Clownfish bloating with bulging eyes

Biggest Little Reef · Mar 2, 2022

Looking for help identifying and treating something going on with one of my clownfish. For the past couple weeks, I've noticed something off about this fish. It started a couple weeks ago with her just laying the sand. This is entirely unusual since she's been doing that for months, but she always popped up when someone walked by the tank. Recently, I noticed she was no longer popping up and started laying on her side breathing heavy. She also stopped eating aggressively like usual. This week, I noticed she started to look bloated and losing a little bit of color. Today, I noticed her eyes are bulging. What could be going on and what can I do to help her?

Sharkbait19 · Mar 2, 2022

@Jay Hemdal
My two thoughts are flukes or some bacterial infection, both could explain the swollen eye and lethargy, but I don’t know if that’s going to cause bloating. I’d do a fw dip and see if anything comes off.

Jay Hemdal · Mar 3, 2022

Biggest Little Reef said:
Looking for help identifying and treating something going on with one of my clownfish. For the past couple weeks, I've noticed something off about this fish. It started a couple weeks ago with her just laying the sand. This is entirely unusual since she's been doing that for months, but she always popped up when someone walked by the tank. Recently, I noticed she was no longer popping up and started laying on her side breathing heavy. She also stopped eating aggressively like usual. This week, I noticed she started to look bloated and losing a little bit of color. Today, I noticed her eyes are bulging. What could be going on and what can I do to help her?

What you are seeing here is "edema" a filling of the fish's tissue with excess water. That is causing the bloating and the protruding eyes. It is caused by either liver or kidney failure. Sometimes this failure is from an internal bacterial infection, but it can also be from a virus, protozoan or fatty liver disease (dietary).

I'm really sorry, but I've never been able to treat this. The only bright side is that it typically is not contagious to other fish.

Jay

Biggest Little Reef · Mar 3, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
What you are seeing here is "edema" a filling of the fish's tissue with excess water. That is causing the bloating and the protruding eyes. It is caused by either liver or kidney failure. Sometimes this failure is from an internal bacterial infection, but it can also be from a virus, protozoan or fatty liver disease (dietary).

I'm really sorry, but I've never been able to treat this. The only bright side is that it typically is not contagious to other fish.

Jay

Jay, thank you for the response. Unfortunately she didn’t make it through the night, but from your assessment it sounds like it was inevitable. I’m glad to hear it shouldn’t affect the other fish in the tank.