(maybe emergency) Clownfish lying on side breathing hard after oxygenation issue last night

Tired · May 1, 2023

Yeah, I'm starting to think that's a lot of what's going on here. I didn't see this in the video the breeder sent while I was picking this guy out, what with him being in a specimen container and moving pretty frantically in an effort to get out, but he's definitely not quite right compared to the female. She's- I think ORA? One of the big-name breeders with good-quality fish. This guy is from a small breeder, as I was hoping to avoid the supply chain and all its pathogens, and I liked this breeder's "panda" clowns.

He does seem to be able to put himself pretty close to horizontal if he tries, he's just not trying in any video I can take- he'd rather beg for food. He can follow his lady around no problem, and race along the glass at a good clip if he's excited about something outside. Looks to be able to move around fine, if wobbly.
Is this the sort of thing where a fish can still have a good quality of life? Reminds me a little of cats with cerebellar hypoplasia; they wobble around, but they can still run, play, and eat, it doesn't cause them pain or any distress beyond maybe some frustration now and then, and it's not degenerative, so cats with CH can live perfectly good lives.

Tired · May 1, 2023

Alright, I got a decent video of him. Definitely moves differently than his lady friend, and (though you can't really tell from a top-down shot) he absolutely trends towards a slight angle when not begging, but you can see he moves around freely when he tries.
Don't mind him missing the food, he and his lady both have about a 60-70% success rate at getting food off the top of the water. Clownfish just aren't shaped for that, I suppose.

You also get to see a bit of the molly hassling him. I've seen him whip around and nip at it before, I'm not sure why he's putting up with it now. Maybe he's too excited about the food.

There's a few reasons I'm not a breeder, and one of them is culling. It's one thing with, say, tetras, where you can soft cull them into a nice big tank with egg-eaters so they can't pass on the bad genes, but if you soft cull clownfish you'll run out of room real fast. I know I wouldn't have the heart to kill a fish that should technically be culled, but isn't suffering, and so I try not to put myself into positions where I'd have to make that choice.

Schulks · May 1, 2023

You don't have to cull him if he's doing well. As long as his swimming doesn't bother him or you he can live happily in your tank. The clown with a bad bladder at my LFS has been there longer than I have. He is even in a 300g+ tank with giant fish. It doesn't hold them back much.

Tired · May 1, 2023

He doesn't look bothered to me, so I'm keeping him. The tank he's going into is reasonably low-flow, he should be fine. Plus, his lady friend doesn't seem to care.

I mentioned culling more to say I can see why it's hard for breeders. I fortunately only have one clown with this problem- if I was a breeder who had 50, I'd have to make some hard choices.

Jay Hemdal · May 1, 2023

Tired said:
He doesn't look bothered to me, so I'm keeping him. The tank he's going into is reasonably low-flow, he should be fine. Plus, his lady friend doesn't seem to care.

I mentioned culling more to say I can see why it's hard for breeders. I fortunately only have one clown with this problem- if I was a breeder who had 50, I'd have to make some hard choices.

Yes, I was not suggesting that you should cull the fish, just that the breeder should have. In all fairness, some developmental deformities don't really show up until the fish has grown a bit, so they may have missed it.

As long as it gets enough to eat, it will do fine.

Jay

Tired · May 1, 2023

Oh, I definitely didn't think y'all were suggesting I cull this guy, I was just trying to agree about the breeder.
(if nothing else, I'm a little miffed I paid full price for what should probably have been a cull. I'd have happily taken him with a disclaimer of "this fish has a largely harmless developmental issue and shouldn't be bred" and a discount, but if I pay ~75 bucks for a fancy clownfish, I want it to be a nice healthy appropriately-shaped fancy clownfish, yanno?)

I'm going to be giving him a Prazipro treatment after he's done in the methylene blue, less because I think he has anything notable and more because it's good general practice and because the molly sharing his tank might benefit from deworming. Then he'll go in the display. I'll update when that happens, hopefully with a nice picture.