Sad clown(fish)

[luddite]

Hi y’all, long time listener, first time caller. One of my two clowns has been having a bad time.

It all started last week when I did a pretty thorough cleaning of my tank + the weekly water change. This stressed the clowns and the little guy has deteriorated since. His larger tank mate seems to have recovered but is stressed and trying to protect little buddy. He’s lost his normal luster and is breathing heavy laying on the sandbed. Normally he is a brilliant orange and white.

Water parameters seem to be ok.
Ammonia is .1
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.026

The hermit crabs seem to be in hiding so I can’t verify that they’re ok, but my smallest paly colony has been getting pale during the same timeframe.

Little buddy was the first tank inhabitant, hoping the little guy pulls through. Any advice is welcome.

 

[luddite]

Correction, I meant to type:

Ammonia <.01

 

[sc50964]

Correction, I meant to type:

Ammonia >.01

So how much higher is it to 0.01?

Or do you mean less than 0.01

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi y’all, long time listener, first time caller. One of my two clowns has been having a bad time.

It all started last week when I did a pretty thorough cleaning of my tank + the weekly water change. This stressed the clowns and the little guy has deteriorated since. His larger tank mate seems to have recovered but is stressed and trying to protect little buddy. He’s lost his normal luster and is breathing heavy laying on the sandbed. Normally he is a brilliant orange and white.

Water parameters seem to be ok.
Ammonia is .1
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.026

The hermit crabs seem to be in hiding so I can’t verify that they’re ok, but my smallest paly colony has been getting pale during the same timeframe.

Little buddy was the first tank inhabitant, hoping the little guy pulls through. Any advice is welcome.

Pic fuzzy making it hard to see anything out od place. .025 or below is acceptable and assuming your numbers are accurate- ammonia should be fine.
Any loss of appetite?
Loss of skin color?

 

[luddite]

Or do you mean less than 0.01

Yes, dislexics untie

yesterday and today they both haven't taken to their normal foods. I feed chroma boost pellets in the am and frozen food in the pm.

Not certain on how to describe the color change. He's still orange and white, but a muddier shade. Where before he was practically traffic cone orange. He's hiding now but seems to not be sitting on the sand bed, so I'm hopeful that it might've been a bad day.

No noticeable spots or fin damage either, nothing in the tank currently that should be bullying too.

 

[Oceanis]

Hi Luddite, how long has your tank been set up and operating? I don't see a lot of algae/ coraline on your rocks. Is this a newish system?

 

[luddite]

Roughly 3 months since a big switchover. The previous tank was setup for about 6 months. The rocks are new to the tank but the sand and stuff in the sump is largely from the old tank. I recently added some coralline spores since it doesn’t seem like the coralline from the old system took from the few rocks I stuck in.

 

[Oceanis]

Has he eaten at all?

 

[luddite]

Not that I’ve seen for 2x days now.

 

[sc50964]

Yes, dislexics untie

yesterday and today they both haven't taken to their normal foods. I feed chroma boost pellets in the am and frozen food in the pm.

Not certain on how to describe the color change. He's still orange and white, but a muddier shade. Where before he was practically traffic cone orange. He's hiding now but seems to not be sitting on the sand bed, so I'm hopeful that it might've been a bad day.

No noticeable spots or fin damage either, nothing in the tank currently that should be bullying too.

The could be velvet.

But if the skin has the appearance that it’s peeling, then is brooks

 

[luddite]

^ill look more into velvet in the morning, but I was under the impression that it would show spots.

I also just remembered, what caused me to do a deeper clean than normal last week is I had an outbreak of these the week before that. As far as I can tell this worked it’s own way out. Best pic I could manage, they were a few mills in diameter.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I don't know but there's something going on, maybe the other clown is beating it up. Clowns don't normally hide under a rock like that. Even a sick diseased clown doesn't hide under a rock. To me, it looks like a scared and stressed out fish.

What size is the tank? Any other fish in the tank?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just a general observation (waiting on a clearer pic or a video) velvet ALWAYS causes extreme rapid breathing. In almost all cases, all fish are affected at roughly the same time.

Jay

 

[AydenLincoln]

^ill look more into velvet in the morning, but I was under the impression that it would show spots.

I also just remembered, what caused me to do a deeper clean than normal last week is I had an outbreak of these the week before that. As far as I can tell this worked it’s own way out. Best pic I could manage, they were a few mills in diameter.

Unrelated these are hydroids common in a new tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

^ill look more into velvet in the morning, but I was under the impression that it would show spots.

I also just remembered, what caused me to do a deeper clean than normal last week is I had an outbreak of these the week before that. As far as I can tell this worked it’s own way out. Best pic I could manage, they were a few mills in diameter.

related to hydroid and are Hydroid Jellyfish (Motile) which feed off algae spores and vanish in time

 

[luddite]

I don’t want to confuse correlation and causation, but I think it might have been low o2 saturation. Grasping at straws last night and I turned the skimmer on, it had been off for a week, and that’s about when the little guy went and hid in his normal spot. This morning he seems peppy, will see about getting a better picture if I can lure him out with food this morning.

 

[sc50964]

I don’t want to confuse correlation and causation, but I think it might have been low o2 saturation. Grasping at straws last night and I turned the skimmer on, it had been off for a week, and that’s about when the little guy went and hid in his normal spot. This morning he seems peppy, will see about getting a better picture if I can lure him out with food this morning.

Why did you have it off?

 

[luddite]

Why did you have it off?

With the fleece roller I have and minimal tank load, it hardly skims most of the time.

55g + 10g sump.
Currently 2 clowns, a few blue legs and a couple of zoa/paly colonies.

You could say room to grow!

 

[sc50964]

With the fleece roller I have and minimal tank load, it hardly skims most of the time.

55g + 10g sump.
Currently 2 clowns, a few blue legs and a couple of zoa/paly colonies.

You could say room to grow!

Ooh. Skimmers primary functions are waste removal and aeration. So keep it on at all times, especially when it’s warm.

 

[luddite]

Came back from errands and they’re already out begging for food! Appreciate all the support!

Also thanks for confirming about the hydroids, my mentor couldn’t positively ID them.