what's wrong with my clownfish?

jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I have a new tank, 55g, that finished cycling about a month ago.
Ammonia showed just a tiny hint of some today
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
salinity 1.026
pH 7.8, noticed this today, usually it is at 8.0
I noticed last night my water is a little cloudy. Well, all things have been acclimated properly and I've had my 2 marroon clownfish for about 2 weeks. I got hoime a little while ago and found one of them at the bottom corner of the tank. It's lying a little on its side and the only time it swims around is when the other clownfish comes down to check on it and it chases him away. I put some brine shrimp in there to see if it would come out to eat and it didn't. Is it dying? There are no signs of ich. When the other fish goes near it it swims after it really fast and then goes right back down to its corner.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
my guess would be oxygen depletion. They have O2 testers... or you can put an airbubbler in a sample of your tank and see if the pH raises. If it does, you have depleated oxygen. When i first for my 29 eclipse, i only had the 250 gph filter on it, and one day, after i added some not entirely cured live rock, my baby snowflake was lieing on the substrate motionless. He would breath only a few times a minute. This freaked the hell out of me. My amonia was also not realy high either then but i did have some. My pH was also low But the other fish seemed to be doing fine. Well i took out the piece of liverock for some extra curing, and then added a 300 gph powerhead for a total of about 18X turnover rate and he perked up after two days or so.
So your situation is sounding jsut like mine.... ling in corner, small amounts of amonia. low ph, fish lieing on side....
so what do you have to stire up water? Any powerheads? How many gallons per hour do you have a total of in your tank?
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
You know, I'm glad you mentioned that. I have a powerhead and the return valve from my wet/dry to stir up water, however what you said made me think of the fact that I, two days ago, repositioned my return valve so that instead of rippling across the top of the water, it was aimed more down towards my rocks. I was thinking the powerhead made enough of a ripple to supply oxygen. Well, since I did that the water started getting cloudy and now the fish situation!! As soon as I read your post I repositioned the return valve back to where it was. I can't quite remember how many gph my water is turned, but I do know when I figured it out it is way over the minimum. Is it possible that the fish will just get better on its own now that I've switched it back? Or does the repositioning maybe not have anything to do with it?
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
It's only been maybe ten minutes since I moved the placement of the valve back to the original position and already the fish is moving around more. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! :jumping: :jumping: :happy:
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
AWSOME!!! hopefully that was all it was! I remember when it happened to me, i didnt pick up on it as quickly as you since snowflakes dont do much since stay on the bottom anyways. So when i realized something was seriously wrong it was almost too late. way to go for being observent and good luck!! hopefully thats all it was!
:happy: X 2
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
well guys, he's doing it again. What is wrong with him? Is this normally a sign that the fish is dying? The other clownfish is so worried about it because it keeps going down in teh corner and checking on him and trying to get him to get up. It will bump into him and the one who appears to be dying will sometimes chase him off and then go back!
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I think he's almost dead. He's laying on his side on the sand a lot and crabs are going up to him and trying to get him. He still takes off and swims away when the other fish tries to get him, but he now has bites taken out of his fins. Anyone out there have any ideas? Besides a QT tank? I don't have one.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
are there any other visible symptoms? are the fins filled with bitemarks or are they rotting? You might want to take them to the disease and treatment forum... Hopefully someone like Beth with be able to help you. Sorry no one here could and good luck with your fishie.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Well, after trying to figure out a way to keep him from getting picked on I did the only thing I could, I took a big fish net, propped it up on the side of the tank and put him in it. I figured if I left him in the tank he's going to die, so maybe if I leave him in the big net for a few days he will recooperate enough to fend for himself. Hopefully I can get him to eat pretty soon too.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
My poor guy died today. His fins had been decaying and it was probably best because he looked really bad. I did a nice water change today and am going to get a new fish tomorrow so my clownfish has a friend. I'm not going to get another clownfish because I definitely don't want that to happen again
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
aww!!
sorry
its hard to loose a little fishie
wait.... so are you getting another clown or now?
first you said you were going to so your other one has a friend
then that you werent because you dont want it to happen again?
good luck
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I'm going to get another fish, but not a clown. I'm thinking about a lawnmower blenny cuz I have a lot of green mossy looking algae forming
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
i love LMB's but i do not have one. If you get one, make sure he will eat nori or some type of prepared veggie food just in case all of your supply runs out.
 
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