Good grief Charlie Clown

[Rgbpixels]

So I came home tonight to find one of my clown fish near the bottom rapidly breathing. All other fish are fine. He has been in my tank since the beginning. Everything in my tank has been qt for at least 60 days (including inverts). Tank was started from dry rock and sand.

Parameters and info:
180 gallon
2 1/2 year old reef
0 nitrates, nitrites, ammonia
0 phosphate
Ph 8.16
Salinity 34.5
Temp 78.9

Any thoughts? I have no empty qt tank to place him in. :(

Thank you

 

[Peace River]

Let's see if we can get some help. It looks like this thread is about two hours old at the moment - do you have any updates?

#reefsquad

 

[Flippers4pups]

What's the clowns physical appearance?

 

[GoVols]

So I came home tonight to find one of my clown fish near the bottom rapidly breathing. All other fish are fine.

Have you seen it being bullied, by your other clownfish?

 

[Rgbpixels]

Good morning, he looked perfect. No bullying. Going down stair to check now.

HUH!! He is perfectly fine. Swimming around and acting like his normal self. So very strange.
I would doubt if this normal behavior, but what the heck is going on.

 

[Peace River]

Good morning, he looked perfect. No bullying. Going down stair to check now.

HUH!! He is perfectly fine. Swimming around and acting like his normal self. So very strange.
I would doubt if this normal behavior, but what the heck is going on.

Fantastic! I was truly worried about the fish and am happy to hear that it is doing much better. With the information that we have it is a bit challenging to know why this happened, but I would suggest that it may have been a reaction to aggression even though no visible marks were left. Dominance is a part of clown life and one never knows exactly when it will occur or subside. If there are more than one clown in the tank and this is not the largest one (especially if this is the second to the largest) then I would be even more confident about this proposed suggestion. At this point I recommend that you continue to observe, make sure that the fish have enough cover to hide, and keep up with your water testing (and make sure that you have a quality set of test equipment). Good luck - I am cheering for your fish! :)

 

[Rgbpixels]

Fantastic! I was truly worried about the fish and am happy to hear that it is doing much better. With the information that we have it is a bit challenging to know why this happened, but I would suggest that it may have been a reaction to aggression even though no visible marks were left. Dominance is a part of clown life and one never knows exactly when it will occur or subside. If there are more than one clown in the tank and this is not the largest one (especially if this is the second to the largest) then I would be even more confident about this proposed suggestion. At this point I recommend that you continue to observe, make sure that the fish have enough cover to hide, and keep up with your water testing (and make sure that you have a quality set of test equipment). Good luck - I am cheering for your fish! :)

Thank you. I have two black and white clowns and this the larger, older one. This was very strange. Hope this was a one time event. I was convinced I was going net him out this morning.

 

[Peace River]

Thank you. I have two black and white clowns and this the larger, older one. This was very strange. Hope this was a one time event. I was convinced I was going net him out this morning.

If it is the larger one of two clowns that have been in the tank together for a while, then this means that the larger one is a she and she got to be the "she" because of her dominance (I may be skipping a few steps for the sake of brevity but that is basically how it works :)), so then it is less likely that it is an aggression issue (still possible, but less likely). What else? It could be something as simple as a piece of food that went down sideways and stressed the fish, age, a disease without any other yet-to-be-seen symptoms, or a borderline water issue. Observation and water testing remains my recommendation at this point.

#reefsquad - am I missing anything or are there any other recommendations?

 

[BestMomEver]

Clowns are weird. I love that about them.