Clownfish strange fast swimming behavior?

[XxMalaboo]

Just bought a clown fish a couple of days ago.  Hes wildly / aggressively swimming at the very top of the tank near the surface very quickly into the powerhead current -  all day, all night long.

 

checked my ammonia, its at 0.  I also did a 30% water change this morning just in case - hes still doing the same thing.

 

My ph is low at 8, and historically its never been above 8.  (Which tells me I have too much carbon dioxide)  I opened all the windows and have an open top tank - Im thinking maybe my apartment has low oxygen.  However with the window open all day long - Im not sure I think its that anymore.

 

Any ideas?  Hes only eaten one pellet this morning - didn't touch the others.  I'll check if he eats tomorrow.

 

Hes my only fish in a 20 gallon tank.  Tank is roughly 7 months old.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHAcE_urs0c

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd2KNLBArAc

 

[Oldsalt01]

U should ALWAYS quarantine new fish, whether it's your first or fifteenth. The fact that it's the only fish is a small blessing, because if he brought a disease into the tank it could take months for all the nasties to die off. It kind of sounds, and looks, like he may have gill flukes. After watching your vids, I'd say he's pretty stressed out about something. As a precaution, I'd do a freshwater (RO/DI) dip for 5 minutes and see if anything falls out of it's gills. Yah, it'll stress him out, but it'll also tell you if that's the problem. IF it is flukes, you'll see little white or sometimes grey worms fall to the bottom of the container (I've used a small, blue plastic pitcher. The darker color makes it easier to see if anything falls out). The freshwater dip will also act as a prophylaxis for other possible diseases, although quarantine is always your best defense. As for the O2 levels, unless you have a huge detritus load, I wouldn't worry much about that. It looks like you have pretty good flow, so I wouldn't sweat the O2 level. What are your other params: Nitrate, Ph, salinity, alkalinity, calcium? The tank itself looks pretty clean, and what I can see of your corals look like they're doing well. Hope everything works out for you.

[XxMalaboo]

Jesus really?  I bought my clownfish from a well known fish store here in Cali.  They run copper in the tanks daily...  These particular clowns have been in the tank for a month. If I have introduced disease into my aquarium - what do I do -  besides the fw dip on him?..

 

This is bad to hear - What do you do if you don't have a QT Tank?...  

 

How do you sterilize the tank of the parasite?

 

 

 

[XxMalaboo]

So I just fresh water dipped him... Holy f- that was a nightmare trying to catch him.

 

I did 5 minute  FW Dip, and felt horrible - to see him in pain.  He seemed to calm down a ton though now that he is back in the tank - swimming slowly.  (Not as eratic)

 

Update****** - he's back to swimming like a lunatic again. 

 

I did not see any white things in the bucket though - i'm assuming it's another disease?  

-I was also reading that gill flukes are not killed by FW Dips - only regular flukes

 

I'm not sure what to do next.

 

  I'm wondering if I should take him back to the fish store.  This is really sad and frustrating.  I hate how the fish might be suffering - and not sure how to help him....

 

 

[thespinningsadhu]

If it were me, I would give him a couple of days - he may be stressed due to the move and being by himself (if he was in one of those huge tanks with 736 other clowns). I would get some Selcon and soak the pellets in them and then spot feed him with a pipette. It's actually cute to see them eat that way and it cuts down on wasted food in your tank. 

 

From what I've read if he's infected with anything it's already in your tank so it's not like if you jerk him outta there you keep things from getting in. It's there.

 

I am a newbie - way noob - so take what I say with a hefty helping of advice from the experts here. 

 

 

[Simulated Fish]

2 hours ago, XxMalaboo said:

So I just fresh water dipped him... Holy f- that was a nightmare trying to catch him.

 

I did 5 minute  FW Dip, and felt horrible - to see him in pain.  He seemed to calm down a ton though now that he is back in the tank - swimming slowly.  (Not as eratic)

 

Update****** - he's back to swimming like a lunatic again. 

 

I did not see any white things in the bucket though - i'm assuming it's another disease?  

-I was also reading that gill flukes are not killed by FW Dips - only regular flukes

 

I'm not sure what to do next.

