Odd Clownfish Behavior - Is he sick?

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

Hello all! Please lend your advice!

We noticed some weird behavior from our clownfish a few minutes ago. As you can see in the video, he is eating normally and swimming normally, but then he lays on his side on the sand. He is also swimming along the sand. This has been going on for 20-30 minutes. The video isn’t the best quality, but there is no spots or lesions that we can see.

Before this behavior began, we did notice that his mate was chasing him around the tank, but we didn’t notice any extreme aggression. They have lived peacefully together for almost a year now. The other clown and Goby are acting completely normal. Is this submissive behavior or is he sick?

Parameters have not shifted recently:

• Temp - 80.6
• Alk - 7.8
• Nitrate - 0
• Phosphate - 0
• Salinity - 1.026
• No detectable nitrites or ammonia.
• We have not added any fish im a year, and have not added coral or inverts to our aquarium in over 2 months.

Please excuse the dirty tank. We were in the middle of blowing off our rocks and doing a water change when we noticed the behavior.

 

[fishywishy]

Is the tank getting plenty of oxygen? If so it might be flukes or ich.

 

[Tahoe61]

That's an issue. Did you do any treatments on the tank? Do you have a treatment tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all! Please lend your advice!

We noticed some weird behavior from our clownfish a few minutes ago. As you can see in the video, he is eating normally and swimming normally, but then he lays on his side on the sand. He is also swimming along the sand. This has been going on for 20-30 minutes. The video isn’t the best quality, but there is no spots or lesions that we can see.

Before this behavior began, we did notice that his mate was chasing him around the tank, but we didn’t notice any extreme aggression. They have lived peacefully together for almost a year now. The other clown and Goby are acting completely normal. Is this submissive behavior or is he sick?

Parameters have not shifted recently:

• Temp - 80.6
• Alk - 7.8
• Nitrate - 0
• Phosphate - 0
• Salinity - 1.026
• No detectable nitrites or ammonia.
• We have not added any fish im a year, and have not added coral or inverts to our aquarium in over 2 months.

Please excuse the dirty tank. We were in the middle of blowing off our rocks and doing a water change when we noticed the behavior.

Not sure how others are making assessment without seeing issue. Please post a video and even pics under white light intensity - no blue as this video is dark and blurry. Also, tank looks to have sediment- How are you testing water?
Bring temperature down to 78 degrees

 

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

Thank you everyone for your input!

I am thankful to report that when we arrived back home yesterday, the clown was back to normal, and he still is acting normal this morning. Swimming around, eating, and staying close to his mate. Not sure what all the drama was about, but I am continuing to monitor him. As of now, he seems perfectly okay. The other two fish in the tank have remained normal.

 

[619R]

Mine acted like that when they were doing their mating behaviors. Get tired from all the crazy dancing. I found out they actually sleep in small increments like that. I found out when I wondered how the clowns can be swimming and zooming all day and night. They take short power naps. And they’ll lay down even. Sometimes their naps are very random.