My clown is going nuts! I think he's about to go...

zeromus-x

zeromus-x

Member
I've had two clowns ever since I set my tank up (not incredibly long ago). All my other fish have done fine except a damsel that I think was sick when we got it from the fish store. Anyway, I checked the pH and it's fine (a little tiny bit high but not outside normal range), nitrates are all fine, salinity is right in the middle of where it's supposed to be, temperature is around 77 -- a little warm but not untolerable.
One of the clowns within the last hour has started completely freaking out. He'll sit perfectly still laying on the bottom like he's dead for two minutes, and then completely flip and start going a thousand miles an hour around the tank, running into walls, rocks -- you name it. I think he's starting to irritate the lobster, and the other clown doesn't seem like he's taking it well!
What else can I check? Or is this just a "sometimes they just go" kinda thing? I have a bit of brown algae on the sides of the tank, and some live rock in there. I was going to do a 1/2 water change this weekend... should I do it immediately? I don't have a quarantine tank or anything, but I haven't introduced anything new to the tank at all, and there aren't any spots or anything... he's just lost a lot of his color.
Help! Any ideas??
 
nolson

nolson

Member
Hey,
Sorry to say but this is not good news, My old clownfish I had did this and very very shortly after died. :( I wish you the best of luck
Nick
 
jhueb12

jhueb12

Member
What kind of clowns, i had two common clowns a while ago and one did just the same thing. He died a day later while the other died a couple weeks later, of a broken heart i think. The other fish in the tank showed no ill effects and remained fine. Good luck and hopefully yours will be OK. What is your salinity by the way?:sleepy:
 
zeromus-x

zeromus-x

Member
About 29 PPT, according to this little Instant Ocean hydrometer. Does that sound right?
Unfortunately about ten minutes ago I think he decided to give up. Stopped breathing, laid on the bottom of the tank. The other clownfish does appear to be stressed, and kept watching him while he was flipping out. At one point he seemed like he wanted to imitate the sick fish, trying to swim on his side for whatever reason.
I'll probably get another clown or two just to make sure this one doesn't get too lonely! Just wish I knew what in the world happened.
 
neowind

neowind

Member
One of my clown fish did this excact same thing. He died the next night. The clown that was with him died about 5 days later for no apparent reason. I think if clowns get attached then if one dies the other follows sometimes. I have heard this story allot.
 
saltymist

saltymist

Member
Clowns sometimes lose their color overnight and turn pale, but... Hes obviously showing signs of stress, and I would personally do a 30 to 50% water change immediately.
When all tests show up normal but you have a fish die, or starts to act all stressed out as yours seems to be doing so, then a mass water change could be in order.
I dont know your situation, I dont know your home, so I dont know if someone put their hands into the tank after touching some chemicals, soaps, incecticides, cologne etc. Of if someone sprayed air freshner in the air. There are so many possiblities.
But if it were my tank I woudnt hesitate to do a 30 to 50% water change today and see if he improves, though it may actually be too late, but it might save the rest of the tanks inhabitants
And the other thing you may want to do for the future, is to keep a simple 5 gallon glass tank laying around with a small filter for it, then if something like this occurs again, just dump in 5 gallons of real ocean water (I almost always keep a spare 5 gallon container of natural ocean water laying around now), into the tank, and heat it up and put the fish in it. This had saved my first clown when he started to hard breath in a cycled tank, and turned all pale on the 2nd morning, and now hes doing great. My problem was probably a plastic cleaner that I used to clean the acrylic tank outside, and probably didnt wash my hands and put them in the tank.
So many things we can't test for at home, and so many possibilities.
Of course it could also just be dead fish swimming.
Goodluck.,
 
zeromus-x

zeromus-x

Member
Well, all the other fish are doing fine at this point, so I think it was just his time! I don't have any kids or anything, just me and the girlfriend live here, and she doesn't go near the tank anymore ever since I bought the spiny lobster. Well, she doesn't stick her hand in it at least!
Now I've got to figure out how to clean the inside of this tank while I've got a few spare hours today. Brown algae all over the front of it. Don't know why, no sunlight really hits it where it is... oh well. Off topic, I know, but any suggestions there?
Bah, I'll just start a new thread. :) Thanks guys.
 
saltymist

saltymist

Member
Yup, I agree, since the tank was setup not so incredibly long ago, it's probably just having the brown diatom algae bloom, you can get a magnet cleaner to clean the glass, or do as I did and get a bunch of snails and let them deal with it.
 
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