weird clown. sick?

[jaiden]

I have an O clown which was hiding under the rocks for a few weeks and wasn't eating much (wouldn't come out until food had fallen out of reach). I recently added a bunch of snails and hermits, and since then he's been hanging out on the sand. he has been eating a bit better (frozen mysis worked) so I'm no longer worried that he'll starve to death.

however, now he is lying down on his side on the sand, only to come up when I approach the tank. he seems alert and interested, and as I said he does feed now. Is he just weird? Or is lying down on the sand always a bad sign? I have heard of clowns "hosting" with the sand, but it doesn't seem to be the case here as he doesn't distrub it at all. he just lies down on his side.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Have you checked water parameters? Sounds like he's stressed. You could try a 50% water change and see if he perks up. I've never heard of a healthy clown doing this. They are usually very active.

 

[jaiden]

Looks like I may hvae had an AMM spike. I am mixing a bunch of water now (I went out and bought a trash can for it)

I put the clown in the QT with the blenny who has been in for 2 weeks and seems OK. I expect that my clown didn't have anything contagious (was the only fish in the main tank) so I am not too worried about the blenny. Worst case, they both get something brought in by the blenny, and I have to treat the QT.

I will do a 50% WC on the main tank (which is inverts only now) and then probably move both fish back into the main. Worst case at that point is that the blenny comes down with ich and I have to pull them both again for a hospital treatment

My thoughts basically were "how can I give the fish the best environment ASAP" and so into the QT he went. I'm just crossing my fingers now

 

[jaiden]

He seems to be doing a little better today in the QT. I put a poly-filter in the QT the other day. He ate a little bit today too.

I did a 40% wc in the main tank, which left a big sand storm. Kinda glad he wasn't in there for that. I hope it doesn't shock my inverts too much. If the clown does better in the next week or so , I think I'll put both of them in the main and hope for the best.

 

[jaiden]

I moved the blenny into the main tank, leaving just the clown in the QT. The clown lost some bits of his tail (maybe due to aggression from the blenny), so I wanted to separate them. Also, I think I may need to medicate the clown.

He's very sick. I turned down the flow in the QT a little so he doesn't get blown around. he lies on his left side, and has a hard time getting up at all.

He looks fairly normal, but is getting thinner because he can't move around much to feed. I have gotten him to eat a couple of pellets a day with a turkey baster.

I'm worried that he'll die when I go out of town on thursday. I'm not sure my house-sitter will have the patience to feed him that way.

Any ideas on a way to help him? I'm hoping his tail will grow back, but his swim bladder seems to be pretty broken.