Clownfish moth stuck open + breathing heavy

[saltwaterbeginner48]

I have a fluval 13.5 gal that I’ve had for like 5 years and a clownfish in it for the last 3. He normally would swim at the top in the corner of the tank but recently has been sitting at the bottom near a rock that my pistol shrimp and goby have a tunnel under.

And about a week ago I noticed his mouth stuck open and saw some other people with similar issues say it just went away but it still has not and he is on the sand now breathing heavy with his mouth still unable to close. I don’t think it could have been a coral sting since I have no corals currently. All I have in the tank is live rock, some tiny hermits, a pistol shrimp, and copper band goby.

He is eating by sucking the food in that comes near him and it seems to be staying down. All other parameters are normal and I did a water change 2 days ago. I have kept reef tanks for a while now but have never actually had a fish need medications so if anyone has advice on that or something I would appreciate it!

 

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

#fishmedic

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal. Do you have a video of the fish?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a fluval 13.5 gal that I’ve had for like 5 years and a clownfish in it for the last 3. He normally would swim at the top in the corner of the tank but recently has been sitting at the bottom near a rock that my pistol shrimp and goby have a tunnel under.

And about a week ago I noticed his mouth stuck open and saw some other people with similar issues say it just went away but it still has not and he is on the sand now breathing heavy with his mouth still unable to close. I don’t think it could have been a coral sting since I have no corals currently. All I have in the tank is live rock, some tiny hermits, a pistol shrimp, and copper band goby.

He is eating by sucking the food in that comes near him and it seems to be staying down. All other parameters are normal and I did a water change 2 days ago. I have kept reef tanks for a while now but have never actually had a fish need medications so if anyone has advice on that or something I would appreciate it!

Pics are quite fuzzy to clearly see any issues but mouth stuck open is either an oxygen issue or my suspect- Gill irritation.
Are fish shaking head occasionally, loss of appetite other than clown, darting across the tank and even seem like theyre yawning?

 

[littlehermit0]

I have a fluval 13.5 gal that I’ve had for like 5 years and a clownfish in it for the last 3. He normally would swim at the top in the corner of the tank but recently has been sitting at the bottom near a rock that my pistol shrimp and goby have a tunnel under.

And about a week ago I noticed his mouth stuck open and saw some other people with similar issues say it just went away but it still has not and he is on the sand now breathing heavy with his mouth still unable to close. I don’t think it could have been a coral sting since I have no corals currently. All I have in the tank is live rock, some tiny hermits, a pistol shrimp, and copper band goby.

He is eating by sucking the food in that comes near him and it seems to be staying down. All other parameters are normal and I did a water change 2 days ago. I have kept reef tanks for a while now but have never actually had a fish need medications so if anyone has advice on that or something I would appreciate it!

My clownfish once did the same thing and after 8 hours it was full of white spots (ich), and died almost instantly but I'm not 100% sure it could be anything

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have a fluval 13.5 gal that I’ve had for like 5 years and a clownfish in it for the last 3. He normally would swim at the top in the corner of the tank but recently has been sitting at the bottom near a rock that my pistol shrimp and goby have a tunnel under.

And about a week ago I noticed his mouth stuck open and saw some other people with similar issues say it just went away but it still has not and he is on the sand now breathing heavy with his mouth still unable to close. I don’t think it could have been a coral sting since I have no corals currently. All I have in the tank is live rock, some tiny hermits, a pistol shrimp, and copper band goby.

He is eating by sucking the food in that comes near him and it seems to be staying down. All other parameters are normal and I did a water change 2 days ago. I have kept reef tanks for a while now but have never actually had a fish need medications so if anyone has advice on that or something I would appreciate it!

"Mouth stuck open" as a symptom can have two main causes - physical damage, or the person making the observation mistakes open mouthed breathing for the mouth being "stuck open". In looking at the video and seeing your description that the fish is still trying to eat makes me think that this is physical damage. That tends to rule out gill disease, or other systemic disease.

Could the pistol shrimp have gotten in a lucky pop?

Jay

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal. Do you have a video of the fish?

I believe one is that the end of the initial post!

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

Pics are quite fuzzy to clearly see any issues but mouth stuck open is either an oxygen issue or my suspect- Gill irritation.
Are fish shaking head occasionally, loss of appetite other than clown, darting across the tank and even seem like theyre yawning?

No the only other fish, the goby, is perfectly normal!

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

"Mouth stuck open" as a symptom can have two main causes - physical damage, or the person making the observation mistakes open mouthed breathing for the mouth being "stuck open". In looking at the video and seeing your description that the fish is still trying to eat makes me think that this is physical damage. That tends to rule out gill disease, or other systemic disease.

Could the pistol shrimp have gotten in a lucky pop?

Jay

I was thinking the pistol shrimp could be the culprit. The clownfish used to hand out at the top of the tank and in the last month has moved to hanging out around the rock where he pistol shrimp and goby live, so I wonder if the shrimp didn't like that and got him ):

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

Update: After reading other forums on this, I decided to attempt to just close his mouth myself with my finger but it did not work and is still open. He is still eating like normal but is now laying on his side at the bottom of the tank not moving until I come up to the tank. When he does try and swim it seems he is struggling. I did notice after a water test today that Nitrates were high (even though I did a test a couple days ago and they were fine) at 20 ppm so I am going to try and get those down as I suspect that might be the cause and I just didn't shake the bottle for the test long enough last time.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Update: After reading other forums on this, I decided to attempt to just close his mouth myself with my finger but it did not work and is still open. He is still eating like normal but is now laying on his side at the bottom of the tank not moving until I come up to the tank. When he does try and swim it seems he is struggling. I did notice after a water test today that Nitrates were high (even though I did a test a couple days ago and they were fine) at 20 ppm so I am going to try and get those down as I suspect that might be the cause and I just didn't shake the bottle for the test long enough last time.

