Percula Clown swim bladder problem - gets worse at night

[betareef]

I have a pair of Percula clowns. No other fish in the tank except a small yellow clown goby. Each morning, one of them (same one each time) is always floating sideways on top of the tank, with the other one hanging around just beneath (as if concerned).

Struggles to swim down more than a body length or so. Will eat pellet food, even early in the morning when this is happening. Later, maybe by 11am or so, swimming becomes more normal, but never ventures to the bottom of the tank - not even for food.

Next morning, it's back to floating at the top.

I am trying a freshwater dip today.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Unless your sure that a stressful freshwater dip will positively treat your fish, I would suggest to take a short video so the fish medics can see and offer experienced advice.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a pair of Percula clowns. No other fish in the tank except a small yellow clown goby. Each morning, one of them (same one each time) is always floating sideways on top of the tank, with the other one hanging around just beneath (as if concerned).

Struggles to swim down more than a body length or so. Will eat pellet food, even early in the morning when this is happening. Later, maybe by 11am or so, swimming becomes more normal, but never ventures to the bottom of the tank - not even for food.

Next morning, it's back to floating at the top.

I am trying a freshwater dip today.

Its either a biuyancy issue or slight constipation. Pull off of pellets and feed brine shrimp for a week or two which acts as a laxative. If you have fine air bubbles in the tank, it may be getting air in the bladder.
A video showing may help reveal other signs

 

[betareef]

Its either a biuyancy issue or slight constipation. Pull off of pellets and feed brine shrimp for a week or two which acts as a laxative. If you have fine air bubbles in the tank, it may be getting air in the bladder.
A video showing may help reveal other signs

Good idea that it might be the pellets. Shrimp for a while is a good idea.

No air bubbles are used in my tank, so it's not that.

Will try to video it if it persists, but there's not much to see. The fish seems healthy enough, as I said, feeding normally etc. Later in the day, you would think it was normal enough.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have a pair of Percula clowns. No other fish in the tank except a small yellow clown goby. Each morning, one of them (same one each time) is always floating sideways on top of the tank, with the other one hanging around just beneath (as if concerned).

Struggles to swim down more than a body length or so. Will eat pellet food, even early in the morning when this is happening. Later, maybe by 11am or so, swimming becomes more normal, but never ventures to the bottom of the tank - not even for food.

Next morning, it's back to floating at the top.

I am trying a freshwater dip today.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Skip the FW dip, lots of extra stress and it won't do anything for swim bladder issues.

Usually, we see negative, not positive buoyancy in clownfish. Has it always done this, or did it start more recently?

Jay

 

[betareef]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Skip the FW dip, lots of extra stress and it won't do anything for swim bladder issues.

Usually, we see negative, not positive buoyancy in clownfish. Has it always done this, or did it start more recently?

Jay

They started hanging around the top as soon as I put the pair of the in the tank, fresh from the store. I figured they were hanging around the power head and overhead filter as they were new. It was a few mornings later that I noticed the one of them floating sideways (before the lights came on).

They didn't like the flake food I initially gave them the first day, but I recalled the fish store saying they were taking pellets, so I got some small pellets (New Life Spectrum) and the like that much better. I have fed them a little cut-up prawn(shrimp) but it's mostly been pellets - so that certainly may be the culprit here.

I just got home from a shop with some brine shrimp, so I will feed that to them today (and for a while) to see what happens.

 

[betareef]

Sad to report the problem got worse. I made the decision to euthanise the fish as it was looking distressed at not being able to swim normally.

So now I have one clown fish. I started a thread about keeping just one of each type of fish, and I that is the way I have decided to go in this small tank.