Female clown on sandbed rapid breathing.

[James5214]

Ok so not so good news. My female clown is like hovering above the sandbed and rapidly breathing. I have had her for almost 5 months and never had a problem. She eats like a champ and is the boss of the tank but today she's not doing good at all. I put a light up to the tank and it seems as if something yellowish is coming from her gills. I have a video but you can't see the yellow stuff because of blue lights. But you can see her rapidly breathing and yawning big. Any thoughts?. All other fish and coral are happy. Salinity is 1.026 nitrates is around 10-15ppm. Ammonia 0ppm. Nitrites 0ppm. Temp is 78. It's a 20L. I have 2 clowns and RG a firefish and a six line wrasse. No aggression what so ever between fish. As I stated she was the boss of the tank she would put the wrasse in place and always let the male clown know who was boss.

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[vetteguy53081]

I can’t open video on my phone but sounds like mucus
I typically would recommend a 5 min freshwater dip but with heavy breathing will stress fish out further
Has the fish stopped eating?
Any aggression from another clown or fish?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Help is on the way as above, prepare to post your parameters and any changes in aquriam, like change of food adding something new, how this guy was acting leading up to this

 

[James5214]

The clown ate lrs reef frenzy frozen food last night. My parameters are posted above. And no other aggression. The other clown is alot smaller than her and she nips at him never other way around

 

[James5214]

I started.feeding lrs reef frenzy as my phosphate was .12 because I was feeding new life spectrum pellets everyday so I stopped that. I added a torch coral to the tank those are only things different.

 

[James5214]

There is definitely something orangish yellowish coming from behind the full plate. Could that be the actual gill? I've never seen this before on her

 

[James5214]

When I get close to the tank she takes off from the sandbed and swims totally normal and acts normal like any other day but when I walk away and come back I see her on the sandbed breaking rapidly

 

[James5214]

Hope this picture helps some sorry for quality. But you can see she is mostly white but right at the end of her full plate you can see the orangish yellowish stuff.

 

[James5214]

Heres another picture. If you follow the black trim on the gill plate you will see the yellowish stuff I'm talking about coming from the gills.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ok so not so good news. My female clown is like hovering above the sandbed and rapidly breathing. I have had her for almost 5 months and never had a problem. She eats like a champ and is the boss of the tank but today she's not doing good at all. I put a light up to the tank and it seems as if something yellowish is coming from her gills. I have a video but you can't see the yellow stuff because of blue lights. But you can see her rapidly breathing and yawning big. Any thoughts?. All other fish and coral are happy. Salinity is 1.026 nitrates is around 10-15ppm. Ammonia 0ppm. Nitrites 0ppm. Temp is 78. It's a 20L. I have 2 clowns and RG a firefish and a six line wrasse. No aggression what so ever between fish. As I stated she was the boss of the tank she would put the wrasse in place and always let the male clown know who was boss.

I could open the video, but couldn't see anything helpful - the blue tint on the lights makes it difficult to see clearly, and the glass has a lot of algae spots on it.

Has the fish eaten today?
It is breathing a little quickly, but not too fast.

I see what you mean about the gills, but again, the pictures aren't quite clear/close enough. It is probably the gill filaments showing at the edge. However, those should be red, not orange or pink. The latter indicates anemia, but I cannot tell you why that would be - can be a systemic infection, or a gill infection.

I would second the idea of trying a 5 minute FW dip, just to rule out some possible issues.

Jay

 

[OldRed1]

Is the mucus limited to just her gills, or do you see mucus elsewhere on her body? Is it possible this is Brooklynella?

 

[James5214]

Idk If it is mucus it's not slimey. It almost seems like it's her actual gills and are showing from behind the gill plate but I don't know forsure. I just fed live baby brine to the tank and she is chasing them around eating like a pig right now

 

[James5214]

There's nothing mucus like on her body at all. I posted a few pics and videos but my phone is a piece of crap some camera quality is bad sorry. Will keep trying to take more pics and videos

 

[James5214]

And yes Jay it's breathing faster than normal but not like rapid quick it's more of a elevated rate.

 

[James5214]

You can see.in video she is chasing live baby brine and eating like a pig and she doesn't have clamped fins either.

 

[OldRed1]

You can see.in video she is chasing live baby brine and eating like a pig and she doesn't have clamped fins either.

Is there anyway you could temporarily adjust your lights to be white instead of blue? That may help the more experienced folks here diagnose what may be affecting your fish.

 

[James5214]

Il try it's AI prime and on a light schedule right now. Il look on the app and see if I can do only whites. I don't want to have to delete the schedule as I have corals and don't want to stress them

 

[MnFish1]

Idk If it is mucus it's not slimey. It almost seems like it's her actual gills and are showing from behind the gill plate but I don't know forsure. I just fed live baby brine to the tank and she is chasing them around eating like a pig right now

It seems to me like its gill tissue - that is the wrong color - vs a parasite of some sort - could be gill flukes? The torch coral could have introduced something depending on th timing. Did you QT the fish (and the other ones) - if not it could be something was brewing and for some reason it's now showing up.

 

[James5214]

I hope the coral didn't introduce anything. It was in a different tank for a few weeks and none of those fish or corals we're acting funny. And no I didn't QT the fish which I know I should have but im limited to space and didnt have a extra tank or heater or things like that for a QT tank. I mean if it went 5 months without showing any signs or symptoms idk