marko Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 i think something may be going on with my fish. today the female has been breathing a bit heavy, swimming lethargically, and mostly just resting near the bottom next to a cave - and thats not her normal spot. normally her and the male are in the front. she is also doing the twitching thing. the male and my helfrichs firefish both seem totally fine, and so do the corals - so i dont think its a water parameter issue. i dont see any visible lesions on her. any ideas of what i should look for? Link to comment
frankdontsurf Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Make sure your surface agitation is high. Keep your temp at 79-81. Does she have any spots? Eating? The twitching like the submission dance? Link to comment
marko Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 surface agitation is pretty good, its an SPS dominated tank. and in the back i have an airstone for better gas exchange (to minimize pH swings at night), and a skimmer which should help with aeriation too. temp is normally 78-79, sometimes hits 77 or 80 for a min or two til the chiller or heater gets going. she ate this morning. i didnt notice anything wrong til after that. but if the mysis gave her food poisoning, the other fish would be in the same boat. no spots that i can see. yeah the submission twitch thing. just randomly. ive had clowns do it like that before after being moved, or some other stressful event. this isnt as submission to the male, i think. Link to comment
frankdontsurf Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I don't know anything about mating but maybe she's prego. Research that and see if the signs coincide? Link to comment
marko Posted March 29, 2014 Author Share Posted March 29, 2014 prego? they lay eggs... well i put the salt in a bucket of fresh RO to mix, so tomorrow morning i can do a WC. hopefully that will help. Link to comment
kush. Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 my first thought was that it may be pregnant as well. Link to comment
rolyat113 Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I don't know anything about mating but maybe she's prego. Research that and see if the signs coincide? my first thought was that it may be pregnant as well. Does she have morning sickness?? I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. Free bump Link to comment
marko Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 haha, no worries rolyat. if this were brooding behavior, she should be more aggressive right now, according to what i have read. and the whole breathing more rapidly and heavily thing makes no sense. in wilkerson's book "clownfishes", the only thing mentioned in the diseases section about increased breathing rate is brooklynella, but that would present with a thicker, white mucus, which i dont see. Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Doesn't sound like normal pairing behavior as I've seen it a few times and have a young pair showing signs of pairing off now for the last few weeks and there's nothing there that matches what the op is claiming. I would separate the clown from the tank and if necessary, treat with formalin and read up on brook treatment. Just in case it is, better you catch it early and treat it fast as it kills quickly. Link to comment
marko Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 i will do more reading on brooklynella, but that is pretty much only wild caught fish, according to my book. and these are ORA picassos (direct to me from ORA), and the only other fish is a helfrichs firefish that was at the LFS for months (i asked how long they had her) - so i doubt it came from her. edit: found a post on reefcentral about a clown with similar symptoms - lethargy, heavy breathing, and thats it. the OPs clown died, and someone else mentioned they had a similar event after having it for 2 years with no known cause. however, another poster said they had a clown that looked a little bloated, and after a bowel movement was fine. mine does look a little bit plumper than a few days ago. maybe she is just constipated... but i will be on the lookout for any sort of lesion to help me id what this is. and then know what kind of med to use. Link to comment
marko Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 update: she is no longer hiding alone, but rather stick to her usual spots along with the male and swimming fine. she is still breathing heavily, but happily bullies the male every few minutes to make sure he remembers shes the boss. she ate some food this morning, but spit some food out - but i fed rods food today, so maybe she was just being picky about which parts to eat (why eat algae, when there is shrimp). im about to do the WC i prepared. Link to comment
marko Posted April 2, 2014 Author Share Posted April 2, 2014 Been acting totally fine for a while now. But yesterday I figured out what was going on. She isnt female, at least not yet. Saw them fighting - the fish is only a touch larger than the other one, and I guess they are still fighting over who will be female - since November. I guess they just had a particularly rough fight that day. Link to comment
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