home for a few days, or even worse, we are going on vacation that may last for a couple of weeks.
Of course, leaving a fish tank without maintenance for that long will certainly end disastrously. But, I am quite sure, every responsible hobbyist would not risk the health of his fish leaving them without food for a prolonged time.
But what to do if you aren’t able to feed your clowns for a couple of days. Or a week?
How long can you leave them like that, without sacrificing their health? Will they survive?
Well, a couple of days without food won’t hurt your clownfish. In fact, they’ll be fine even for a week. Of course, if they are in a good health condition and they have been fed frequently before. However, if you want to stay on the side, and you are reluctant to take any risks, I would advise you to set up an automatic fish feeder.
Or make sure someone else feeds them in your absence.
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve found this article helpful and you learn something new about the clownfish.
As you’ve seen there are a lot of reasons that may cause your clownfish to not eat.
While most of these reasons are not something you should be worried about, there are some things you should keep a close eye on.
Without food and proper nutrition, your clownfish may get sick. And if you do not act quickly enough you may lose your fish.
Clown fish not eating, he is swimming and hanging out at the top of a small live rock column. I have had the fish 4 years and am concerned
I notice that other fish in the tank are starting to bother it. They sense the fish is sick.
If you have the conditions, set up a temporary quarantine tank where your clownfish can get better.
I have had some clown fish for quite a while And they have been fine. I also have an anemines and snails in the tank and they are all doing fine. The
clownfish also seem to be doing fine including chasing each other around or acting normal. They just won’t eat.
Any thoughts? It’s been going on for a few days now.
Try with a different type of food. If they are active, it’s not probably something to worry about. They’ll start eating soon. If they refuse to eat even with another type of food, you should check your water parameters and see if everything is on point.
We have a young black and an orange clownfish for about 6 months. They have been chasing one another and eating just fine. Recently we noticed that they both stopped eating and were just bobbling in place at the top rear of the tank. The black one kind of came out of it and is back to normal. The orange one is still not eating and bobbling around at the top. We noticed tank was warmer than it should be, around 86°. We pulled the heater out, something must be wrong with it. It’s been two days, the temps are around around 82° today but the orange clown fish still isn’t eating. Th black clown is eating but is obviously bother that his buddy is not chasing him around and paling around. Can the warmer temp in the tank be the problem or is there something else going on?
I have two clownfish for about 3 months now. Recently one of them (the smaller of the two) stopped eating. They both still school around together and when I feed all of the fish the smaller one swims to the food – he just does not eat. This is now day 3. All other fish & coral look fine.