Clownfish lethargic, not eating, stomach/eyes bulging

[Shanasman450]

I'm in need of some guidance. My male clownfish started acting very lethargic about three days ago. He would swim around in the water column every now and again, but, the majority of the time, he could be found laying on his side in the sand below the corner the pair hosted. He has some white stringy poops hanging from him almost constantly and his stomach is swollen and started eating less. So I'm thinking intestinal parasites. What's tripping me up a bit on that though is both of his eyes are bulging out. It's slight, but noticeable. I haven't seen anything about eye bulging mentioned in connection with parasites though, so I just wanted to run it by the community.

I've got him and his paired female in a hospital tank running general cure as it is, but he's looking pretty rough. Barely moving and stopped eating altogether last night (the night of the 21st).

Info on my tank:
Size: 36g bowfront
Filtration: skimmer and fuge in a 10 gallon sump
Tank age: 1y 8mo
Reef/fowler: reef

Livestock:
Clownfish x2
Royal gramma
Bengaii cardinal
Blue/green chromis
Tailspot blenny
Purple firefish

Parameters:
Temp: ~77-78
Salinity: 35ppt
Ph: ~7.8
Alk: 7.2
Cal: 380
Mag:1490
Nitrate/phos: 0 (massive bubble algae problem has me struggling with these two)

Bit more info on the fish in question:
Got him very small and had him the better part of a year and a half. Fed on frozen mysis and SA hatchery pellets. I feed the tank heavily to help bring nutrients up. No discernable fish aggression. No signs of ick, brook, or torn fins.

I plan on uploading a video of him in his current state in the morning. Any pictures requested I can take at that time. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm in need of some guidance. My male clownfish started acting very lethargic about three days ago. He would swim around in the water column every now and again, but, the majority of the time, he could be found laying on his side in the sand below the corner the pair hosted. He has some white stringy poops hanging from him almost constantly and his stomach is swollen and started eating less. So I'm thinking intestinal parasites. What's tripping me up a bit on that though is both of his eyes are bulging out. It's slight, but noticeable. I haven't seen anything about eye bulging mentioned in connection with parasites though, so I just wanted to run it by the community.

I've got him and his paired female in a hospital tank running general cure as it is, but he's looking pretty rough. Barely moving and stopped eating altogether last night (the night of the 21st).

Info on my tank:
Size: 36g bowfront
Filtration: skimmer and fuge in a 10 gallon sump
Tank age: 1y 8mo
Reef/fowler: reef

Livestock:
Clownfish x2
Royal gramma
Bengaii cardinal
Blue/green chromis
Tailspot blenny
Purple firefish

Parameters:
Temp: ~77-78
Salinity: 35ppt
Ph: ~7.8
Alk: 7.2
Cal: 380
Mag:1490
Nitrate/phos: 0 (massive bubble algae problem has me struggling with these two)

Bit more info on the fish in question:
Got him very small and had him the better part of a year and a half. Fed on frozen mysis and SA hatchery pellets. I feed the tank heavily to help bring nutrients up. No discernable fish aggression. No signs of ick, brook, or torn fins.

I plan on uploading a video of him in his current state in the morning. Any pictures requested I can take at that time. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

General cure is often not the answer, but to best assess what you're sealing with, please post pics, even video under white light intensity. Also, food mentioned , not total diet and can cause constipation. Add, LRS fish frenzy, brine shrimp to diet

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I'm in need of some guidance. My male clownfish started acting very lethargic about three days ago. He would swim around in the water column every now and again, but, the majority of the time, he could be found laying on his side in the sand below the corner the pair hosted. He has some white stringy poops hanging from him almost constantly and his stomach is swollen and started eating less. So I'm thinking intestinal parasites. What's tripping me up a bit on that though is both of his eyes are bulging out. It's slight, but noticeable. I haven't seen anything about eye bulging mentioned in connection with parasites though, so I just wanted to run it by the community.

I've got him and his paired female in a hospital tank running general cure as it is, but he's looking pretty rough. Barely moving and stopped eating altogether last night (the night of the 21st).

