Clownfish Help

[Padawan]

Hi guys, I'm worried about one of my clownfish, he seems to be having trouble swimming and keeping himself upright. There seems to be some sort of color change or discoloration on one of his gills too. Not 100% sure what it is or whats causing it. I got him about a week ago and he's only started showing symptoms in the past 3-4 days. I have two ocellaris and two perculas including the one that's unwell, all the others seem fine.

I've read about swim bladder disease i thought it could be that, my other percula has been showing signs of aggression towards him so i wouldn't be surprised if it was stress related, or because of an injury from the fighting. The discoloration is very worrying tho.

I have been having nitrite problems so I'm dosing Seachem Prime to keep them at zero until my biological filter catches up again. I did a large water change about two weeks ago and i think it effected my bio filter so I've been dosing Bacter Start xlm at 5x the dose weekly. My aquarium is about 3 months old. I'm using a make shift lighting atm until i can afford to buy a Radion G5.

I've attached a video and a few pictures, i hope it helps.
Any help, ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Aquarium type: Reef
Aquarium volume 60 Gallons
Filter type: Refugium / Carbon filter
Temperature: 25.5 ° C
pH: 8.0
Salinity: 1.025
Free Ammonia 0.02 without Seachem prime
Nitrite 0 mg/l
Ntrate 0 mg/l

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Unfortunately, my internet is down and my phone won’t play your videos.

Is the clown breathing more rapidly or deeply than the other ones?

I would worry about the aggression, but from the picture, the affected clown seems much larger than the one behind it.

Jay

 

[Padawan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Unfortunately, my internet is down and my phone won’t play your videos.

Is the clown breathing more rapidly or deeply than the other ones?

I would worry about the aggression, but from the picture, the affected clown seems much larger than the one behind it.

Jay

Hello Jay! thanks for getting back to me.

I think he's breathing normally. 47-68 gbps it's hard to get an exact reading cos he's always turning his head.

He's actually the largest clown in the tank but my other percula who's a fraction smaller is still trying to be top fish. Originally the aggression was between the two smaller ocilarus clowns, one was establishing its dominance and the other was showing signs of submission.

The larger platinum I added first didn't seem bothered cos it was already the largest in the tank at that stage. I added the Picasso a week later and the aggression had stopped between the two smaller clowns. Both perculas seemed to pair up with a smaller ocilarus and stayed at opposite sides of the tank.

The aggression between my two larger perculas only started when I moved a clay pot to make room for a bubble tip i added to my tank. Since then my platinum clown has nipped, headbutted and shaken his tail at my picasso. I wonder are they still trying to decide who's going to be the female or do i already have two.

Hopefully your internet is back up and running

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I see two red circles in the one picture, are those lesions that you wanted to bring to our attention? I can’t quite make them out.
Ultimately, I think you have aggression going on here, mixing clowns of different sizes can be tricky. It is difficult to manage this aggression - isolating the aggressor, moving tank decorations, adding more hiding spots all may help, but in smaller tanks there sometimes just isn’t enough room for them all to spread out. Combine that with changing sexes, and it can become pretty complicated!
Jay

 

[Padawan]

Hello! The aggression seems to have stopped since I moved the clay pot back into the tank last night I think taking it out may have been the cause. I'll keep an eye on them over the next few days and isolate them if it starts again.

I cropped the original so you can get a better look. hope this helps!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Tough to see, but those spots are not in typical locations to be a result of being bitten by another clown. Watch them closely for increasing size, especially the one under the pelvic fins. There could be an infection going on there.
Jay

 

[Padawan]

Hi Jay, just wanted to update you on my clowns, they're all happy and fat The aggression stopped now that they've figured out their place in the hierarchy. The patchy colouring I was worried about with the big female (in the pictures above) turned out to be a natural colour change. Some areas just became darker over time including here fins. I assume its natural. Thanks for your help

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi Jay, just wanted to update you on my clowns, they're all happy and fat The aggression stopped now that they've figured out their place in the hierarchy. The patchy colouring I was worried about with the big female (in the pictures above) turned out to be a natural colour change. Some areas just became darker over time including here fins. I assume its natural. Thanks for your help

Glad to hear it!

Jay