Ocellaris with mystey illness

[bobinnola]

I have had a pair of TR ORA Ocellaris clowns for a couple of months. The larger one (female..?) seemed like she was hosting with a trumpet coral (she hosts on a number of corals) this evening, but upon further inspection she was "passed out" on it, breathing rather labored. Occaisonally she would swim about with her head elevated and then lay down again. Everything else in the environment is normal and stable. All of this happened in about 1/2 hour.

 

Currently I have her in QT.

 

My thinking was:

1) brooklynella (sp), dormant for the time I have had her. Though the other fish show no signs of distress etc... I have heard formalin is ok for treating this illness.

 

2) Osmoregulating problem (swimming unevenly and laying down etc), either due to her failure to do so properly or my topping off too rapidly (done every day, 1.023)

 

3

a) She was stung by the trumpet's or another coral's feeding tentacles or

Some other parasite is present, though again none of the other fish are having a problem.

 

Please do contribute an opinion, much appreciated.

[Bobalouy]

My female Ocellaris did this also, she laid on here side in the sand for about 3 days, then out of no where she was fine again.

[Six]

Can you describe a little more the actions she was doing...? Clowns have odd pair bonding rituals where the male usually flicks his belly at the female to show he is subordinant. Sometimes the female will do the same. Regardless, this behavior can be quite odd to an observer and seem like the fish is sick.

 

Was the fish "passed out" on the sand bed?

If so, was it morning, right after the lights came on? At night?

 

Is she gasping for breath at the top of the water with her head kinda out?

 

We'll need a lot more info to come to a conclusion.

 

GL til then.

[bobinnola]

six- there was limited interaction between them, the other clown began to lay down on the trumpet after i QTed the female. The breathing and lack of swimming is odd but was never on the substrate and was after the lights went out. There was no breaching. I thought I saw a small amount of skin (orange) slough off underneath the female's central stripe consistent with brook or clown fish disease...

 

thanks again

bob

 

ps: both clowns are QTed now as I was concerned the second was acting too much like the first with the breathing problems and laying down

[Six]

Hrm, I'm not good with brookinella IDs so, that could very possibly be it. It doesn't sounds like anything else that's common in clowns except water quality/temp problems.

 

Could be genetics too.

 

GL

[renichms]

I had a clownfish do something similar. Had him a few weeks, then he started to breathe rapidly, lay on his side, etc. After 2 days of that, he died.

 

RN

[bobinnola]

I conducted a fw dip on the one that was most hurting. it seemed to to help a bit and she is now swimming again. I dipped again the next day and she remains in QT. The other one has made a seeming recovery and is under surveilance in my 2.5...

[Six]

If that worked, it's more than likely a parasitic infection of the gills. Most likely Crytocaryon irritans (sw ich). It can start out in the gill membranes before showing on the outside of the fish.

 

Glad they're on the road to recovery!

[bobinnola]

Thanks amigo, gave a third fw dip this evening and the female is dealing with it alright. The other one seems alright but it will be a while before i expose either to the main tank and the gobies again... btw, another reason that i thought it was brook was due to the almost transparency i observed in the pectoral fin... treatment for brook and ich is somewhat similar in any case, hmmm, will keep posting.

[Six]

ok, i retort to myself... lol. could be brook or crypt. both parasites.

 

keep up the good work!

[bobinnola]

yeah the female clown died a week or so ago, after i cared for her like a damn retarded child. the male is chillin in isolationville, population him (mojo)

[Six]

soon enough he'll be a she, lol.

 

a little off topic, but i saw your avatar sig line thing "watermellonjello" and it reminded me of an odd conversation i had about people's names. there were some kids that went to the same school district as me and were named Orangello...."orange jello" and I think Yelongello i think..."yellow jello". People name their kids like they would name their pets! LOL

[bobinnola]

dude, that's exactly why my tagline is watermellonjello. picture water (rymes with daughter) as a first name and mellonjello (said melonjelo) as a surname. It's genius!