Clownfish help

[Shnetts]

Need some advice from someone smarter than me.

I swapped tanks about 10 days ago. Not sure this has any effect but doesn’t hurt to include.

Saturday my smaller clown started acting lethargic and breathing heavy. Only noticeable appearance change is dulled colors. Nothing new has been added to the tank besides coral in over 6 months. All coral is dipped of course. And all my fish are copper and prazi qt’d for 45 days by me. So I don’t think it’s a disease/parasite but of course it’s not impossible. I’ve had this pair for I wanna say 18 months now and they have never had issues. Besides what I think was worms but couldn’t confirm. Feed medicated food for awhile and symptoms seemed to go away.

Obviously no signs of ich or velvet.
No other fish shows any symptoms what so ever. Ammonia is 0. The only thing I can’t rule out is flukes but that just seems unlikely to me. Maybe his internal worms came back but he doesn’t have a super pinched stomach like before. (I’ve been feeding him the medicated food just incase) I threw in an extra oxygen stone on Saturday just in the off chance that was it but no improvement. He still eats and perks up when I come close to the tank but if I look from across the room he’s just been half laying down. And his fins are getting progressively more tattered. Even the other clown can tell something is up

Any fish medics have any thoughts?

Here’s a video of him. He’s had that tiny white ring since the day I’ve bought him and it’s never changed.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Need some advice from someone smarter than me.

I swapped tanks about 10 days ago. Not sure this has any effect but doesn’t hurt to include.

Saturday my smaller clown started acting lethargic and breathing heavy. Only noticeable appearance change is dulled colors. Nothing new has been added to the tank besides coral in over 6 months. All coral is dipped of course. And all my fish are copper and prazi qt’d for 45 days by me. So I don’t think it’s a disease/parasite but of course it’s not impossible. I’ve had this pair for I wanna say 18 months now and they have never had issues. Besides what I think was worms but couldn’t confirm. Feed medicated food for awhile and symptoms seemed to go away.

Obviously no signs of ich or velvet.
No other fish shows any symptoms what so ever. Ammonia is 0. The only thing I can’t rule out is flukes but that just seems unlikely to me. Maybe his internal worms came back but he doesn’t have a super pinched stomach like before. (I’ve been feeding him the medicated food just incase) I threw in an extra oxygen stone on Saturday just in the off chance that was it but no improvement. He still eats and perks up when I come close to the tank but if I look from across the room he’s just been half laying down. And his fins are getting progressively more tattered. Even the other clown can tell something is up

Any fish medics have any thoughts?

Here’s a video of him. He’s had that tiny white ring since the day I’ve bought him and it’s never changed.

Please use bright light intensity, no blue and there is a lot of reflection off the glass, Please darken shades

 

[Shnetts]

Need some advice from someone smarter than me.

I swapped tanks about 10 days ago. Not sure this has any effect but doesn’t hurt to include.

Saturday my smaller clown started acting lethargic and breathing heavy. Only noticeable appearance change is dulled colors. Nothing new has been added to the tank besides coral in over 6 months. All coral is dipped of course. And all my fish are copper and prazi qt’d for 45 days by me. So I don’t think it’s a disease/parasite but of course it’s not impossible. I’ve had this pair for I wanna say 18 months now and they have never had issues. Besides what I think was worms but couldn’t confirm. Feed medicated food for awhile and symptoms seemed to go away.

Obviously no signs of ich or velvet.
No other fish shows any symptoms what so ever. Ammonia is 0. The only thing I can’t rule out is flukes but that just seems unlikely to me. Maybe his internal worms came back but he doesn’t have a super pinched stomach like before. (I’ve been feeding him the medicated food just incase) I threw in an extra oxygen stone on Saturday just in the off chance that was it but no improvement. He still eats and perks up when I come close to the tank but if I look from across the room he’s just been half laying down. And his fins are getting progressively more tattered. Even the other clown can tell something is up

Any fish medics have any thoughts?

Here’s a video of him. He’s had that tiny white ring since the day I’ve bought him and it’s never changed.

