Sick Clown Fish - Advice Pls

[AnnieT]

Hi,

Firstly must say thanks for great forum and for advice already given when I was setting up new tank. Second - hope you can help again!

I am running a 35l biube tank with no live rock. I only have 2 clown fish in the tank. Fish #1 I got in June and fish #2 a month later. They are tank raised and were about an inch long when I got them. I feed them fish flakes as recomm by lfs.

Fish #1 is sick. Just lying on the bottom of the tank. Been there since yesterday. No interest in food. Has been changing position every so often and gone for a few short swims not far from bottom but that is all. Breathing looks bit fast esp after its tried to swim but apart from that I can't see anything else wrong. No spots, disease, cloudy eyes or anything. Both fish get along fine there has been no real aggression. If anything fish #1 is the dominant one occassionally nipping at but not actually biting fish #2 and only really at feeding time. Fish #2 is absolutely fine so I don't think it can be the tank but here are my readings using API test kit:

temp 23
salinity 1.022
ph 7.8
amm 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5 or 10 hard to tell from colour chart as both v similar!

I did a 25-30% pwc yesterday just because it was fortnightly time to do it not because anything was wrong with the water. The fish was lying on the bottom before this although at that time I thought it was just sleeping or resting.

Any help / advice on what I should or shouldn't do would be sooooo welcome as I am complete sentimental fish owner and v upset about possibly losing my first fish!

Thanks

[austinsdad]

I'm wondering if your test kit is good. No live rock, flake food and almost no nitrates? And that hard breathing can be ammonia issues sometimes.Your fish needs vegetables and meat. LFS gave you some bad advice on feding I think. What kinda flake food are you using? Flake foods do contribute to high phosphate levels too.

Also, how did you cycle your tank?