 

  I'm wondering if I should take him back to the fish store.  This is really sad and frustrating.  I hate how the fish might be suffering - and not sure how to help him....

 

 

 

 

 

FW dip was a bad move, this is a stressed and scared clown. Not uncommon behavior but you need to help accumulate him.

 

A small clown like that needs a break from the flow. It's like running on a treadmill 24/7and they can't find a calm place in the tank to hide from the flow that he feels is safe.

 

Step one: kill the flow for a few days.

 

Keep it low and raise it back up slowly over a few days. Especially if this clown came from a simple display tank. Treat it like you would a coral and adjusting it to LEDs.

 

Step two: salinity.

 

What salinity does the LFS keep the tanks? Bet you it is lower then yours, especially if it is a Fish only tank. How did you acclimate the fish? You should be doing a 45min drip, or at lest adding 1/4 the amount of tank water to it's holding cup/jar/pitcher currently in it every 15 min for an hour.

 

Step Three: lights and noise. 

 

Lower the lights if you can for the next day or two, approach the tank slowly and try to keep noise low, eg guitar practice, tv right next to tank, ect.

 

You shouldn't need to do this with all fish but your clown needs to get relaxed. After the FW dip it was calm because you put it into shock.

 

Low lights during a 45min drip and then and hour after will prevent most stress like this. Remember most fish have been bagged and transported by boat, plan, truck, carless delivery driver then float accumulate (drip if shop cares) then placed in a crowd or hostile tank all before it was bagged then rode home with you.

 

That is super stressful and hard on fish, it kills many. Your job is to give it the easiest, calm and safe environment possible so it can get comfortable in it's new home.

 

I have had super stressed clowns like that, and it's 50/50 even with proper care. Follow the steps, do not dose chems or make any rapid changes, other then lowering flow, and he has a good chance.

[Clown79]

I would not have fw dipped it. That just adds stress.

 

New fish can often be stressed in a new home, especially by itself. It needs time.

 

It to me looks like its just trying to swim and getting caught in heavy flow

 

I would not turn off the flow, that will deplete  oxygen but maybe you have too much flow. Try lowering it.

 

My clown swam around a lot and would not calm down until i added another fish to the tank. Then it was fine.

 

 

Most ppl don't drip acclimate fish, they temp acclimate them. 

 

 

[Tamberav]

13 hours ago, XxMalaboo said:

Jesus really?  I bought my clownfish from a well known fish store here in Cali.  They run copper in the tanks daily...  These particular clowns have been in the tank for a month. If I have introduced disease into my aquarium - what do I do -  besides the fw dip on him?..

 

This is bad to hear - What do you do if you don't have a QT Tank?...  

 

How do you sterilize the tank of the parasite?

 

 

 

 

The copper used is usually low dose to keep disease at bay not not necessarily eradicate it. Also there are some diseases copper does not treat. Always quarantine your fish if you can for saftey.

 

The clown may still be stressed from the move, I would lower the flow a bit and watch and see. My clowns I had for years didn't eat for a whole week after I brought them with me to a new apartment. 

[XxMalaboo]

Thanks everyone for the swift responses.  I hope he makes it.  He did not eat the food this morning.  He grabbed one pellet and spit it out.  

 

Hes doing the same behavior over and over again.  Does a circle around the tank and swims into the powerhead.  I was reading if hes swimming into the powerhead hes trying to breathe through his gills due to a parasite.

 

I left only the return pump on and shut off the powerhead.  I floated the bag in the water for 25 mins and drip acclimated for an hour.

 

Sorry I paniced and thought he had a parasite. I still dont know if he does have a disease or not. As I dont see any abnormalities.

[Clown79]

Try feeding mysis.

[Simulated Fish]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Try feeding mysis.

+1

It is like candy, if they don't eat that then I would worry for sure.

[Clown79]

I added a clown to my empty 10g. It was by itself.

 

It swam oddly, was hiding, didn't eat much.

I added a mate 3 days later and that all changed.

