Rapid breathing - submissive clownfish

[CreepyBuns]

15 gallon tank with two 1.75inch(approx. And the female is slightly larger than yhe male) clownfish.
Tank was fallow for 4 months, I added the clowns on 4th August. From 6th august, the submissive clownfish has had rapid breathing and i have seen thr large female attack the small on multiple times, had intervened once by tapping on the glass as it was dragging the small one by its tail.

I read some forums and it said that it was normal behaviour while creating dominance, but now i dont really see the fighting much, but the small one is still breathing heavily and does not swim like a 'clownfish', in a zig zag way. I read some forums and there was a possibility of gill flukes, so i dozed the tank with EIHO prazigold yesterday, after which the small clownfish has stopped eating completely, it has been hovering over the sand from past few days. It does come to middle of the tank from time to time and goes back to the hovering mode. Please help me identify the issue. The female large clownfish is perfectly healthy. The submissive one is the only one with these symptoms.

Tank was fallow for 4 months because the previous clowns had gotten brook. I did a large waterchange few days before adding the clowns this time.

I have attached the pics of the bullied/sick clownfish.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

15 gallon tank with two 1.75inch(approx. And the female is slightly larger than yhe male) clownfish.
Tank was fallow for 4 months, I added the clowns on 4th August. From 6th august, the submissive clownfish has had rapid breathing and i have seen thr large female attack the small on multiple times, had intervened once by tapping on the glass as it was dragging the small one by its tail.

I read some forums and it said that it was normal behaviour while creating dominance, but now i dont really see the fighting much, but the small one is still breathing heavily and does not swim like a 'clownfish', in a zig zag way. I read some forums and there was a possibility of gill flukes, so i dozed the tank with EIHO prazigold yesterday, after which the small clownfish has stopped eating completely, it has been hovering over the sand from past few days. It does come to middle of the tank from time to time and goes back to the hovering mode. Please help me identify the issue. The female large clownfish is perfectly healthy. The submissive one is the only one with these symptoms.

Tank was fallow for 4 months because the previous clowns had gotten brook. I did a large waterchange few days before adding the clowns this time.

I have attached the pics of the bullied/sick clownfish.

The clown is very thin in its nape. It also has some generalized skin discoloration.

Can you post a video of it?

 

[CreepyBuns]

The clown is very thin in its nape. It also has some generalized skin discoloration.

Can you post a video of it?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

How is this one doing this morning? It looks VERY ill.

The other clown is completely symptom-free?

This may be from some systemic infection - possibly from being bullied, but it could also be from an internal disease like coccidea.

 

[CreepyBuns]

How is this one doing this morning? It looks VERY ill.

The other clown is completely symptom-free?

This may be from some systemic infection - possibly from being bullied, but it could also be from an internal disease like coccidea.

Unfortunately the small male has passed away, the video is from this morning, i just came back from work and he was dead :(.

Thankyou for your response! The other clown is completely normal, very active, eats a lot, eats for both of them tbh.

I really think it was due to bullying from the female, from 5th august to 8th august there was a lot of bullying from the large one, later on it was less(where i thought they had paired up and will be fine). yesterday before making the post i saw that the fins were damaged which was not there day before yesterday, so it seems like the large one bullied it a lot when it was not visible? I think i will keep the one large female alone for few months, is that a good option? To keep the clownfish alone. Could you please help me understand how i can introduce a mate in the future? And also how to handle the situation incase the large ome gets aggressive again.

for parameters, I Have not taken readings of ammonia, nitrite, etc, since the tank has been fallow since March '26. I had ghost fed 3-4 small pellets every week to keep the good bacteria active and did a big water change before introducing thr clowns. I bought a chiller a week ago since the small clown was not getting better and i read that 26°C is the perfect temperature for healing and it also has less chances of getting diseases.

Please let me know if any details are required and if i need to get something to be cautious and ready.

 

[Cornelia_Reefer]

Sorry for your loss. I didn’t realize how difficult it can be for a pair to form.

 

[skidmarkstevie]

If this 15 gallon is an all in one and your water is not cascading between ALL chambers you can suffocate your fish. I have seen it more than once with helloreef tanks as they are unclear about water level in their instructions.

 

[CreepyBuns]

If this 15 gallon is an all in one and your water is not cascading between ALL chambers you can suffocate your fish. I have seen it more than once with helloreef tanks as they are unclear about water level in their instructions.

Everything is hob in this tank.

Left side has a mantis 60 wave maker at 20% power(pulsing), bubble magus qq1 skimmer, right side has a hang on back filter and another hob where i have put the chiller outlet.

Image is attached of the tank, the two small tubes going into the right side chiller hob is 2 airstones, since i dozed the tank with prazigold.

Does this look like good oxygen movement?

 

[skidmarkstevie]

Everything is hob in this tank.

Left side has a mantis 60 wave maker at 20% power(pulsing), bubble magus qq1 skimmer, right side has a hang on back filter and another hob where i have put the chiller outlet.

Image is attached of the tank, the two small tubes going into the right side chiller hob is 2 airstones, since i dozed the tank with prazigold.

Does this look like good oxygen movement?

If your skimmer is flowing water in and out, and bubbling i do not suspect DO problems.

I just read your post about not testing water since March. Start there.