Clownfish swimming bizarrely

[Sonatine]

My clownfish that I have had in my tank for about 1 month has began behaving bizarrely. Unfortunately I'm about to head for work and have limited time to give details.

The fish, when it tries to swim, "spirals" (or barrel rolls"). i found it on its side on the substrate this morning, a first for this fish. Breathing is rapid. Body appears to be curving to one side. I don't see any obvious sign of parasites or anything unusual on the fish's exterior but will check again later. Only change in the past 5 days was that I tried adding some nori seaweed into their food. The seaweed had no additives listed. The fish was perhaps more sluggish than usual last night but otherwise no prior symptoms.

Other tank inhabitants (a second clownfish, snails, a bicolor blenny) do not appear to be affected. It's hard to tell with the blenny; it was added 6 days ago and still mostly hides, but will eat food that drifts past its cave.

Ammonia is "safe" per the seachem badge, nitrates were 0 last night. Will update the other parameters when I'm home from work. Any thoughts until then? I caught the clown in a net and closed the net in between my tank and my lid, to keep the fish suspended near (but just below) the surface. That's all I can do for now. The job is new and I can't afford to be any later than I already will be.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My clownfish that I have had in my tank for about 1 month has began behaving bizarrely. Unfortunately I'm about to head for work and have limited time to give details.

The fish, when it tries to swim, "spirals" (or barrel rolls"). i found it on its side on the substrate this morning, a first for this fish. Breathing is rapid. Body appears to be curving to one side. I don't see any obvious sign of parasites or anything unusual on the fish's exterior but will check again later. Only change in the past 5 days was that I tried adding some nori seaweed into their food. The seaweed had no additives listed. The fish was perhaps more sluggish than usual last night but otherwise no prior symptoms.

Other tank inhabitants (a second clownfish, snails, a bicolor blenny) do not appear to be affected. It's hard to tell with the blenny; it was added 6 days ago and still mostly hides, but will eat food that drifts past its cave.

Ammonia is "safe" per the seachem badge, nitrates were 0 last night. Will update the other parameters when I'm home from work. Any thoughts until then? I caught the clown in a net and closed the net in between my tank and my lid, to keep the fish suspended near (but just below) the surface. That's all I can do for now. The job is new and I can't afford to be any later than I already will be.

It sounds to me that your clownfish is showing agonal behavior/or is moribund. That is what fish do when they are close to death - sorry.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but if not, when you get home, you'll need to observe the other clownfish very closely for similar symptoms.

If the first clown is still alive, try to get a short video of it so I can better assess its behavior.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Please post pics under white lights or even a you tube video to show the behavior you’re describing

 

[Sonatine]

I’m on lunch, thanks to both of you for the replies. I will get pics and videos at home if he makes it until then.

The only additional thing I could think of is the timing of that nori. I fed it for the first time last night, mixed with reef frenzy. The clown was behaving normally before that. It was not specific fish food but the only ingredient listed on the package was seaweed.

I’m not entirely sure if the second clown ate any of the seaweed or not, but she’s generally pickier than the sick clown and I wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t (sick clown is usually a garbage disposal). Does poisoning seem like a possibility? Time of symptom onset from feeding was less than 4 hours (clamped fins, mild lethargy). Additionally, I cleaned the rocks off with a turkey blaster and brush last night, but the clown might have been acting off before that.

Will update again when I’m home, one way or another.

 

[Jekyl]

Probably not food related. When was the last addition to the tank? Were all fish quarantined prior to going in?

 

[Sonatine]

He didn't make it. One of the nassarius snails had already gotten to him in the net, too, so I couldn't really get a great look at the body. It took all of my self restraint not to flush that snail along with the fish, but doing that wouldn't bring him back so the snail lives another day.

I couldn't see any external signs of illness or injury. No white dots, no mucus, no slime, no discoloration. The fish almost seemed like it had no organs when I handled it (I could see the spine through the skin). I suspect that was maybe the snail's doing? He was small when alive, sure, but did not seem emaciated and had a hearty appetite up until last night.

The other fish and blenny behavior seems normal so far. They're both upset about all the live rock I moved around to get to the sick fish this AM and didn't move back, but the clown ate food when I offered it. The blenny hid as usual (I'm sure all the commotion set me back considerably on coaxing it to come out more) but I at least saw a few head movements.

I don't know of any infectious disease that kills a fish within 24 hours of visible symptoms, which is why I was wondering if there was something toxic in that seaweed that I offered them.

@Jekyl: Unfortunately I don't have a quarantine tank; two tanks was going to be a very tough sell to my landlord (I'm stuck in an apartment). My fish are all purchased locally, from a specialty aquatic store, and I know they have a quarantine protocol though I don't know the details. The last fish added was a bicolor blenny and some snails, six days ago. Upon the purchase of each fish, I did not observe any sick fish in either the tank my fish came from, or in any of the ones that shared the same water supply. The invertebrates were kept in separate tanks from the fish.




Sorry for the super long post. I'm devastated, and it happened so fast (my fish was active and eating and seemingly healthy this time yesterday), that I have no idea what was wrong.

 

[Sonatine]

Brief update: blenny and remaining clown remain seemingly disease-free. Remaining clown maybe seems a little less confident, but she still acts herself at mealtime, so for now I'm keeping an eye on her and attributing that to the stress of the other fish's death plus me moving all the rocks around (and failing to put them back in the exact same place).

I'm updating because I'm trying to figure out what my next steps will be (setting up a second tank in my current space will be nearly impossible). If it were velvet or brook that killed my clown (though I saw no external evidence of either), what would be the timeline for the other two fish to show symptoms?

One more theory: internal parasites. I'd noticed a few white stools on my clown throughout the month or so he was in the tank. They did not look stringy like in most online images I looked up, and he was active, confident, and eating very well, so I decided to just keep an eye on it. Perhaps that was a mistake. I had thought that problems associated with internal parasites would have a more gradual onset, though. Both of the other two have normally colored stools (I think. I am not an expert in the appearance of fish excrement).