I think my clown fish is dying?

Question

I think my clown fish is dying. he was laying in the sand for most of the day and now he is swimming with his tail pointed to the ground and his head almost out of the water. He keeps getting caught in my filters so I turned them off. Is there anything that I can do? Please help me. Thanks

my NO2 reading is at <.3, my NH3/4 is at 1 mg/l which is high, my salt level is 1.024, my ph is about 8 and my temp is 79. Its a fish only with live rock, one damsel, 4 crabs, 3 snails and one anemone. The clown if just floating around the tank being pushed around. I slowed the jets down and turned the filter back on. Please Help! Thanks

Answer 1

Turn your filters back on. If you must use a small jar to cover the intake of the tank. This will allow the water to be sucked into the filters but not allow the fish to be hurt by them.

There are a couple of things that could be wrong with your clown. First of all, he could have been weakened by by a parasite (not yet visible) Due to his weakened condition was sucked to the filter intake causing a rupture of internal organs. Cover the intake with the open jar. If you find the jar will not work due to length of the intake, add piping to your intake so the jar can rest against the bottom, or use clean PVC pipe cut to length and cleaned to hold your jar or container.

Clownfish are susceptible to a number of different diseases such as Marine Ick, Amyloodinium (marine velvet), Brooklynella (clownfish disease) and Head and lateral line erosion (HLLE). These diseases are more commonly found on wild caught specimens then on tank raised specimens and care should be taken before they are introduced to a fully stocked tank. When choosing any clownfish for your tank carefully examine them for any signs of disease. These fish are ideal candidates for quarantine.

Swim bladder disease - fish floats listless around the tank. Feed your clown a pea. Maintain feading pea's to help with swim bladder or constapation. Clowns need a variety of food for health purposes such as brine shrimp, frozen worms, flake, and algae. If they are not getting a balanced diet this can cause irradic swimming behaviour over time.

Check your water quality. As always with salt water, ph levels can spike as well as other harmfull chemicals.

The fish swims lethargically and the flee reflex is absent. The eye reflex is disturbed or absent. They do not seek cover the fish could have blood flagellates (fish sleeping sickness) If diganosed with this Methylene Blue at 5 drops per gallon for 5 days

The fish are affected by a severe condition of the internal organs Gentamycin Sulfate for 10 days. Treat once every 5 days, with a 25% water change before each treatment.

The anterior part of the air bladder, the part towards the abdomen, is inflamed or discolored. These fish is standing on their head or swimming nose up, or laying flat on the bottom A bacterial infection is the cause Treat with: TMP Sulfa -or- Sulfa 4 TMP. You can also feed them cut up peas.

With marine fish always make sure medication when used is salt water and reef safe.

Answer 2

Your nitrates are with no trouble too high. Additionally experiment your ph and salinity as well. You are not able to growth to a reef tank if your nitrates are constantly at forty. I advocate you add some kind of HOB refugium with macro algae. It will most likely get your nitrates under control. My tank used to normally run at about 20ppm nitrates and irrespective of how in general I did water alterations I might no longer get them below 10 ppm. Ever on the grounds that I added a refugium they've stayed at 0 with little to no upkeep. My params are tremendous stable now ever when you consider that including the macro algae. All I do is top off with freshwater each so usually and change the water as soon as a month to stock up hint factors.

Answer 3

The best thing you can do right now is turn the filters back on ASAP! You need the filter running to filter out things that might be making him sick, like ammonia or nitrites. If he gets stuck then put a sponge or a cloth, or pantyhose over the intakes and/or outtakes to slow down the flow.

Without knowing what is wrong it is impossible to reccommend treatment. If you can give any other description of what is wrong, maybe I can help better(ammonia, nitrate, nitrite readings, and blemishes on the fish, your water change schedule, have you changed anything recently, ect.). But for now, just start changing water ever day or 2, small water changes, and maybe it will help. And keep the filters running!

Answer 4

Clown fish are known to have that swimming behavior where they swim with their heads up almost like they are struggling to get somewhere. But what you are describing is not good. He should not be getting caught in the filter. That means he is too weak. Imagine your filter being a big fish. Bye Bye Nemo you get my drift. He might be suffering from a gill infection or parasites in the gills. They go up to the surface to try to get more oxygen. My advice is give him a dip in a parasite solution. There are many to choose from and see what happens. Secondly if he is not eating that can cause similar behavior. Good Luck



Jose A. Rivera
Atlantis Fish Tank Services
Germantown MD 20874
240.418.3971

Answer 5

check the ph and saline level of the water
has the water been corrupted?
when was the last time you changed the water?
I lost some valualble water when my wife cleaned
the fish tank and one of the buckets she used to
change the water had soap residue. also if you
change too much of the water at time
it could weaken the fish..go to a good pet store and
ask someone who raises the salt water variety.

Answer 6

We need more info. How old is the tank? Are there any other fish in it? What kind of setup to you have? What are your test readings?



Also...it is NORMAL for clownfish to lay on the sand and in coral...the poster below that said he removed his clowfish because it was in a coral is quite frankly a moron..and shouldn't be keeping fish.

Answer 7

Mine is sick also. He was laying down in some zenia. I removed him to a quarentine tank so that the rest of the tank does not get whatever he has. If you have this option it may be wise.

Answer 8

its probably got a illness like white spot or something i don't think there's anything u can do its too late