Info on my tank:
Size: 36g bowfront
Filtration: skimmer and fuge in a 10 gallon sump
Tank age: 1y 8mo
Reef/fowler: reef

Livestock:
Clownfish x2
Royal gramma
Bengaii cardinal
Blue/green chromis
Tailspot blenny
Purple firefish

Parameters:
Temp: ~77-78
Salinity: 35ppt
Ph: ~7.8
Alk: 7.2
Cal: 380
Mag:1490
Nitrate/phos: 0 (massive bubble algae problem has me struggling with these two)

Bit more info on the fish in question:
Got him very small and had him the better part of a year and a half. Fed on frozen mysis and SA hatchery pellets. I feed the tank heavily to help bring nutrients up. No discernable fish aggression. No signs of ick, brook, or torn fins.

I plan on uploading a video of him in his current state in the morning. Any pictures requested I can take at that time. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

A Video will at least help me rule some issues out.

Since you've had the fish a relatively long time, I think you can rule out most disease issues. There could be an internal protozoan issue here, but it is unlikely to be worms.

Jay

 

[Shanasman450]

 

[Shanasman450]

General cure is often not the answer, but to best assess what you're sealing with, please post pics, even video under white light intensity. Also, food mentioned , not total diet and can cause constipation. Add, LRS fish frenzy, brine shrimp to diet

I was in a rush to finish that post and get to bed last night and forgot a couple of things.

The frozen food I mentioned above is brine shrimp, not mysis. I feed mostly san francisco bay frozen brine with SA hatchery diet pellets either substituted or mixed with the brine every couple of days or so. I also mix both foods mentioned above with pe mysis frozen and pe pellets into a slurry to feed corals every few days. My fish end up eating a lot of said slurry.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I was in a rush to finish that post and get to bed last night and forgot a couple of things.

The frozen food I mentioned above is brine shrimp, not mysis. I feed mostly san francisco bay frozen brine with SA hatchery diet pellets either substituted or mixed with the brine every couple of days or so. I also mix both foods mentioned above with pe mysis frozen and pe pellets into a slurry to feed corals every few days. My fish end up eating a lot of said slurry.

But this clownfish is no longer eating, correct?

The swollen eyes can be a sign of Mycobacterium, fish tuberculosis. However, that is more often seen in fish older than yours.

Jay

 

[Shanasman450]

But this clownfish is no longer eating, correct?

Correct. He could be finding little bits of food on the bottom of the tank when I'm not looking. But I don't ever see him eat

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Correct. He could be finding little bits of food on the bottom of the tank when I'm not looking. But I don't ever see him eat

If you don't see it eating, it most likely is not. You might need to consider euthanasia, sorry.

Jay

 

[Shanasman450]

If you don't see it eating, it most likely is not. You might need to consider euthanasia, sorry.

Jay

Well that's not what I was hoping to hear, but thank you for the assistance regardless. If he keeps refusing to eat and doesn't improve any I'll get on that. Do you have any preferred quick and humane methods? I can't imagine Google is going to be much help there.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Well that's not what I was hoping to hear, but thank you for the assistance regardless. If he keeps refusing to eat and doesn't improve any I'll get on that. Do you have any preferred quick and humane methods? I can't imagine Google is going to be much help there.

It actually comes up here fairly often, so I wrote up some text:

Fish Euthanasia

Euthanasia Euthanasia is a word derived from two Greek words that roughly translates to “good death”. In other words, euthanasia is the painless killing of an organism. In general usage, there is also the underlying understanding that euthanasia is performed on terminal patients only. This...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Shanasman450]

It actually comes up here fairly often, so I wrote up some text:

Fish Euthanasia

Euthanasia Euthanasia is a word derived from two Greek words that roughly translates to “good death”. In other words, euthanasia is the painless killing of an organism. In general usage, there is also the underlying understanding that euthanasia is performed on terminal patients only. This...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Funny enough I actually came across that thread minutes after replying to you. Unfortunately his health deteriorated overnight before I could grab any clove oil. He was gone this morning. I appreciate the help. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.