[Superdave]

I would give it some time.  I agree with some previous posts the clown is probably just not used to your new space.  Cut back on the flow and lights and let the fish adjust.  I will say my clown (that I have had for years) loves to swim into the current of the powerhead, almost like being on a water "treadmill."  It also darts around during feeding time.  Fish do not like change so by introducing it into a new tank, you (and everyone who buys a fish) is creating some stress.  Let yours adjust slowly and I would bet you will see some improvement.  No need to over feed the tank; fish can easily go a few days without food.  You would hate to throw off your tank by spiking it with lots of food.  

 

Good luck!

[Fernanda]

Did you ever found that what was wrong with your fish? I’ve had  two paired clowns for 4 years now and just yesterday they started to do the same thing. I had to put the male on a breeder box inside the tank because he was going like crazy on the open space and often collapsing to the ground. I am interested to know if you ever found out what was wrong with him. 

[Liz Diaz]

hi all,

So I'm no expert and this is my second time going back to saltwater aquarium, like 10 years later but anyhow, I had the same problem, I have 2 clown fish that I got them at the same time together and they have been fine ever since but one morning after a few weeks of having them I woke up and found them both swimming like crazy, glass surfing 🏄‍♂️ to the walls and up and down, going through rocks and sometimes picking on sand, so i though...wtf? So I was worried since I made a water change the day before and added a couple of tiny corals, but to me after going steps by steps of what could of possibly gone wrong I realized that when I cleaned up the tank I moved the power head, I have a 10 gallon tank with a koralia 565 circulation pump which I thought was too much but I had it since I started the tank, and evey since I had it I used to make it face mid tank through the rock on front of it but since I used to see aquariums facing it up I thought..why not? Well @ first it didn't look like was making waves like crazy but you could see some bubbles, also since my clown fish are very playful they started chasing bubbles and sometimes trying to eat them, so a previous comment said that they can swallow air and it makes them uncomfortable...well you bet! I fixed my circulation pump back to face the wall this time going through the waterfall filter so it can disturb the flow a bit and BINGO!! That to me fixed the problem almost immediately, no more bubbles or 2 much oxigen getting into the tank and fishes and corals are now happy, my clown fishes started swimming smoothly and calmed down within an hour 🙂

Also turning up the lights little by little helps, I start my day by turning the lights of my room first, open windows to get some indirect light and then I start the aquarium lights at 20% blue mostly and then light it up every 1-2 hours.

Also on the picture you can see that in one corner I made a little retaining wall with life rock and move some sand out, the clown fish like to go there sometimes, I had it there when I thought the water flow was too much, that could be a way of knowing whether or not your flow is the problem but mine like to swim even by going in front of the pump every now and then.

I hope that helps and happy reef keeping!

 

[j.falk]

@Liz Diaz - You are replying to a thread made in 2017.

 

The fast swimming is when clownfish are stressed...

[El Guapo]

2017, wow. Lol

[Liz Diaz]

28 minutes ago, j.falk said:

@Liz Diaz - You are replying to a thread made in 2017.

 

The fast swimming is when clownfish are stressed...

Yes, I'm sure it is because they are stressed, I guess the question is why, I was commenting my experience since I know a lot of people wonder what it could be refer to, but definitely for me was the water flow, I fixed it and everything change with in the same morning. 

Do you know what other problems could there be for clown fishes to get stress?

Txs

[Liz Diaz]

12 minutes ago, El Guapo said:

2017, wow. Lol

I know right...but this was the only open forum I could find a related story...I guess not too many "crazy clown fish swimmming" experiences like that on 2020...lol

[ReefAdoRe]

My female has done that since I got her three years ago. She’s the “crazy clown” of the two that I have. She does this every time I clean the tank (weekly). I’d say for freshwater fish this is a sign of stress. For clowns 🤷🏻‍♂️

[j.falk]

2 hours ago, Liz Diaz said:

Do you know what other problems could there be for clown fishes to get stress?

Clowns typically do this when first introduced to an aquarium.  This is actually a common topic that pops up over and over again on this forum.

 

Several things can cause fish stress:

 

- Sickness / parasites.

- Low oxygen.

- Bullied by tank mates.

- Light intensity.

- Too high of a water flow.

- Water quality.

- Temperature.