Heavy breathing Clown

[Salt4Us]

I noticed last night one of our clowns the one that hosts the Giant cup mushroom has been hanging out constantly in the mushroom and breathing heavy. This clown is a little bigger than the other, not sure if it will be the female or not, but it won't stray far from the mushroom. There are no signs of white spots or anything abnormal on the fish, just the heavy breathing. No flashing or rubbing or anything.

We took a reading last night:

Salt: 1.023
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 2.5

Only thing that has changed is the PH it has gone from 8.2 to 8.4
could this be it?


Any suggestions? I don't want to lose this fish, but I don't want to stress it out either trying to catch it in a reef tank.

Thanks.

 

[reefrunner69]

How heavy is the breathing? Is it irregular or constant? There isn't much to go on, with the only sign being heavybreathing.

 

[Salt4Us]

It's constant, kind of like it's been jogging and is out of breath, I just got home and the tank is up to 84, it's a warm day, I've got the house dark and the hood proped up and have the actnic light on and turned off the day just until it cools down a little also turned on the air, boy the edison bill is going to be high this next month.

She (I think) didn't eat this morning, and she sits on the giant cup and looks like she's paddling up stream. The other clown stays near by but no heavy breathing. Am I just over reacting?

 

[reefrunner69]

Does she look fatter? The heavy breathing is troublesome, but...it could be that she is getting ready to lay eggs.

 

[Salt4Us]

Wow, well not really, she looks the same, but here's a thought, if she lays eggs, would she lay them in the giant cup? That could be a problem, or a delicious meal for the giant cup. :?

 

[reefrunner69]

would she lay them in the giant cup?

More than likely she would lay them on the rock the cup is on or one close by. I am not familiar enough with clown mating to say that that is what it is, it could very well be a parasite, you indicated temp swings....but egg laying is one possibility. I don't want to get your hopes up and then the clown turn out to be sick. There really is just not enough to go on.

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

I don't know too much, but could it be temperature too high?

 

[Salt4Us]

I've got the temp still at 82, keeping the house real cool today. She isn't breathing as heavy as yesterday but now she is hiding around the toadstool which is right above the giant cup and now the smaller clown which I think may end up being the male is staying close to her but occasionally hangs out in the giant cup.

I can't afford a chiller, could I put a small frozen ziplock thing in my fuge and have it cool things down if you feel that 82 is too high?

 

[reefrunner69]

could I put a small frozen ziplock thing in my fuge and have it cool things down if you feel that 82 is too high?

82 is what my reef stays at in the summer time, between 80 and 82 the rest of the year. If you can maintain 82, you won't have any problems. If it starts to go higher, you will want to consider something like the fans. There is also a post in the FW forum that deals with this same problem. The problem I see with putting a bag of ice in the fuge, is the temp in the fuge would drop considerably and kill whatever you got going in there.

 

[Salt4Us]

Ok cool, we've got 2 computer fans mounted in there now, but it's staying at 82 with the hood cracked up so I think I'll stay with that and forget the ice.

Thanks Kevin!

 

[fishfriends05]

All clowns are born male, Then when they are in a group or paired if this is the case then the largest one will be the female and the second largest will be the breeding male while the others will remain small. Then if they are laying eggs then they will lay them on the underside of the mushroom or some where in the close vacinity.
Some other things to check are:
-swiming ability, (ie. sideways or disoriented, etc) (clowns dont have good swimming abilities in the first place but)
-feeding, are they eating and taking to the food normally
-color, general fading or darkening of color
I dont think temp is the major factor here becuase it would usually affect more than just one fish. These are just some ideas that I hope will help or open up more ideas from others.

 

[Salt4Us]

Here's an update.

She hasn't eaten much, if at all in the past 2 days. We did a 4 minute fresh water dip earlier today. We made sure the water temp was almost exactly the same as in the tank (the tank was 82.5, the dip was 82.8). She seemed to be OK after the dip. We did notice last night & tonight that she seems more active when the lights go out.

As for condition, she seems to have a a few very small white spots. Compared to the other clown, her color is slightly darker & almost has a sheen to her skin. She doesn't exhibit any flashing or rubbing up against the rocks or anything. Her only behavior is not eating, hiding & heavy breathing. Also as noted above, she seems more active when the lights are out at night.

If we have to quarantine her, I have a tank ready..matching temp & near matching salinity (main tank is 1.023, q tank is 1.021).

I hope someone has some ideas as to what might be going on.
Thanks ahead of time!

John

 

[d9hp]

Hmm, hope everything turns out ok for you.

 

[reefrunner69]

If we have to quarantine her, I have a tank ready..matching temp & near matching salinity (main tank is 1.023, q tank is 1.021).

IMO, quarantine is the way to go at this point, although I do have some reservations. In the quarantine, I would make sure the temp is stable at 82-84 and treat with copper sulfate at a level of .15 to .20 ppm for 3 weeks. If possible, I'd also like to see a picture of this fish, as close as possible prefferably at an oblique angle, not quite head on, but not a full side shot either.

 

[Salt4Us]

Well, we left her in the tank after fresh water dipping her, she seemed when we dipped her to be more active, then we put her back in, still saw some white flecks on her. Wanted to get the quarantine tank up to temp and water ok and planned on putting her in there this morning.

When I woke up, she was swimming around and when the daylight light came on, she was acting normal, no heavy breathing, no little white specs, she was normal and when I aproached the tank, her and the male both when up to the top waiting to be fed, and she ate! I am so glad, I was really afraid we'd lose her or it would be something to make us have to strip down the whole tank. We took a test on the PH again this morning, it was back to 8.2. We are wondering if this all had to do with the live brine we got from our LFS, guess we should have known better, his water for his fish isn't all that great, I wouldn't buy fish from him, but his corals aren't bad.

thank you so much for all your help and concern, I'm knocking on wood that this is over, and I'm sticking to what we normally feed them.

-Kaurene

 

[reefrunner69]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, please keep us updated as to how she's doing.