clown fish heavy breathing

eddhall89 · 2026-09-07T07:41:32-0400

Hi, I have had these two clowns in the tank for 7 days now. Water parameters good, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates. salinity good.
Both clowns were doing great but have noticed the more dominant of the two has started heavy breathing and gills looks Inflamed. Fish has gone off its food, occasional nibbble when food goes in but behaviour has changed since first introduced. The other clown is fine, showing no signs of issue or heavy breathing. Any ideas what the issue could be?
LFS told me to do a freshwater dip for 2 mins, which I have done and haven’t seen much to little improvement since.
Will try attach a video later

eddhall89 · 2026-09-07T08:23:48-0400

Here is a video

vetteguy53081 · 2026-09-07T09:06:10-0400

eddhall89 said:
Hi, I have had these two clowns in the tank for 7 days now. Water parameters good, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates. salinity good.
Both clowns were doing great but have noticed the more dominant of the two has started heavy breathing and gills looks Inflamed. Fish has gone off its food, occasional nibbble when food goes in but behaviour has changed since first introduced. The other clown is fine, showing no signs of issue or heavy breathing. Any ideas what the issue could be?
LFS told me to do a freshwater dip for 2 mins, which I have done and haven’t seen much to little improvement since.
Will try attach a video later

The larger clown often the female is the dominant fish and will stress the smaller one… chase it, bite it and corner it
I highly recommend quarantine as I see discoloration on the fish suggesting early brook which affects clowns. Ruby rally pro will keep the fish in check