Sick clown??? At the end of my rope....

[lacylee79]

Two days ago we noticed the clownfish looked chubby but just thought he was doing well. Today he seemed to just swim about 1/2 above the gravel and didn't move much. We thought it was best to quarantine him so we moved to a 3 gal. tank. Is he ok? Did we overfeed him? Is he constipated? Does he have a parasite or ick or Brooklynella... Swim bladder??? We have had him since December. This is the first tank we have owned and it's about to be a very short lived project. We quarantine every fish that goes in since we lost one to Brooklynella 7 weeks in. We added snails, sexy shrimp and a feather duster Two weeks ago. Should I have quarantined them before they entered? What do I do? Please help!

I am going to lose my mind with this tank!
thank you for all your help and understanding!

 

[littlefoxx]

Two days ago we noticed the clownfish looked chubby but just thought he was doing well. Today he seemed to just swim about 1/2 above the gravel and didn't move much. We thought it was best to quarantine him so we moved to a 3 gal. tank. Is he ok? Did we overfeed him? Is he constipated? Does he have a parasite or ick or Brooklynella... Swim bladder??? We have had him since December. This is the first tank we have owned and it's about to be a very short lived project. We quarantine every fish that goes in since we lost one to Brooklynella 7 weeks in. We added snails, sexy shrimp and a feather duster Two weeks ago. Should I have quarantined them before they entered? What do I do? Please help!

I am going to lose my mind with this tank!
thank you for all your help and understanding!

Try uploading video to youtube and posting a link so people can see

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

a picture of your tank will help a lot..... seeing the word gravel in your post makes me wonder... aquarium gravel is not a good choice for a reef tank. I am wondering how is the flow and oxygen in your tank, but again tank pic will really help us to help you.

 

[Stephen8169301]

Looks like my fish last week what do you feed

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Two days ago we noticed the clownfish looked chubby but just thought he was doing well. Today he seemed to just swim about 1/2 above the gravel and didn't move much. We thought it was best to quarantine him so we moved to a 3 gal. tank. Is he ok? Did we overfeed him? Is he constipated? Does he have a parasite or ick or Brooklynella... Swim bladder??? We have had him since December. This is the first tank we have owned and it's about to be a very short lived project. We quarantine every fish that goes in since we lost one to Brooklynella 7 weeks in. We added snails, sexy shrimp and a feather duster Two weeks ago. Should I have quarantined them before they entered? What do I do? Please help!

I am going to lose my mind with this tank!
thank you for all your help and understanding!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Abdominal swelling in clownfish can have a few different causes. In this case, the fish is also breathing too fast. That means that the swelling is causing "systemic issues", that is, disease symptoms throughout the fish.

Here are the possible causes:

Ascites: fluid buildup from liver failure.
Egg binding: unreleased eggs that get trapped.
Overfeeding: not in this case, would be less severe
Constipation: from a mechanical blockage in the gut
Bacterial infection of the gut (can follow the issue above)
Edema: too much fluid in all tissues (not in this case, the rest of the body is normal sized)

So - from what I can see, I think the issue is either ascites or bacterial disease of the gut. I'm really sorry, but neither of those problems have any treatment for them.

Is the fish still eating food?

It does not have a contagious problem, so isolating it to a small tank won't help, and can hurt if the small tank is not cycled properly.

Jay

 

[lacylee79]

a picture of your tank will help a lot..... seeing the word gravel in your post makes me wonder... aquarium gravel is not a good choice for a reef tank. I am wondering how is the flow and oxygen in your tank, but again tank pic will really help us to help you.

 

[lacylee79]

It is the live sand... Sorry to me dirt is dirt and I tried to post a video earlier

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Abdominal swelling in clownfish can have a few different causes. In this case, the fish is also breathing too fast. That means that the swelling is causing "systemic issues", that is, disease symptoms throughout the fish.

Here are the possible causes:

Ascites: fluid buildup from liver failure.
Egg binding: unreleased eggs that get trapped.
Overfeeding: not in this case, would be less severe
Constipation: from a mechanical blockage in the gut
Bacterial infection of the gut (can follow the issue above)
Edema: too much fluid in all tissues (not in this case, the rest of the body is normal sized)

So - from what I can see, I think the issue is either ascites or bacterial disease of the gut. I'm really sorry, but neither of those problems have any treatment for them.

Is the fish still eating food?

It does not have a contagious problem, so isolating it to a small tank won't help, and can hurt if the small tank is not cycled properly.

Jay

 

[lacylee79]

It is the live sand... Sorry to me dirt is dirt and I tried to post a video earlier

I tried to get him to eat a pea this morning. He wanted nothing to do with it. He was swimming better in the bucket while I was working on the tank. I think we do have a tendency to over feed... We know and are working on that and have been cutting back... Thank you for your help and guidance! It is really appreciated...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I tried to get him to eat a pea this morning. He wanted nothing to do with it. He was swimming better in the bucket while I was working on the tank. I think we do have a tendency to over feed... We know and are working on that and have been cutting back... Thank you for your help and guidance! It is really appreciated...

Ack! - the old "feed them a pea" advice! I'm not sure why that advice is still out there, it is just wrong. It was originally developed to treat a specific issue with fancy goldfish, it does NOT work on marine fish....

Since there really is no treatment for any of the causes I outline, time is the only possible way that this will get better I'm afraid....

Jay