VGT Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Quick basics: Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite - All Undetectable SG: 1.025 30G Reef Tank, established 5 years now, clowns about 4 years old. About 10 days ago, the female clown had a swollen stomach one night, the next day looked fine, and then spent a few days barely able to leave the sandbed. She died last Friday. All this while the other clown looked totally fine, but I got up this morning and he was also on the sandbed. All day now, he is swimming straight up in the corner of the tank, trying to stay up in the water column. If you spook him a little, then he drops like a rock to the bottom, and then has to fight his way back up. Just tried to feed, no interest. I fear he doesn't have long. What could possibly be causing this? The other fish in the tank (Purple Pseudo) looks healthy as can be, and all of the corals, inverts, and clam are doing wonderfully. There's no outward sign of anything being 'wrong' with the tank other than the clownfish. Any ideas? I'm really bummed about losing one of my clowns last week, and if this other one goes, I'm going to be pretty upset. Link to comment
FishI Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Quick basics: Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite - All Undetectable SG: 1.025 30G Reef Tank, established 5 years now, clowns about 4 years old. About 10 days ago, the female clown had a swollen stomach one night, the next day looked fine, and then spent a few days barely able to leave the sandbed. She died last Friday. All this while the other clown looked totally fine, but I got up this morning and he was also on the sandbed. All day now, he is swimming straight up in the corner of the tank, trying to stay up in the water column. If you spook him a little, then he drops like a rock to the bottom, and then has to fight his way back up. Just tried to feed, no interest. I fear he doesn't have long. What could possibly be causing this? The other fish in the tank (Purple Pseudo) looks healthy as can be, and all of the corals, inverts, and clam are doing wonderfully. There's no outward sign of anything being 'wrong' with the tank other than the clownfish. Any ideas? I'm really bummed about losing one of my clowns last week, and if this other one goes, I'm going to be pretty upset. Any recent changes to the tank? Link to comment
VGT Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 No, tank had been completely stable and thriving. I was sort of at the limit for a 30-gallon tank, so was just maintenance and enjoying it. I did several large water changes last week when the first clown got sick, but that didn't help her. Link to comment
Cencalfishguy56 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 No, tank had been completely stable and thriving. I was sort of at the limit for a 30-gallon tank, so was just maintenance and enjoying it. I did several large water changes last week when the first clown got sick, but that didn't help her. Intestinal parasites? Add anything new to the tank recently? My past clowns were done for when I saw them struggling, they didn't eat and lasted only a few days shortly after Link to comment
VGT Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Nope, nothing had been added to the tank Link to comment
ajmckay Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Hmm that sucks. So putting the timeline together the female clown started showing symptoms (swollen belly and lying on sand bed) then died a week later (7 days). Then this morning (3 days after the female died) the male is acting weird (lying on sand bed and constantly swimming upward and if stops he falls down - but no swollen stomach). Sound about right? I think you probably should have posted something after a day or 2 of the female getting sick! Still, based on this I don't think that it's parasites (tend to cause fish to act skittish) or fungus (usually externally visible) but probably a bacterial issue - possibly affecting the swim bladder, which would explain the swollen "belly" and the inability to swim. Plus it's possible for a bacterial issue to spread - possibly following a stressful event. Do they seem to be breathing normally - at least at first? A few concerns - the male might over exhaust himself trying to keep swimming while something is wrong. This may make things worse as it should keep it's energy since it's likely not eating. Unfortunately you can't just tell it that though. I would remove the fish asap and put it in a hospital tank and treat with a relatively broad spectrum anti-biotic such as erythromycin or triple sulfa possibly if that's what you have access to. As for the cause - something had to have happened I think to trigger the issue with the female initially. Could be something like a temperature spike, pH swing, etc... Did you switch foods lately? What do you feed? The initial catalyst for the male could have been the death of the female? Link to comment
VGT Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 I did switch foods, about six weeks ago. Is it possible to treat the entire tank with something, if a QT tank is not available? I guess that's probably a dumb question, would kill all the good bacteria, right? Link to comment
VGT Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Picked up stuff to start a hospital tank. Do I treat just the sick fish for now, or all? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Good stuff! As you figured I would resist treating the entire tank and just treat the affected fish. Really a hospital tank doesn't need much! a 10g is about the cheapest tank you can get, toss in some PVC/flower pots or extra rock, a HOB power filter or even just a powerhead and a heater. That's it. Don't worry about cycling it just be diligent about doing water changes - so no ammonia builds up. Obviously what I said isn't a diagnosis, it's just my best guess as to what might be wrong and an easy way to treat. It may or may not work. I would probably leave the pseudo alone unless it starts showing symptoms - then treat it in the hospital tank. Typically when a fish is established in an aquarium it won't just randomly get sick. They usually get sick after some sort of stressful event. Could be any number of things because fish are creatures of instinct. I believe that anything out of the ordinary causes some degree of stress to them. Could be a "deep" cleaning of the tank, accidentally topping off with cold water or even a kid coming over and banging on the glass. Good luck! Link to comment
VGT Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Didn't make it through the night Thanks for the advice, anyway. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Well at least you're prepared for next time. I wish I could say that not like its going to happen, but inevitably it does at some point. Link to comment
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