Sick or just being a clown

[LeftFootedJedi]

Forgive the possible duplication but it occurred to me that maybe it’s behavioral vs clinical. My other thread..

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/george-isn’t-strutting-lately.748363/
Short version, male clown seems ‘off’ on the near eve of a 3 day trip. Somewhat labored breathing, didn’t eat today, noticeable drop in activity/energy. Parameters are good & I don’t see anything physically alarming outside his behavior.

Debating whether or not to QT him.

 

[Old Fritz]

If your lights are on and it's acting this way something is wrong. My first venture into saltwater fish I kept losing clownfish. Same kinda thing. They would be great for a month maybe two. Then out of nowhere be at the bottom of the tank, not eating, and breathing fairly hard. I later found out it was velvet as I messed up a water change and salinity went super high. That morning they were covered in velvet, after lowering the salinity all signs of it went away.

My guess would be marine velvet, my experience with it is that clownfish don't show symptoms. It might be too late for him but I'd tried to treat the tank or let it go fallow if it has inverts in it and then treat in a qt with copper for a month

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

Looking at pics of velvet it doesn’t have that appearance but who knows. Regardless, in light of his symptoms I think i should put him in QT tank & see how he responds.

I don’t want to stress him any more but really don’t want to chance something spreading to the rest of my tank.

 

[Old Fritz]

Looking at pics of velvet it doesn’t have that appearance but who knows. Regardless, in light of his symptoms I think i should put him in QT tank & see how he responds.

I don’t want to stress him any more but really don’t want to chance something spreading to the rest of my tank.

It's hard to say, velvet has never showed any symptoms in clownfish for me, they would just do what happened with you; thrive for a month or two and then randomly be gasping at the bottom of the tank and not eat.

Did you qt your fish at all

 

[LeftFootedJedi]

Not initially but I did put George in my 5 gallon QT about an hour ago after a 5 min FW dip. I’m going to stop by LFS for some copper sulfate or something similar & see what happens.

So far, he looks a little more relaxed but still has rapid breathing. Somehow he got a long strand of hair or very thin string in his mouth. Debating how to get that out or just leave it be.