Clownfish Breathing Heavy: Need Advice

[Letterkenny]

Walked into my office today and my female clownfish is breathing heavy and laying on the sand bed. My nem, shrimp, watchman goby, male clown, torch, and flame back angel all seem to be fine and no changes in the tank. Any ideas? I don’t see anything on it. See below for a video. Should I put it in an acclimation box or would that be more stressful?

 

[TriggersAmuck]

Did you rule out ammonia and pH stress through testing yet?

 

[GoReefin]

Did you rule out ammonia and pH stress through testing yet?

+1 do you run a skimmer or dose anything? Could be low oxygen or flukes?

 

[RedFrog211]

My clown was doing this a couple months back. Though my test kit (API) was reading 0 for ammonia, I dosed prime and she was better overnight. I’ve since upgraded to Hanna instruments!

 

[Dom]

How long do you have the Clown?

 

[RedFrog211]

Also, very pretty clown! Hope she pulls through

 

[Letterkenny]

Did you rule out ammonia and pH stress through testing yet?

I did not yet as those are never really issues. If it was ammonia specifically, I would see issues with the other inhabitants first and it’s not really ever present in a cycled tank (mine is a year and a half old). Lights came back on and now swimming more normal and breathing less heavy. Why are clownfish weird.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

I did not yet as those are never really issues. If it was ammonia specifically, I would see issues with the other inhabitants first and it’s not really ever present in a cycled tank (mine is a year and a half old). Lights came back on and now swimming more normal and breathing less heavy. Why are clownfish weird.

Clownfish are jerks. Let me repeat that: clownfish and anemones are *jerks*! There, I feel better anyways. :)

I hear you about ammonia in an established aquarium, and yet here we are trying to guess what the cause is. I was surprised to see my 125 gallon, multi year old tank with many fish in it test ever so slightly positive at one point (I think because of a missing/dead fish......or did that fish go missing because the ammonia was already there?). True, one would expect that most fish would be afflicted by similar poisoning, but you have been in the hobby long enough to know that not all *will* be affected by everything equally. So my advice is check off the easy to take care of things first before worrying about more esoteric causes. *jumps* off my soapbox. Glad to hear he/she is doing better in any event!

 

[Letterkenny]

Clownfish are jerks. Let me repeat that: clownfish and anemones are *jerks*! There, I feel better anyways. :)

I hear you about ammonia in an established aquarium, and yet here we are trying to guess what the cause is. I was surprised to see my 125 gallon, multi year old tank with many fish in it test ever so slightly positive at one point (I think because of a missing/dead fish......or did that fish go missing because the ammonia was already there?). True, one would expect that most fish would be afflicted by similar poisoning, but you have been in the hobby long enough to know that not all *will* be affected by everything equally. So my advice is check off the easy to take care of things first before worrying about more esoteric causes. *jumps* off my soapbox. Glad to hear he/she is doing better in any event!

Nope agreed. I would have checked if she didn’t get better! Now I just need the secret to get these guys to host their anemone! Neither pair in my two tanks will host. So odd.