One clowns not looking so good. Need advice

[TheStricklins]

I haven't had the best luck with clownfish for some reason. I recently purchased 2 new clowns and one is perfectly fine, the other however has been breathing rapidly since I got him in the tank and it gets worse at times. He swam around with the other clown the first day, then the second day he found a spot between a rock and a wall that he is just laying in on he sand. Occasionally he will swim up for a few seconds and then go back to the sand. There are no spots or red gills or anything and no mucus sloughing off, but his eyes do seem to be bulging a little now. The other clown and firefish are happy and eating like little pigs. Could this just be stress?
Parameters are ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10, ph 8.1, calcium 460, and salinity 1.024.

 

[TheStricklins]

Anyone?

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Do you have any kind of QT that you put them through before adding to the tank?

 

[Big G]

First thing I would consider is a freshwater dip to either confirm or eliminate flukes as the cause of the rapid breathing.

Freshwater Dip

Freshwater Dip What It Treats – Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases: 1) Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) 2) Brooklynella hostilis 3) Uronema marinum 4) Flukes (Monogeneans) 5) Black Ich (Turbellarians) Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes (see video...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TheStricklins]

Do you have any kind of QT that you put them through before adding to the tank?

I did not this time but I'm definitely going to from now on.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Do you have the ability to set up a hospital tank for treatment? I definitely second the freshwater dip, do it in a dark bottom container, use freshwater with temp and pH matched. You can use a very small amount of tank water or new saltwater to raise pH until it matches. I'd leave them in there for 15-20 minutes or until they start looking lethargic, clowns can usually handle dips of this length with relative ease.

Once that is done, move on from there with treatment or more diagnoses.

 

[cmoore806]

It's impossible to say from the photo what exactly is wrong but for certain something is wrong. Also, it is certainly not stress. If you are at all able to setup a QT I'd separate him. A formalin/ruby reef rally dip is where I would start. If no rally dip available maybe paraguard bath?

If not able to QT and treat I would QT if only to prevent him from infecting your other fish.

 

[cmoore806]

Also I see you have a post from 9 days ago with two clowns, one having issues then. Is this the same or different clown? What happened to the first pair of clowns?

 

[TheStricklins]

Also I see you have a post from 9 days ago with two clowns, one having issues then. Is this the same or different clown? What happened to the first pair of clowns?

Lol no I replied to someone else's post about their tail rot. I just got these guys sunday. I'm going to FW dip and set up a separate tank to monitor. I'm going to have to get some medication because I dont have any at the moment.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Have you noticed any poop from the affected fish or the other clown? If you have seen any white stringy poop then they may have some internal parasites that could be upsetting it.

Seachem Metroplex and Hikari Prazipro are both good ones to keep on hand for emergencies. I would suggest picking both up next time you go to your LFS, they can be invaluable if you come across something like this again.

 

[TheStricklins]

Have you noticed any poop from the affected fish or the other clown? If you have seen any white stringy poop then they may have some internal parasites that could be upsetting it.

Seachem Metroplex and Hikari Prazipro are both good ones to keep on hand for emergencies. I would suggest picking both up next time you go to your LFS, they can be invaluable if you come across something like this again.

I did notice whitish poop from the affected fish but it wasn't stringy. I'm going to get both of those I just hope my lfs has it. Unfortunately where I live they do not have very much in the store. I actually got these little guys from a place almost 2 hours away.