New clownfish has sunk to bottom

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

Hi,

I just bought two new clownfish and one of them has sunk to the bottom and is breathing really fast. What's going on?looks like he's about to die

Glenner’sreef · Jul 18, 2022

Can you increase the oxygen in the tank?

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

I've moved my pump so the funnels are facing the surface of the water creating more waves. My temp is at 28C and I'm trying to bring that back down to 26-27C but it's hard

Peace River · Jul 18, 2022

It is also possible that this is a defense mechanism if the fish was being chased or bullied. What kind of clownfish are they? Are there hiding places? Is there a difference in size between the fish? Is this a new tank? Is there any other details that you can share that you think might be relevant?

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

Peace River said:
It is also possible that this is a defense mechanism if the fish was being chased or bullied. What kind of clownfish are they? Are there hiding places? Is there a difference in size between the fish? Is this a new tank? Is there any other details that you can share that you think might be relevant?

It's a brand new tank, two clown fish (the Nemo one) one is slightly bigger than the other. And there is a large rock they can hide in

Peace River · Jul 18, 2022

Trew321 said:
It's a brand new tank, two clown fish (the Nemo one) one is slightly bigger than the other. And there is a large rock they can hide in

What did you do to set up the tank? Did you go through a cycling process?

Did you acclimate the fish in any way when you moved them from the bag to the tank? If not, it may be struggling to adapt to the new water parameters. Is the fish that is struggling the smaller fish, if so then you may want to separate the fish (another approach is to add more hiding places)

#reefsquad #clownfish #fishmedic

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

Peace River said:
What did you do to set up the tank? Did you go through a cycling process?

Did you acclimate the fish in any way when you moved them from the bag to the tank? If not, it may be struggling to adapt to the new water parameters. Is the fish that is struggling the smaller fish, if so then you may want to separate the fish (another approach is to add more hiding places)

#reefsquad #clownfish #fishmedic

Yeah I did the acclimate the way the shop told me to, keep them in the bag in the tank for 30mins and add water from the tank after fifth teen minutes every 5 minutes. It was the bigger fish and it has just died

fishguy242 · Jul 18, 2022

hi, welcome to the reef
short video ,pics ,will help experts assess.

MnFish1 · Jul 18, 2022

Trew321 said:
Hi,

I just bought two new clownfish and one of them has sunk to the bottom and is breathing really fast. What's going on?looks like he's about to die

It would be nice to know:

1. Your acclimation process
2. Your ammonia levels (though would expect all fish to be somewhat affected)
3. Do you have adequate oxygenation? Also would think this would affect more than one fish
4. Any spots, redness, etc on the fish - did you QT?
5. How long has it been in the tank?
6. Pictures of the fish under white light (Brooklynella? Flukes?)

I would consider setting up a QT tank - with aeration. And based on your answers - consider treatment - with a formalin-based product. Such as ruby-rally PRO

PS- agree with @Peace River could also be fear/bullying - if this is the case - separation would be the first step.

Without more information - it's hard to make suggestions - since it could be 100 things. welcome to R2R by the way!!

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

MnFish1 said:
It would be nice to know:

1. Your acclimation process
2. Your ammonia levels (though would expect all fish to be somewhat affected)
3. Do you have adequate oxygenation? Also would think this would affect more than one fish
4. Any spots, redness, etc on the fish - did you QT?
5. How long has it been in the tank?
6. Pictures of the fish under white light (Brooklynella? Flukes?)

I would consider setting up a QT tank - with aeration. And based on your answers - consider treatment - with a formalin-based product. Such as ruby-rally PRO

PS- agree with @Peace River could also be fear/bullying - if this is the case - separation would be the first step.

Without more information - it's hard to make suggestions - since it could be 100 things. welcome to R2R by the way!!

Cheers pal, and it died about 15minutes ago

Jay Hemdal · Jul 18, 2022

Trew321 said:
Cheers pal, and it died about 15minutes ago

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Sorry to hear. The smaller one is still alive though? How does it look, is it breathing rapidly?

For a fish that goes downhill right after acclimation, I always worry that it was salinity stress. Marine fish can handle a drop in salinity/specific gravity pretty well, but a rise is much more stressful. Many pet stores keep their fish systems at lower salinity to save on salt costs and to "ward of disease" (that doesn't really work). The SG could be 1.018 or so. Many home aquariums are at full SG - 1.025. Acclimating a fish up that high is very stressful no matter what method you employ.

Jay

Trew321 · Jul 18, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Sorry to hear. The smaller one is still alive though? How does it look, is it breathing rapidly?

For a fish that goes downhill right after acclimation, I always worry that it was salinity stress. Marine fish can handle a drop in salinity/specific gravity pretty well, but a rise is much more stressful. Many pet stores keep their fish systems at lower salinity to save on salt costs and to "ward of disease" (that doesn't really work). The SG could be 1.018 or so. Many home aquariums are at full SG - 1.025. Acclimating a fish up that high is very stressful no matter what method you employ.

Jay

The other one is just hanging about in the corner, but seems to be breathing fine