Clownfish's mouth stuck open, not eating

[jgalvin]

I was just telling my girlfiend the other week how good my tank looked with all happy fish/corals. Yesterday i noticed my big female clown did not eat (very unusual), today i look and its mouth is stuck wide open (and not eating). No problem with the other clown or fish (other than my 6-line wrasse is becoming more aggressive by the week).

Any ideas what can be causing the mouth issue with the clown?

I did some searching on the web and found a range of issues (stress, parasites, biting frogspawn, etc). Tank's been up for 11months, clown fish have been the original inhabitants. Last thing i added was some cheato to the fuge about a month back. Feeling real bad for my poor fish. I don't have a QT set up either.

Thanks much for any ideas
James

 

[BCT182]

Is there a chance he swallowed something that didn't go all the way down? I've seen this with lion fish but never a clown.


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[jgalvin]

hmm, possible i suppose. i know the fish is about 6 years old, and I feed them same type of food. In addition to his mouth open, her bottom jaw is swollen and white'ish in color. Was hoping many someone else had this happen with one of their clownfish. If i had to guess, parasite of some sort?

 

[leebca]

Anemonefishes do suffer from a condition -- a sort of reverse 'lock jaw.'

The condition is known as jaw hyperextension, it is most common in fishes that feed on aufwuchs (algal turfs and their associated microfauna), and is caused by the locking of a bone called the urohyal into the cleithra, it may be easily resolved without damage by anesthetizing the fish with MS-222 and using a fine, blunt tipped probe to gently depress the urohyal from the INSIDE of the jaw, this "unlocks" the jaw. If the jaw is pushed back from the outside one or both of the cleithra may fracture, resulting in a possibly life-long deformation.

Most hobbyists don't want to or feel uncomfortable or just plain don't know how to do this procedure. You can as an alternative, move the fish to a quarantine tank and treat the fish with an broad spectrum antibiotic in the hopes the problem can resolve itself.

If the fish was http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/fed-properly-proper-nutrition-57474/ it could live a few weeks without eating. Few fishes are however fed properly to my way of thinking.

 

[jrgilles]

Could this be done without anesthetic? Seems like it would be easy enough to gently hold the fish down and get a blunt probe into its mouth. Not exactly sure how far back the urohyal is (would need to look up some fish anatomy..), nor do I know if there is much pain involved, in which case anesthetic would maybe be needed.

Is it tough to get MS-222?
Do you know if ketamine, xylazine, or a combo of the two can be used to anesthetize fish? I know they work great on mammals. Just curious as these are two anesthetics I have experience using from my job.

 

[jrgilles]

I see you can buy this locally from Argent in Redmond.

Tricaine (MS-222) Finquel

No price listed though

 

[jgalvin]

Thanks guys, the idea of holding down Bella (my female clownfish) and performing this procedure on her does not sound like something i could pull off. I'm not the most gentle, etc. Crossing my fingers that he snaps back on is own. She's on day 3 or 4 of not being able to eat. She was ravenous before that as it was getting time to lay eggs again.

 

[DonW]

Personally I'd give it a shot or maybe have your better half do it. It will either starve or you will kill it. But you may save it anyway you look at it you cant do much more harm than letting it suffer.

Don

 

[thatguy559]

^^^agreed if you dont want to do it im sure someone on here will... i was lucky with my kole tang his mouth was stuck open for a few days then i stuck my hand in the tank and he ran into the glass and fixed his jaw....this was in pitch black darkness so im sure he didnt know it was me with my hands in the tank.

 

[leebca]

The procedure requires that the fish be anethesized. Too much stress any other way and the muscles will resist the 'correction' unless they are relaxed.

MS 222 (a.k.a. Finquel) is easy enough to obtain.

 

[jgalvin]

Wanted to update Bella's condition. The mouth is still open, but about half open now. She continues to try to reposition her jaw to shut it. While she's fairly listless near the bottom of the tank, she does eat some when feeding. I drop the pellets near her and she swims here open mouth into the food to swallow them. I'm taking a wait and see approach as she seems to be improving slowing. Thanks much for the responsed. Will update the thread on final outcome.

 

[leebca]

I appreciate the updates. This condition can 'right itself' as I wrote earlier.

Hopefully, when the fish is 'back to normal' you'll invest time and effort at improving the foods you provide. All these links will help identify an improved diet:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/fed-properly-proper-nutrition-57474/
Fish Health Through Proper Nutrition
Different Marine Fish Food Forms
and
How to Feed Macro Algae to Marine Fishes

Good luck! Hope Bella comes around.

 

[jgalvin]

just wanted to let everyone know, Bella mouth is 100% back now. The whole mouth stuck open thing lasted about 1 1/2 weeks. She is now back to her normal self.

 

[luisse25]

wow glad to hear everything is fine now

 

[nata]

Happy to hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!