Clownfish with swim bladder disorder

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

Well now I have a clownfish that appears to have some bloat/swim bladder problems. I noticed it a couple of days ago when the clown was swimming eratically in a PVC pipe but I just assumed that was weird clownfish behavior. Basically he would tip over on his side and sometimes upside down. Now he has abandoned the pipe and is on his side quite a bit with rapid breathing. I am not too hopeful as his decline has been quite rapid

I can't say I've seen any other physical signs and he is nowhere near taking food so peas are out of the question. I have tetracyline and prazipro on hand but I don't think either will be of much help in this situation. Any ideas? @melypr1985 ?

After having a royal flasser wrasse perish from a spinal injury and equilibrium issues it has me questioning going fallow out of paranoia.

melypr1985 · Oct 13, 2016

He's breathing rapidly? Do you have a picture and can you do a freshwater dip on him? The dip is to see if it clears out his gills some and allows him to breathe easier. Can you get me a clear picture without blues?

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

melypr1985 said:
He's breathing rapidly? Do you have a picture and can you do a freshwater dip on him? The dip is to see if it clears out his gills some and allows him to breathe easier. Can you get me a clear picture without blues?

Trying right now. He's in pretty bad shape.

melypr1985 · Oct 13, 2016

drawman said:
Trying right now. He's in pretty bad shape.

I know sweety. I'm sorry. We'll do our best for him. Is there any discoloration on him? Redness? White patches?

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Can you get me a clear picture without blues?

Sorry for the terrible photo. Again he's on his site breathing rapidly...

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

I don't see any redness and any white discoloration is tough to make out with his general white appearance.

melypr1985 · Oct 13, 2016

drawman said:
I don't see any redness and any white discoloration is tough to make out with his general white appearance.

Your right. I can't see anything wrong with him in that picture besides him laying on his side. Was he QT'd? How long have you had him? What was the last wet thing added to the tank?

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Your right. I can't see anything wrong with him in that picture besides him laying on his side. Was he QT'd? How long have you had him? What was the last wet thing added to the tank?

Yeah he was quarantined but just observationally as I didn't see any issues. Should've done a TTM/prazipro but I didn't unfortunately. He has been in the tank for several months (half a year or more) and the only thing I've added recently (two weeks ago) are a few acro frags no fish or inverts.

Since my wrasse perished I only have two of these clowns in the tank.

melypr1985 · Oct 13, 2016

drawman said:
Yeah he was quarantined but just observationally as I didn't see any issues. Should've done a TTM/prazipro but I didn't unfortunately. He has been in the tank for several months (half a year or more) and the only thing I've added recently (two weeks ago) are a few acro frags no fish or inverts.

Since my wrasse perished I only have two of these clowns in the tank.

I'd be tempted to suggest flukes b/c of the rapid breathing. A fresh water dip would confirm that. Even if he dies (i hope not) still drop him in some fresh water to check. It could be velvet, though I doubt it because it's been so long. Though, if any fish can have a temporary immunity, a clownfish would be one.

drawman · Oct 13, 2016

Thankfully I have some heated RO water going as I was going to do a water change tomorrow. I'll try to give him a 5 minute dip here and get him into QT. Hopefully I can spot out flukes in my green bucket...

melypr1985 · Oct 14, 2016

drawman said:
Thankfully I have some heated RO water going as I was going to do a water change tomorrow. I'll try to give him a 5 minute dip here and get him into QT. Hopefully I can spot out flukes in my green bucket...

Keep me posted. I'll be working tomorrow, but I'll try to check in during the day. Best of luck!

drawman · Oct 14, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Keep me posted. I'll be working tomorrow, but I'll try to check in during the day. Best of luck!

Thanks for the help Meredith I really appreciate it!

melypr1985 · Oct 14, 2016

drawman said:
Thanks for the help Meredith I really appreciate it!

anytime

drawman · Oct 14, 2016

Did a 5 minute freshwater dip. He still has some fight in him and survived the dip just fine. Put him in a bucket of saltwater afterward and got my 10 gallon QT tank up and running.

I didn't see anything come off in the freshwater dip so I'm not really sure where to go from here. The bucket I used was green and I'm not sure how visible the flukes would've been but I didn't identify anything coming off. He's on his side again in the QT tank breathing rapidly so we'll see how he looks tomorrow...

drawman · Oct 14, 2016

Well he was still on his side in the QT still breathing. I decided to add some PraziPro just as a shot in the dark.

melypr1985 · Oct 14, 2016

This is what you would have seen. They are pretty easy to spot, so I'm thinking he doesn't have them.

melypr1985 · Oct 14, 2016

Prazipro wasn't a bad call either. You'll want to blast the QT with O2 while he's having trouble breathing. Since he didn't perk up after the freshwater dip, then I'm going to (for now) rule out brook. Ruling out flukes as well, from the results of the FW dip. Then we are left with velvet and ick as a cause for his breathing problems.

i think for now, I'd start running copper in the QT to cover both of those possibilities. we'll continue to keep an eye on him, and chance treatment if we need to. Let me know, if he develops any red patches.

drawman · Oct 14, 2016

It's a good lesson for me because I don't have a ton of meds on hand so I need to build up an arsenal. I will need to pick up copper and a test kit and should probably have CP and acriflavine on hand just in case. I didn't really see any of the sloughing with brook either.

Yeah I didn't see anything drop off that looked like that and I used that picture as reference last night

Even if he doesn't make it I will want to treat the remaining clown just in case.

drawman · Oct 14, 2016

Well surprisingly he is still alive but I think he is on his last leg. I'm going to run to the store to see what they have for copper and test kits. He is lying on his side with no movement other than a little from the gills. Not sure if I should do another freshwater dip for him although that might be too harsh at this point. Thoughts?

Should I still slowly raise the copper or would it make sense to raise it more quickly?

melypr1985 · Oct 14, 2016

drawman said:
Well surprisingly he is still alive but I think he is on his last leg. I'm going to run to the store to see what they have for copper and test kits. He is lying on his side with no movement other than a little from the gills. Not sure if I should do another freshwater dip for him although that might be too harsh at this point. Thoughts?

Should I still slowly raise the copper or would it make sense to raise it more quickly?

I honestly don't think it's going to help him, but might as well put the other clown in there with him and start raising the copper slowly. I'd suggest coppersafe as it's more gentle on fish in general. We can hope that the first one perks up, but it's a low chance.