Clownfish Breathing Heavy

[lrosenberg5]

Hi - I have a clownfish that started breathing heavily two days ago. I also noticed its been inserting the tentacles of the hammer it has been hosing, and putting them in its mouth and then pulling away. The clownfish have been hosting the hammer for two months and I never saw this behavior before. He is still eating but usually he quickly swims up to the top when I put pellets in. Today he waited and only ate a pellet or two.

For reference, I've had two clowns for about 6 months (only one is showing these symptoms, the other is breathing fine and quickly ate the food I put in today). I haven't added anything wet to the tank in some time.

Nitrates are near zero, phosphates are 0.05, ammonia is zero. Only relatively recent change I made was adding a RFG to the return pump nozzle, which may not have been agitating the surface as much, but was still doing some agitation. Also no aggression between the two clowns.

@Jay Hemdal you had me get Maracyn 2 for my other clownfish a few months ago. Any idea what's wrong with this one and what I should do about it?

See a few videos attached, appreciate any help you all can provide

 

[lrosenberg5]

Have been doing more research and see that clownfish sometimes 'mouth' the coral which stings them. Looks like the fish's jaw is wide open so maybe that's it. Not sure how to get him to stop without moving the coral

 

[KeepSwimming12]

Hi - I have a clownfish that started breathing heavily two days ago. I also noticed its been inserting the tentacles of the hammer it has been hosing, and putting them in its mouth and then pulling away. The clownfish have been hosting the hammer for two months and I never saw this behavior before. He is still eating but usually he quickly swims up to the top when I put pellets in. Today he waited and only ate a pellet or two.

For reference, I've had two clowns for about 6 months (only one is showing these symptoms, the other is breathing fine and quickly ate the food I put in today). I haven't added anything wet to the tank in some time.

Nitrates are near zero, phosphates are 0.05, ammonia is zero. Only relatively recent change I made was adding a RFG to the return pump nozzle, which may not have been agitating the surface as much, but was still doing some agitation. Also no aggression between the two clowns.

@Jay Hemdal you had me get Maracyn 2 for my other clownfish a few months ago. Any idea what's wrong with this one and what I should do about it?

See a few videos attached, appreciate any help you all can provide

I would personally just remove the RFG just to see whether his breathing slows down but some people might say that’s overkill to do after just one symptom. Obviously the biggest thing to look out for is disease so definitely post if you see more symptoms. But, to take away from the negativity, there are a lot of fish that breath quickly from time to time and if you haven’t seen it for long then I wouldn’t worry too much. Sometimes my clownfish do that and my flame Hawkfish sometimes acts as if he’s run a marathon. Good luck!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I think the key may well be the coral stinging the clown on the mouth. Hosting in hammers is pretty common, but the corals do sting clowns more than anemones do.
If it were an infection, more likely both clowns wound be affected.
Do you have any ability to try and isolate the clown from the coral to see if that helps?
Jay