Please use bright light intensity, no blue and there is a lot of reflection off the glass, Please darken shades

 

[vetteguy53081]

Check your water which is milky and in video, I see rapid breathing and may be associated with water.
How are you testing your levels? I also recommend utilizing the air stone while this gets sorted out and clowns rarely if ever get flukes

 

[Shnetts]

As part of the tank switch I’ve been dosing microbacter. That why the water a bit cloudy right now.

All testing is done by a trident and Hanna checkers

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I agree the water did look milky in the one video, could be a bacterial bloom. In the last video, the larger clown is acting aggressive towards it. Could the tank move caused their pair bond to break down?

 

[W31Olds]

What "Medicated Food" are you feeding him? It can be tough to regulate the Dose and may cause problems. The tattered Fins sounds like aggression.

 

[Shnetts]

I agree the water did look milky in the one video, could be a bacterial bloom. In the last video, the larger clown is acting aggressive towards it. Could the tank move caused their pair bond to break down?

I’m not sure. I haven’t seen any signs of aggression between them and they both continue to “shake/twitch” to each other which I’ve always thought was a sign of them pairing. Here’s an update from this morning. He looks noticeably more rough and this was the first time he didn’t perk up immediately for food.

I’ll put him in a box and continue to monitor. But there’s still no other signs of what it could be.

The milky water was from microbacter that I had just dosed. Just something to help the tank swap good smoother

 

[Shnetts]

What "Medicated Food" are you feeding him? It can be tough to regulate the Dose and may cause problems. The tattered Fins sounds like aggression.

Metro absorbed into food, with focus. Same 1:1 ratio that I’ve always used with luck treating fish, and same dose that I gave this guy 1.5 years ago when he first had an internal parasite.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Metro absorbed into food, with focus. Same 1:1 ratio that I’ve always used with luck treating fish, and same dose that I gave this guy 1.5 years ago when he first had an internal parasite.

Metro needs to be dosed accurately - 1 to 2% in the food by weight. Less than that and it doesn’t help, more than that and it is too bitter, the fish won’t eat it.

Brooklynella is one disease that isn’t cleared by the typical prazi/copper treatment. I don’t see the excess body mucus that causes here though. Unfortunately, there is a coccidea that can’t be treated that causes lethargy and rapid breathing in clownfish.

 

[Shnetts]

Metro absorbed into food, with focus. Same 1:1 ratio that I’ve always used with luck treating fish, and same dose that I gave this guy 1.5 years ago when he first had an internal parasite.

Metro needs to be dosed accurately - 1 to 2% in the food by weight. Less than that and it doesn’t help, more than that and it is too bitter, the fish won’t eat it.

Brooklynella is one disease that isn’t cleared by the typical prazi/copper treatment. I don’t see the excess body mucus that causes here though. Unfortunately, there is a coccidea that can’t be treated that causes lethargy and rapid breathing in clownfish.

Could that coccidea have sat dormant for this long? Well not dormant but the fish has been healthy enough to not be seriously affected untill the stress from the tank move?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Could that coccidea have sat dormant for this long? Well not dormant but the fish has been healthy enough to not be seriously affected untill the stress from the tank move?

One of the thoughts is that the coccidea are like gut flagellates - they live in small numbers in many apparently healthy fish. Then, if the fish is stressed in some way, their population grows, causing active disease.

 

[Shnetts]

Could that coccidea have sat dormant for this long? Well not dormant but the fish has been healthy enough to not be seriously affected untill the stress from the tank move?

One of the thoughts is that the coccidea are like gut flagellates - they live in small numbers in many apparently healthy fish. Then, if the fish is stressed in some way, their population grows, causing active disease.

Okay. Well let’s hope it’s not that.

I really didn’t think it was the case but I have a feeling aggression might be playing a part here. That tear in his dorsal fin was not there last night.

I guess I didn’t think about it since all these fish have been together for so long. But longfin clowns tend to have a higher chance of getting picked on in my experience at least. I’ll separate him into a nem box or the sump and see if that has any effect. Too bad I haven’t moved the camera to the new tank to monitor since they never show aggression when someone is right next to the tank.