Sick clown? Need Help!!

[ginalynn]

Hello all-
I have two false percs that I have had for about a month or so now and they have been doing great. They are in a fish only tank currently and spend all of their time roaming around together. Well, yesterday evening, all was well so I went to doing other things. Later that night, I came back and one was laying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily. So, I promptly changed some of the water and within a little while he was swimming around like nothing happened. When I woke up this morning, he was again laying in the corner breathing heavily and the other clown was nudging him with his head and swimming around him, like he was trying to get the other one to get up. I turned the lights on and walked out of the room for about five minutes. When I came back, he was up and swimming normally like nothing had happened again. I did another small water change and tested everything again, but everything seems normal.
No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.
Salinity is 1.023.
Calcium is 370ppm
Alkalinity is 10
Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on or what I should do?
Thanks so much!

 

[beth]

What other fish do you have in that tank, and have you noticed any harrassment going on?

 

[ginalynn]

There is a coral beauty and several snails and hermit crabs. The coral beauty and the clowns almost never go near each other, but they seem to ignore each other. There has not been any harassment by anyone.
Thanks!

 

[beth]

Clowns do tend to sleep, and even swim, in odd ways in the aquaria, however, with the heavy breathing, that would definately be an indication that something is wrong. If heavy breathing is not continuous, it is likely not disease.
Try keeping an eye on the fish for around an hour without the fish noticing you to rule out aggression.

 

[ohiorn67]

head a powerhead up towards the surface to break the surface for a while and see if that helps. I had this happen with my clowns once....they were my only fish at th time..I have 90 and had surface breaking well but in the deeper 90 apparently not enough and when I turned a powerhead up, all was well and even though i break surface with my filter, skimmer I now keep 2 powerheads in corners breaking and never have had an issue again.... :yes: