For some reasons, I am under impression that a clownfish has a rapid breathing, then it is a sign of brooklynella infection. So I added formlin to the tank.

Now after reading some posts here, rapid breathing and not eating is a sign of stress. My smaller clownfish has been harrassed by the bigger one in my 10g QT lately.

The med has been in the tank for 12 hours. I was planning to add another dose when I get home tonight.

Now I doubt I should have dose the tank with the med. Should I remove the med and do a w/c? or continue witht he dosing?

The fish has been doing well until two days ago due to the bigger clownfish harassement. The fish has rapid breathing issue and stopped eating completely this morning. It ate a little before I dosed the tank last night. But the appetite has became very small compare to where it used to has.

I appreciate any comments.

I did a 50% w/c and added activated carbon in the filter. The fish seems doing better. However it still eats very little. I know he wants to eat, but the bigger one always attack him whenever he trys to swim up get the pellets. This sucks. I wish I can remove the bigger one. I hope the problem will be gone soon.

only dose med in a QT ! If you can't QT the sick fish, just try to get him to eat something (that will keep his immune system up) if he has an appitite thats a good sign. I'd say more w/c are in order, but you might wanna wait to make sure the fish is ok, the w/c may stress him out even more.

Thanks for your input. Both fish are in my 10G QT tank and they have been in it for more than 2 weeks now. The bigger one gets more aggressive as they settled in the tank.

The 50% w/c seems helped the smaller one get better. However, it still has rapid breathing. There is no scratching, white mucus or white spots on the body. What's up with the rapid breathing? I couldn't find information on that any where except some online articles mention rapid breathing is a symptom for Brooklynella. Well, I dont think my fish has it becuase Brooklynella usually kills fish within 3 days. But mine is still alive and it has the rapid breathing issue for more than 3 days now.

Is your QT getting enough O2, and if so try providing hiding places for the clownfish. If a fish stops eating in QT something is wrong. Have you tested for ammonia and what filtration are you using? I would go the old fashioned method and use a pump and an air stone as see it that improves the rapid breathing problems. Good luck

If the rapid breathing is caused by other factors other than disease,then why the bigger one is breathing normally?

I use a AC 70 HOB filter for filtration and to move the water. However, the ammonia level has been from 0.3 to 0.1 ppm because I used some filter medias from my main tank to the QT tank and thought I didnt need to use cycle the 10G. Could the ammonia damaged fish's gill? I have also been adding Prime that will remove ammonia, nitrite as it stated on the bottle.

Can you provide a pic of you clowns by any chance. Usually you have to do daily w/c on a QT if it not cycled. Any ammonia in a tank can add extra stress to a fish already having problems. There are alot of different things that can effect a fishes breathing and ammonia levels are one of them. The fact that the smaller one is not eating is a concern. You could have just gotten a sick fish, because the way you describe his appearence it seems like nothing is jumping out at me. That is why a pic would really help and providing a hiding place might help too. Good luck.

Thanks cheryl. The tank seems still cycling after more than two weeks since the set up. I tested the water last night and ammonia was still at 0.2 ppm, the nitrate was at 15 ppm. I guess the tank hasnt ready for the bioload at this point. The little one looked still stressed and hide in the dark, however, he was able to eat some Hikari blood worms. This morning I noticed the little one is doing better than last night. He is actively swimming around and all his fins are fully extended. I feel the bigger one would stop harassing him when it is dark. Both took some New Life Spectrum Small pellets this morning before I leave for work.

The rapid breathing issue is still there and I would have to continue to observe them. I tried to do daily w/c, but my RO/DI (100GPD) couldn't keep up. I live in an apartment and the water pressure gets really low lately. So it takes for ever to fill the 5 Gallon bucket. So I had to use Prime to keep the ammonia and nitrite low.

The bigger clown has never been bothered by the ammonia or nitrite. He constantly swimming around and charging at the smaller one very often, it does more when the lights on. That is when the smaller one gets stressed out and started to hide. I am just hoping they can get along soon and I feel bad about the little one, its torture for him.

My DT is fishless right now because I had Brooklynella outbreak in that tank in early last month. So I have to wait 6-8 weeks for the parasite to die off. I was thinking remove the bigger one to the DT, but I think it will make things worse when the time I add the smaller one in to DT.

I will take some pics when I get home tonight.

I am glad things are going better. Yea you want the main tank to remain fallow for as long as six weeks, bummer I know. But as long as you QT every thing from now on, you should not have to deal with marine ich.

I think the tank is having problems cycling because it basically bare, the benefical bacteria need surface area ie: rocks, and, bioballs even though I hate them.

If the smaller one is eating that is great as well.

Just keep up on the W/C until you have no detectable ammonia and you should be good. The Prime is only a bandaid you really need the W/C even if it is just 3 gals daily.

A piece of pvc pipe or a cheap plastic plant from petsmart would probably make the smaller one feel more comfortable. And you can leave the lights off as long as the temp remains about 80. Temp swings are bad for stress fish.

Do not move the bigger fish to the main tank, otherwise all your hard work will have been for not.
Good luck and remember Pics.

There are two small flower pots in the QT tank. The bigger one seems not letting the smaller clown taking either of the pots, what a bully. However, I noticed one is coming out of one of the pot in the early morning. I guess things are better in dark.

Ok two flower pots are good, that provides a hiding place and surface area for the bacteria to take hold.

Finally I took some pics of my clown. Sorry about the pic quality. The tank light was off when I took the pics to avoid the agression. They both were also afraid of the flash light of the camera.

The last pic is the bully. The smaller one has misbar in the middle, some people call it tear drop oce percula. BTW, I added 6 bio-balls in the filter, hopefully they will help the bacteria growth.

They look pretty darn good.

Thanks cheryl. I did a 30% w/c last night. Hopefully the ammonia would go away as well as the rapid breathing issue.

when you add formalin, you need to add an airstone on full blast. Formalin drops the oxygen levels extremely fast.

Yeah, I should have done that. but I hate the salt is going to be every where around the tank with an air stone in it.

Anyway, I removed the formalin by adding activated carbon in the filter. Two w/c have done afterwards. The smaller clown still breaths faster than the larger one. I suspect it may have damaged gills from the ammonia or some sort of gill flukes. I would wait n see.