Clownfish behaving extremely strange

[BobbyDiezel]

Hi all,
I didn’t want my first post on here to be this, but my female clownfish is behaving very strangely. The tank is a fairly new 75 gallon saltwater tank that just finished its cycle 2 weeks ago, the first fish we put in was a bonded pair of common clownfish in. The female is now swimming with her head at the bottom and grabbing at the gravel and it looks like when she stops swimming she seems to start to float upwards, she’s been doing this for about 24 hours now.
tank readings
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5ppm
Phosphate: 0
PH: 8.2
Calcium: 460
Dkh: 12
Everything else in the tank seems to be doing fine. I’m going to attach some pictures and a video as well to help.
We don’t want to lose our first friend in the tank, what can we do? Is this possibly just weird clown behavior or some type of mating thing? Or something worse?

 

[ScubaFish802]

Hi welcome to R2R let me see if I can bring in some help #fishmedic / @vetteguy53081

 

[Tamale]

Lots of particulate floating around. Recent water change or is the water always like that?

 

[BobbyDiezel]

Lots of particulate floating around. Recent water change or is the water always like that?

@Tamale we did a 20% water change last night after this had been going on for about 12 hours in hopes it might clear things up, we tested everything prior to the change and it was about the same. The posted parameters are after the water change

 

[Sharkbait19]

I can’t view the video on my end (iPhone), it’s it possible to link it as a YouTube video?
Does anything look visibly off with the clown? They do lots of weird things so it’s hard to always tell for sure.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,
I didn’t want my first post on here to be this, but my female clownfish is behaving very strangely. The tank is a fairly new 75 gallon saltwater tank that just finished its cycle 2 weeks ago, the first fish we put in was a bonded pair of common clownfish in. The female is now swimming with her head at the bottom and grabbing at the gravel and it looks like when she stops swimming she seems to start to float upwards, she’s been doing this for about 24 hours now.
tank readings
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5ppm
Phosphate: 0
PH: 8.2
Calcium: 460
Dkh: 12
Everything else in the tank seems to be doing fine. I’m going to attach some pictures and a video as well to help.
We don’t want to lose our first friend in the tank, what can we do? Is this possibly just weird clown behavior or some type of mating thing? Or something worse?

Hate to say, but from looks of tail, fish may be a victim of aggression. Moreso, I wish this was a buoyancy issue but it is not. Fish is far distressed and is moribund which basically suugests fish has a low chance of recovery. You can add oxygen via airstone , but I want to be straight and say it may make no difference.
Did you/have you noticed any aggression from another tank occupant mainly clown?
When was last time fish ate?
Any heavy breathing ? (cant see in video)

 

[vetteguy53081]

As for partticulate, it sometimes happens but witheffective filtration will clear in a couple of hours

 

[BobbyDiezel]

Hate to say, but from looks of tail, fish may be a victim of aggression. Moreso, I wish this was a buoyancy issue but it is not. Fish is far distressed and is moribund which basically suugests fish has a low chance of recovery. You can add oxygen via airstone , but I want to be straight and say it may make no difference.
Did you/have you noticed any aggression from another tank occupant mainly clown?
When was last time fish ate?
Any heavy breathing ? (cant see in video)

The only other tank mate it has is a male clownfish about a third of its size and they have just been swimming together since day one, I haven’t seen him picking on her I’ll try and link the video on YouTube and see if it helps,
They ate yesterday morning, but we were holding off feeding this morning in case it was something like indegestion or constipation

 

[BobbyDiezel]

This is the link to the behavior video

 

[Tamale]

This is the link to the behavior video

It looks like there is some rapid breathing going on there (not an expert tho). Are the other fish acting normal?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Watching the video, I have to agree with @vetteguy53081
It’s hard to make out any bites in the video, but aggression can cause this.

 

[BobbyDiezel]

It looks like there is some rapid breathing going on there (not an expert tho). Are the other fish acting normal?

Other fish are eating and we just ran all tests again and everything is within range and no big difference from last night. The female is starting to swim normally for a few seconds and then goes back to doing what it’s doing in the video.

 

[BobbyDiezel]

Watching the video, I have to agree with @vetteguy53081
It’s hard to make out any bites in the video, but aggression can cause this.

I’m not disagreeing with this, but to me (not an expert by any means) it just seems so implausible unless we’re really missing something. The only other tank mate is a male
Clown who is bonded with the female and he is about a third her size, I see no visible bites or marks.
I also want to say I really appreciate everyone’s help and swift responses, hoping she pulls through.

 

[Tamale]

Other fish are eating and we just ran all tests again and everything is within range and no big difference from last night. The female is starting to swim normally for a few seconds and then goes back to doing what it’s doing in the video.

Man that's really tough. Definitely out of my depth at this point. Like vette and sharkbait said it may be out of your hands. Just monitor and look for the aggression they mentioned I suppose. Though it seems strange that a male clown would cause a female to stress that badly.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’m not disagreeing with this, but to me (not an expert by any means) it just seems so implausible unless we’re really missing something. The only other tank mate is a male
Clown who is bonded with the female and he is about a third her size, I see no visible bites or marks.
I also want to say I really appreciate everyone’s help and swift responses, hoping she pulls through.

A lot of the time you don’t see the aggression. I can’t say for sure that’s what it is, it’s just a possibility.

 

[Idech]

I’m no expert but it looks like a swim bladder issue to me. @Jay Hemdal ?

How long did you mix your salt before doing the water change? It looks like salt particles in the water column.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!
The first video wasn’t obvious, but in the second video I could clearly see that when the fish stopped sculling with its fins, it began to quickly rise. This shows the fish is positively buoyant. That doesn’t always mean swim bladder issues, gas in the gut from bacteria can also cause this.
The fish is also breathing fast. That indicates it has a systemic infection. I’m sorry, but you aren’t likely going to be able to treat this successfully. The fish might be able to pass the gas on its own, but the rapid breathing is still an issue.
Jay

 

[Doglips56]

@BobbyDiezel - I’m really sorry your first experience with adding livestock is like this. R2R is an amazing forum.
@Jay Hemdal and/or @vetteguy53081 if this is an infection or swim bladder does Bobby need to treat the entire system before adding more livestock? Should he remove the other clown to a QT and go fallow before adding additional fish? Just curious for my own knowledge! Thanks

 

[Dav2996]

Maybe swim bladder problems? Mine had them before. It goes away. When they have issues I add aerators such as air stones wave makers to increase oxygen.

 

[vetteguy53081]

@BobbyDiezel - I’m really sorry your first experience with adding livestock is like this. R2R is an amazing forum.
@Jay Hemdal and/or @vetteguy53081 if this is an infection or swim bladder does Bobby need to treat the entire system before adding more livestock? Should he remove the other clown to a QT and go fallow before adding additional fish? Just curious for my own knowledge! Thanks

Dont believe swim bladder but internal infection or swimbladder gas although gas happens when depth change which would be rare within an aquarium. There really is no treatment, although metroplex would be a gamble IF the fish is eating. rarely do they eat in this state and I would have to side with Jay on it being up to the fish to expel such gases