Lethargic (Sick?) Clown

Hi all,

My occelaris has been acting strange for about two days now. He's been lying on/near the sand and has rapid gill movement. I've done some research and I'm confused because he doesn't match all the symptoms of some clownfish diseases. I haven't notice any discoloration, sores, redness, or mucuous. I have noticed that my black occelaris seems to be picking on him more than usual. The larger, black clown will push the small (sick?) clown around with his nose, but there is no biting.

He also still seems interested in food, which I guess is a good sign.

Do you guys think this could be a disease, or just stress from being picked on?

I just placed him in my sump, so he wouldn't have to compete for food and I figured that the O2 (because of his labored breathing) there would be a lot higher than at the bottom of the display tank.

Thanks

 

It sounds like it could be stress or it could be disease. It's hard to know without any obvious physical signs. Sometimes rapid breathing is a sign of ich, but not always.

As long as he is eating well, leave him in your sump and see if he starts looking better. Good luck!

 

Hi,

Do you have current ammonia level, and other parameters including SG.

Can you post a picture of clown as well.

Have you added anything to the tank in the way of chemical supplements or live stock ?

 

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10 (I have a hard time reading the color charts)
SG - 1.025
Temp - 78.3F

The most recent addition has been a palythoas frag, cleaner shrimp, and two astrea snails.

My current fish livestock includes the two ocelarris' (standard color, and black) and a yellow watchman goby.

This is a 46G with a 20L sump (I think there is about 13 actually gallons of water in the sump). Also, I've never used any chemical supplements.

 

Hmmm

Thanks for the parameters and detailed descripition of your system.

Does not sound stress related from what you posted. Are there any physical signs or change in appearence that you notice ?

Unfortunately sometimes these things just happen, placement in the sump may help. I am going to assume the other clown has not been bullying the sick one.

Thank you for the details.

 

Before I put him in the sump, I did see the larger one come up and quickly push the smaller one. The smaller one was behind a rock on the sand, so it was like the larger one went out of his/her? way to do it.

That's when I decided to put him in the sump.

As far as physical signs, he looks completely healthy. Good coloration, no spots around the face or gills, and his gills do not appear to be swollen or disfigured. He's not twitching or rubbing against anything, either. Just breathing fast and chilling at the bottom of the tank. :-/

I'll try to take a picture later, right now I have the light in the sump turned off, because I read somewhere that the darkness may help if its stressed related.

 

It could be stress if the other one has been harassing him. That happened with my fish. My clown was harassing my damsel, and my damsel hid on the bottom of the tank panting for a few days.

But it could also be an internal problem. I'd just watch him for a few days and see if he improves with no harassment and food!

 

Sounds like the best plan.

 

Well, the clown is still in the sump and appears to be about the same.

I did notice that my YWG is sitting in his normal hole with his mouth a little agape and with some redness on the left side of his head... :-/

EDIT:
Now the YWG is acting completely normal. The redness I saw a few hours ago is gone, and he's sifting through the sand like usual.

The clown seems a little better. I put a few pellets in the sump and saw him eat a few.

I'm so confused as to what's happening in my tank :-/

 

I added the smaller clown back to the DT when the lights were off. When I got home I notices he was hiding on the sand again. He came out when I put some food in, but the larger one ran him away, so I put the larger one in the sump. Now the smaller one appears to swimming around (although, he still seems to be breathing heavily). I did see him go near a cave that my skunk cleaner shrimp likes to hang out at, and the shrimp quickly ran towards him and ran him away. I didn't think they were aggressive, so I'm not sure if the shrimp was just trying to clean him...

Anyways, does anyone have any ideas on how I can get the clowns to be friendly again? I'm not sure what happened, but they use to sleep right next to each other :-/