Possible clownfish problem??? Seizures??

[muckworm]

My tank has been cycled for about 2 and a half weeks so I decided to go out and buy my first fish last night. I bought 2 tank raised percula clowns. I acclimated them to the tank as I should. After about 20 minutes in the tank they appeared perfectly healthy and were swimming around and appeared to love thier new home. I decided to feed them a little bit so I put in a pinch of marine flakes. They went after them aggressively so that was a good sign. One of them seemed to take in the big peices and then spit them back out. He also did this with most of the smaller peices, only keeping some of them down. Well after feeding, and maybe before, while I was watching them one of them appeared to go into a mini seizure. It lasted for about 2 seconds.. it looked like he was shaking uncontrollable and he tilted to the side to about a 45 degree angle. As I watched him over the course of an hour, this happened about 4-5 times. I also think I saw it happen with the other one, not sure though. Does anyone know what this could be??? A disease??? A shorting powerhead sending an electrical charge into the tank??? Let me know if you have any other questions for me.....

 

[stcardoza]

Hi,
I think this behavior is actually pretty normal for clownfish. Mine do it from time to time. It's sort of the way they figure out the dominance hierarchy. Sometimes the big female clown I have will dart at the little male one and then he'll swim over and start doing his 'seizure' thing and she backs down a little bit. I don't think it's anything to get worried about, it's just another reason clownfish are called clowns.
-Steve

 

[beth]

If this shimmying occured when the fish was near the other fish, then doza is right.