It has to release on its own

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Update: After reading other forums on this, I decided to attempt to just close his mouth myself with my finger but it did not work and is still open. He is still eating like normal but is now laying on his side at the bottom of the tank not moving until I come up to the tank. When he does try and swim it seems he is struggling. I did notice after a water test today that Nitrates were high (even though I did a test a couple days ago and they were fine) at 20 ppm so I am going to try and get those down as I suspect that might be the cause and I just didn't shake the bottle for the test long enough last time.

I’ve tried manual closure on fish in the past, but never saw more than a slight improvement.

High nitrates, even above 100 ppm won’t cause this. Many public aquariums in the past would have nitrates higher than that and not see this issue.

 

[littlehermit0]

Update: After reading other forums on this, I decided to attempt to just close his mouth myself with my finger but it did not work and is still open. He is still eating like normal but is now laying on his side at the bottom of the tank not moving until I come up to the tank. When he does try and swim it seems he is struggling. I did notice after a water test today that Nitrates were high (even though I did a test a couple days ago and they were fine) at 20 ppm so I am going to try and get those down as I suspect that might be the cause and I just didn't shake the bottle for the test long enough last time.

I had 100ppm nitrate and I ignored it cause I can't lower it with anything, so no not nitrates

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

I’ve tried manual closure on fish in the past, but never saw more than a slight improvement.

High nitrates, even above 100 ppm won’t cause this. Many public aquariums in the past would have nitrates higher than that and not see this issue.

Yah it looks like since one of his fins is missing a tiny bit of it that he possibly had an altercation with the pistol shrimp so now that is my best guess (but honestly the little part on his fin could have been missing this whole time and maybe I just now noticed).

 

[Rappa]

Long shot, but try throwing a grounding probe in there and see if his behavior changes at all. A while back, I had some stray voltage and my clowns acted similar, almost paralyzed. All the other fish acted pretty normal, maybe just hiding a little bit. But the clowns really were effected severely... laying down, swimming sideways on the sand, breathing heavy... they would eat food if it went by their faces, but wouldn't chase it. Within 30 seconds with grounding, they started swimming normal and chasing food. I removed and repeated with the grounding and every time I removed they would lay down and breath heavy. It was the strangest thing. That led me to start pulling plugs. One of my power heads was the culprit. It's a long shot, but maybe worth trying.

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

Long shot, but try throwing a grounding probe in there and see if his behavior changes at all. A while back, I had some stray voltage and my clowns acted similar, almost paralyzed. All the other fish acted pretty normal, maybe just hiding a little bit. But the clowns really were effected severely... laying down, swimming sideways on the sand, breathing heavy... they would eat food if it went by their faces, but wouldn't chase it. Within 30 seconds with grounding, they started swimming normal and chasing food. I removed and repeated with the grounding and every time I removed they would lay down and breath heavy. It was the strangest thing. That led me to start pulling plugs. One of my power heads was the culprit. It's a long shot, but maybe worth trying.

I will be so honest, I have no idea what grounding probe is but after a google search it sees like it is an electrical thing that I plug in and one end goes in the water?

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

In case anyone is still following along, he is still acting the exact same. Still eating but laying on the floor and occasionally tying to swim or resting on what appears to be a torn fin. Still breathing heavy with his mouth wide open. So not totally sure. I just don't know if he is suffering and it is more humane to put him out of his misery (which honestly I don't even know how to do) or if he is just busted up a bit and is ok?

 

[Rappa]

A grounding probe is a cheap plug in wire and small probe end that goes into the tank. Only the ground makes contact in your outlet where it's plugged in. It grounds the water in the tank to your electrical ground. Might be worth a try...

I will say this though... This was exactly how one of my my 20yo clown-fish spent his final couple of weeks before passing away.

 

[saltwaterbeginner48]

A grounding probe is a cheap plug in wire and small probe end that goes into the tank. Only the ground makes contact in your outlet where it's plugged in. It grounds the water in the tank to your electrical ground. Might be worth a try...

I will say this though... This was exactly how one of my my 20yo clown-fish spent his final couple of weeks before passing away.

I will have to look into that then. But that is sad ): I am not sure how old mine is. He (or I guess since he lives alone it is actually a she??) is at least 4 years old as that is how longer I have had it.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

In case anyone is still following along, he is still acting the exact same. Still eating but laying on the floor and occasionally tying to swim or resting on what appears to be a torn fin. Still breathing heavy with his mouth wide open. So not totally sure. I just don't know if he is suffering and it is more humane to put him out of his misery (which honestly I don't even know how to do) or if he is just busted up a bit and is ok?

I can't tell you if your fish has reached this point, but if you do decide to euthanize it, here is a post I made on that topic:

Fish Euthanasia

Euthanasia Euthanasia is a word derived from two Greek words that roughly translates to “good death”. In other words, euthanasia is the painless killing of an organism. In general usage, there is also the underlying understanding that euthanasia is performed on terminal patients only. This...

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