Different size clowns

[boff]

Hi i have 3 clowns all bought at the same time about 3 years ago .2 of them are about 4" but the other is over 6" and is the alpha fish ,is this why it is bigger or is there some other reason .

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Well,

I can see 3 reasons for that:

1- Genetics;
2- Alpha dominance;
3- Skinny desease on some.

Assuming they were not skinny since you got them then, genetics must be the true reason. The one that grew up much must have taken the Alpha place.

Marcos

[Diana]

I also have 3 like this: The slightly bigger on also shows a little greying out once in a while. Sometimes he(?) will be grey for several days (at least whenever I am looking). I have two @ 4-1/2" and one @ 5". I treated them all for parasites when I first got them.
I also have several more, much smaller, but I noticed that the smallest of them seems to have caught up with the rest. I treated them all for parasites and skinny disease, and moved several to another tank, then repeated the treatment on the littlest.

[boff]

Hi thanks for both of your help ,on further inspection the 2 smaller ones do seem a bit skinny ,so i have treated them today. The medicine i am useing says to remove the filter which i have done and set it up in an old tank ,i have a big bubble stone to aerat the tank ,while the filter is out of the tank do you think it is a good idear not to feed the fish thanks again.

[starsplitter7]

Usually the medicines say to remove the carbon from the filter, because it cleans out the medicine.

I would never remove the filter. You also want to make sure that if you do take the filter away you have it running on another tank, or the biofilter will die, and you have to start cycling your tank again. I think you said it is running on another tank.

If it was me, I would have the filter on the medicated tank. I am sure people with more experience will be along soon.

[boff]

I went to my lfs and the guy in the shop phoned up JBL to ask them for a treatment for skinny diease and they said use Furanol .
On the instuctions it says Furanol also destroys all filter bacteria ,the filter should be disconnected and allowed to run on in a separate tank or other container .If the aquarium cannot be aerated without the filter ,remove the filter material ,rince and store damp ,before running the filter without filter material .Put the filter material back into filter after treatment has ended ,the duration of treatment is 4 days which is making me panic that why i asked about feeding them ,has any body every used this stuff before .

[starsplitter7]

I have used levamisole, Flubendazole, Maracyn and Maracyn II. But when I treat I use a bare bottom Quanrantine/Hospital tank with an extra filter I run on one of my mature tanks. I have a small bioload and so if the biofilter in the filter is killed, I don't worry about it too much. I do regular water changes during treatment (following instructions of the meds).

When the fish are treated they go back to their regular tank. Then I clean/sanitize the filter, and put it on the back of a mature tank and recycle the filter to get it ready to use again.

[Diana]

If you are keeping the nitrifying bacteria alive by running the filter on an empty tank (no fish) then you will need to feed the bacteria. A little fish food will work, or a few drops of ammonia with no perfumes, surfactants or coloring. I usually opt for just feeding a little extra fish food to the empty tank; it really isn't empty: I am feeding the bacteria.

[boff]

Thanks for all of your help ,im of to test my water,cheers.