Clown swim bladder?

ctopherl · Aug 19, 2020

I have a snowflake clown who has been swimming awkwardly on his side the past 24 hours now. He perks up and acts normal when I go to feed him or interact, but then will go back to swimming on his side. Every once in a while when I’m far away he will right himself, then flip to his side again.

65g total water

temp-76.6

salinity-1.024sg

nitrates-5ppm

alkalinity-6.7

calcium-510

ammonia-0

ph-8.0, mayyyybe pushing 8.1

Three other small fish, three inverts and 5 coral frags. Very low bio load for the tank. Other inhabitants are doing fine.

He is eating fine. I have had him 3 weeks. Tank is 5.5 weeks old. No visible signs of discoloration, spotting or other issues. Got him from local LFS who dips all fish in copper and does 2 week QT. He has an ocellaris friend who is fine.

What is wrong with him? Is this swim bladder?

video:

Jay Hemdal · Aug 19, 2020

It always swims at the surface? Definitely could be an over inflated swim bladder. Here’s a trick: see what it does at night with all the lights out- does it still float at the surface? If so, likely swim bladder. If it goes somewhere else, then something else is causing this behavior .

No real good treatment for this. I’ve tried bleeding off the gas with a needle, but it comes back. I once built a pressure chamber that would “fix” the problem, but when you removed the pressure, the fish would float again a few days later.

Jay

ctopherl · Aug 20, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
It always swims at the surface? Definitely could be an over inflated swim bladder. Here’s a trick: see what it does at night with all the lights out- does it still float at the surface? If so, likely swim bladder. If it goes somewhere else, then something else is causing this behavior .

No real good treatment for this. I’ve tried bleeding off the gas with a needle, but it comes back. I once built a pressure chamber that would “fix” the problem, but when you removed the pressure, the fish would float again a few days later.

Jay

Both clowns have pretty much always swam at the surface, but the other one looks normal doing it. This one has only looked like this for ~36 hours now.

Am I feeding him too much?

Jay Hemdal · Aug 20, 2020

Probably not, else both would likely be affected. That’s why I asked about the night behavior....sometimes, if fish are fed foods that produce gas, or are positively buoyant , the food in their gut makes them float. This goes away when they aren’t being fed. I also wanted to ensure that the other clown wasn’t keeping this one pinned at the surface. Make sure the tank has good hiding spots that the clowns can move to if they wish.
Jay

ctopherl · Aug 20, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Probably not, else both would likely be affected. That’s why I asked about the night behavior....sometimes, if fish are fed foods that produce gas, or are positively buoyant , the food in their gut makes them float. This goes away when they aren’t being fed. I also wanted to ensure that the other clown wasn’t keeping this one pinned at the surface. Make sure the tank has good hiding spots that the clowns can move to if they wish.
Jay

Good to know, I will keep an eye on this, thanks! I would say this snowflake has actually been the more dominant of the two. In a 55g with ~6lbs live rock and 4 total fish, they have plenty of caves and rock work to swim into and the clowns have not expressed interest in the rocks once, even when they were the only fish in the tank! They seem very comfortable just hanging out and everyone else is down in the rocks so they are left alone.

I am using hikari pellets in the morning and whatever brand of frozen brine my LFS gave me at night (I think they said they use San Francisco Bay? I threw away packaging and don't remember what it was). Like you said, other fish seem fine so that makes me feel better.

Jay Hemdal · Aug 20, 2020

ctopherl said:
Good to know, I will keep an eye on this, thanks! I would say this snowflake has actually been the more dominant of the two. In a 55g with ~6lbs live rock and 4 total fish, they have plenty of caves and rock work to swim into and the clowns have not expressed interest in the rocks once, even when they were the only fish in the tank! They seem very comfortable just hanging out and everyone else is down in the rocks so they are left alone.

I am using hikari pellets in the morning and whatever brand of frozen brine my LFS gave me at night (I think they said they use San Francisco Bay? I threw away packaging and don't remember what it was). Like you said, other fish seem fine so that makes me feel better.

Good deal about you using some frozen brine: not very nutritious,!but super high in fiber that tends to keep their guts cleaned out.
Jay