Hey all,
I noticed the other day one of my clownfish acting weird. It hangs out at the bottom a lot and seems to be breathing very heavy and having a hard time swimming. When I feed, it swims (albeit struggling) up to the top and eats like normal, but after sinks back down to the bottom.
The parameters are normal for the tank. Salinity, Ph, ammonia, temperature, and nitrites all good. Nitrates are higher than they should be, but as I will mention below, much lower than the fish would have been exposed to previously.
For reference I bought a tank that had been established for about 2 years a couple of months ago. It's 90 gallons and there were 2 clownfish and a damsel in it, which is all that is in it now as well. Apparently the previous owner didn't do water changes so after I bought it I did a 50% water change twice and the nitrates still read at the highest level on my API testing kit (higher than 160ppm). All this to explain that the nitrates now are around 20-40ppm, which I know is still high (working on lowering them) but since the tank may have been around 300ppm in the past I wouldn't think this would be what's causing the clown to get sick now. Nothing has been added to the tank since I got it a couple of months ago.
After I realized the parameters were normal I started looking at potential diseases. I do not see anything visually on the clown and my other two fish are fine so I don't think it is Ich or brooklynella. I did a freshwater bath and didn't see anything so I don't think it is flukes either.
I am also worried it could just be due to stress because a day before I noticed these symptoms I had just gotten back from being gone for a week, so their regular feeding schedule was off. I did have a friend come in and feed them once about midway through but I usually feed twice a day. Because of this I haven't tried any medications yet because I was worried that if it was due to stress the medications would make it worse.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be and how I could help the fish? I am new to the hobby so I may be missing something obvious and any suggestions are much appreciated!
I noticed the other day one of my clownfish acting weird. It hangs out at the bottom a lot and seems to be breathing very heavy and having a hard time swimming. When I feed, it swims (albeit struggling) up to the top and eats like normal, but after sinks back down to the bottom.
The parameters are normal for the tank. Salinity, Ph, ammonia, temperature, and nitrites all good. Nitrates are higher than they should be, but as I will mention below, much lower than the fish would have been exposed to previously.
For reference I bought a tank that had been established for about 2 years a couple of months ago. It's 90 gallons and there were 2 clownfish and a damsel in it, which is all that is in it now as well. Apparently the previous owner didn't do water changes so after I bought it I did a 50% water change twice and the nitrates still read at the highest level on my API testing kit (higher than 160ppm). All this to explain that the nitrates now are around 20-40ppm, which I know is still high (working on lowering them) but since the tank may have been around 300ppm in the past I wouldn't think this would be what's causing the clown to get sick now. Nothing has been added to the tank since I got it a couple of months ago.
After I realized the parameters were normal I started looking at potential diseases. I do not see anything visually on the clown and my other two fish are fine so I don't think it is Ich or brooklynella. I did a freshwater bath and didn't see anything so I don't think it is flukes either.
I am also worried it could just be due to stress because a day before I noticed these symptoms I had just gotten back from being gone for a week, so their regular feeding schedule was off. I did have a friend come in and feed them once about midway through but I usually feed twice a day. Because of this I haven't tried any medications yet because I was worried that if it was due to stress the medications would make it worse.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be and how I could help the fish? I am new to the hobby so I may be missing something obvious and any suggestions are much appreciated!
