Clownfish Swim Bladder

[southernreef]

Hi Everyone,

We have been treating our fish for the past few weeks due to an ich outbreak in our display tank. While all the fish are now free from ich, we must keep them in quarantine for an additional week as per our supplier's instructions. Recently, our male clownfish, Willie, has exhibited unusual behavior, such as wedging himself under shells during the night and throughout the day, which is not typical for him. He usually sleeps vertically at night, but for the past three days, he has also been surfacing and occasionally floating upside down and having buoyancy issues. After conducting some research, I suspect he may be suffering from swim bladder issues, but I am uncertain about the appropriate treatment. Currently, the fish are housed in a 20-gallon tank, and I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to proceed, including whether Willie should be treated separately. Thank you!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi Everyone,

We have been treating our fish for the past few weeks due to an ich outbreak in our display tank. While all the fish are now free from ich, we must keep them in quarantine for an additional week as per our supplier's instructions. Recently, our male clownfish, Willie, has exhibited unusual behavior, such as wedging himself under shells during the night and throughout the day, which is not typical for him. He usually sleeps vertically at night, but for the past three days, he has also been surfacing and occasionally floating upside down and having buoyancy issues. After conducting some research, I suspect he may be suffering from swim bladder issues, but I am uncertain about the appropriate treatment. Currently, the fish are housed in a 20-gallon tank, and I would greatly appreciate any advice on how to proceed, including whether Willie should be treated separately. Thank you!

May be buoyancy or bladder infection. You did not mention if tank was medicated but all the rock and especially shell in the tank will absorb medication as they are calcium based.
Water appears milky. Assure to keep an eye on ammonia level with reliable test kit.
Is clown eating, or unable to?

 

[southernreef]

May be buoyancy or bladder infection. You did not mention if tank was medicated but all the rock and especially shell in the tank will absorb medication as they are calcium based.
Water appears milky. Assure to keep an eye on ammonia level with reliable test kit.
Is clown eating, or unable to?

Hi, thank you for your response! If it's either of those two do you by chance know how we would go about treating them? The tank is currently being treated with copper our supplier advised us to put a rock from our display tank in our hospital tank that has beneficial bacteria on it, but we were unaware that the rocks would absorb the treatment :-( I wish we could use a filtration system while using the copper treatment but was told you cannot do that during treatments. So I do frequent water changes, the tank glass is not very clear. I have been watching to ammonia levels daily everything has been good so far there. Everyone has been eating pretty well except yesterday is when the feeding tapered off. Only two that ate was the Blenny and the Molly! Any suggestions?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi, thank you for your response! If it's either of those two do you by chance know how we would go about treating them? The tank is currently being treated with copper our supplier advised us to put a rock from our display tank in our hospital tank that has beneficial bacteria on it, but we were unaware that the rocks would absorb the treatment :-( I wish we could use a filtration system while using the copper treatment but was told you cannot do that during treatments. So I do frequent water changes, the tank glass is not very clear. I have been watching to ammonia levels daily everything has been good so far there. Everyone has been eating pretty well except yesterday is when the feeding tapered off. Only two that ate was the Blenny and the Molly! Any suggestions?

If bladder, air has to be expelled by fish on its own. If internal, seachem neoplex or Kanaplexmay address it

 

[southernreef]

If bladder, air has to be expelled by fish on its own. If internal, seachem neoplex or Kanaplexmay address it

Thank you so much for your help! This is day 4. Willie is closer to the bottom of the tank this morning and was swimming horizontally just for a minute, but you could tell it was challenging for him. Then he went back horizontally again. Could I treat the entire tank with Seachem Neoplex? We are still new to the hobby, so I just wanted to make sure if I could treat the whole tank or if I needed to pull Willie out into a different tank. Thank you again for your help

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you so much for your help! This is day 4. Willie is closer to the bottom of the tank this morning and was swimming horizontally just for a minute, but you could tell it was challenging for him. Then he went back horizontally again. Could I treat the entire tank with Seachem Neoplex? We are still new to the hobby, so I just wanted to make sure if I could treat the whole tank or if I needed to pull Willie out into a different tank. Thank you again for your help

Just be careful not to dose Neoplex if there is copper in the water - there are some reports that can create a toxic reaction.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you so much for your help! This is day 4. Willie is closer to the bottom of the tank this morning and was swimming horizontally just for a minute, but you could tell it was challenging for him. Then he went back horizontally again. Could I treat the entire tank with Seachem Neoplex? We are still new to the hobby, so I just wanted to make sure if I could treat the whole tank or if I needed to pull Willie out into a different tank. Thank you again for your help

Assuming this is a quarantine tank or tank with no fish and coral, see post by Jay right above this one

 

[southernreef]

Just be careful not to dose Neoplex if there is copper in the water - there are some reports that can create a toxic reaction.

Hi Mr. Jay, Thank you for that tip! The water does have copper treatment in it, however, I dosed it on Sunday and noticed that Willie was having issues, and did a 25% water change on Monday. I never put any additional copper dosing in there after that water change, but copper is still there. I guess the best thing to do would be to pull him out of the tank and treat him.

 

[southernreef]

Assuming this is a quarantine tank or tank with no fish and coral, see post by Jay right above this one

Yes, sir, this is a quarantine tank where we are treating our fish for ich. Will do - Thank you again for all your help!