Clownfish swimming rapidly in circles

[atte]

Hey, this is the same fish from the Blind Clownfish? Not eating anymore thread. I'm surprised it's lasted this long but I think it will finally go tonight or tomorrow. It started doing this weird thing shown in the video every 5-10 minutes. It's too late to really do anything and I've written this fish off but I was just curious as to what in the world would cause it to behave like this. Any ideas?

YouTube - Clownfish Update

 

[iDream]

looks like its have some sort of swimbladder or just major orientation issues. not sure which organ controls that..

poor guy, he's certainly distressed

 

[Phillie]

My maroon clown just started doing the same thing today and was not eating or looking too great yesterday , I have had him for 1.5 weeks and my niger trigger has chewed off alot of his fins. I seperated those two 5 days ago. Any news on what it may be yet?

 

[atte]

Sorry to hear your clown is behaving similarly. It's really disheartening. I haven't found anything conclusive but there are some articles/forum posts with similar symptoms. Here are a few of them, they kinda all give different causes:

Exposure to certain PVC plastics that leech chemicals, such as garden hoses: Link.

Genetic anomalies - "if other fish/es not malaffected it's likely not the environment but this specimen per se... Perhaps a developmental disorder. How to put this... fishes aren't as "done" in terms of neurological progress as mammals when they appear "older"... your one fish may have a genetic anomaly that is now just expressing itself" (WetWebMedia, Bob Fenner)

Some kind of virus, possibly lymphocystis: Rare Clownfish Forums

"whirling disease" - Yahoo Answers poster's experience

In my situation I am leaning towards some sort of chemical thing, because I do remember using a new pair of gloves in the tank a month ago. The symptoms seem to fit but I don't know why none of the other fish are affected. With your maroon clown, I'm betting it has a lot to do with his fins being chewed. I don't know much about diseases and treatments, so you might get more help if you create a new thread. Maintain good water quality so he can heal. I hope your clown gets better!

 

[six2sevenproductions]

I have seen this before. What is your water temperature of the tank? and what is the oxygen situation?

 

[atte]

The temperature is at 78 F and pH when I checked about a week ago was 8.1. I actually put this fish down yesterday ... it was in worse condition than in the video. It hadn't eaten in weeks and was fading away with tail rot and everything, and couldn't even swim in a straight line anymore. I felt really sad doing it but I think it was the right thing to do.

For the future and just in general though I'm curious as to what was going on. You said you've seen this before, do you know what it is and how to cure it?

 

[six2sevenproductions]

In the experience i had the water was too hot. My clown was swimming crazy in all directions real fast. I cooled the water when my chiller arrived and i thought it was over because he stopped swimming in circles. But now he was so stressed out he would float upside down and move slowly. I removed him and put him in quarantine.

In quarantine he started eating again and recovered fully

 

[Krypt]

Sorry for your loss Atte. I hope the future brings you better times for your tank.