clown fish isn't moving

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foma2000

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
325
Location
santa cruz california
Help!!!. i came home today and my clownfish looked like he was stuck under a rock. i fliped out and moved the rock but it turned out that he was just siting on the bottom and not moving. he swam over to the corner and laid down and started breathing really hard. and so far he hasn't moved from that spot. hes a clarki clownfish that was net caught. hes been in the tank for about 3 weeks. there are also 2 peperment shrimp also in the tank along with all the stuff thats comming out of the live rock. the live rockhas also been in the tank for 2 weeks. i did a water change two days ago and right now the amonia nitrite and nitrate are all at 0.
i tried to find out what it was and all i could find was the hint that it might be Brooklynella. i really hope its not, and the fish doesn't have any white spots on him, although he did have ick a week ago that cleared up almost overnight.
any help would be great.

P.S. i dont know if it will help or not, but everything on the live rock seemed to sprout today. and im seeing tons of new stuff.
 
Ich isn't going to clear up on its own, it goes through a cycle and may appear to go away only to come back and hit twice as hard.
You say that there is no ammonia for the last 2 days, was there ammonia present before then?
Do you own a qt tank? If so, I would set it up and move him to it. If you are sure you saw a parasite, begin treatment immediately. I would suggest cupramine, that would cover you for ich and for velvet.
If it were Brooklynella, you would see an obvious slime coat. It almost appears that the skin is coming off with a spider web appearing slime on his body. Anything like that?
Just trying to troubleshoot a bit here, but definitely get him to qt.
Any other fish stock?
 
if it was ich, it's not gone. What did it look like?

I have only had my clown a week, but I will say that occasionally he acts similarly, and while I thought he was really sick at first, I think he's fine now.

Some have suggested that in absence of an anemone, a clown may try to "host" in a corner of the tank (in my case) or by a rock (in yours)
 
the fish doens't actualy have anything on his body exept for a few tiny tiny tiny wite spots on the top of his head. and the ick didn't really go away by it self. the ick started to disaper and the guy at the lfs told me to drop a tiny peice of vitamen c in the tank to help with the ick, and over night it prity much went away.
but i dont think that its ick that is making my fish lay slanted on the bottom and breath really heavaly.
i dont have a qt so hes kind of stuck where he is for now. there arn't any other fish in the tank. just the live rock and the shrimp.[/u]
 
How many days ago did you add the vitamin C and what is your pH level?

I would actually suggest posting all your water parameters. NH3, NO2, NO3, pH, salinity, temp and age of set up.

Cheers
Steve
 
so the fish died last night :cry: and i still have no clue what happend. the fish did have a little red spot on front of his head though. it sorta looked like flesh.
amonia was 0, nitrite, 0 nitrate 5ppm ph 8.2 and salinity 1.022. its been the same levels for about a month now. and the levels were the same befor and after i put the vitamen c in. i only put a very small amount.
the fish is gone but i still really want to know what happend. please help
 
Too hard to tell really. The red spot could have been a wound or bacterial infection. I wouldn't rule out a parasite problem though so be sure the tank remains fallow (inverts are fine) for the next 6-8 weeks to allow it to burn out on it's own.

Be sure to follow Quarrysharks advice and look into a QT before your next fish addition :wink:

Cheers
Steve
 
It seems like w/ marine fish being wild caught some really unexplanable things take place. I lost two Sebae Clownfish very quickly to odd fungus that refused to clear. I just lost a Hippo Tang to a mysterious parasite similar to ich that took less that 24 hrs to kill it. So dont worry my luck is poor too!
 
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