About 6 weeks ago I purchased a wild caught GSM pair. The female is about 6 inches (nose to end of spine) and well colored/barred, fins in good shape. Eating well, quite active and has good/normal interactions with her mate.
Within two days of acquiring this pair she developed a skin infection of some type, stringy feces and was fairly lethargic. I treated with Maryacin and hexamit and she recovered very quickly (as a side note, the pair also got the usual formalin bath I give all WC clowns before going in QT). I allowed 4 weeks between the end of treatment before removing the pair from the QT tank. No symptoms of any type were apparent during that time frame. On the contrary, her slight fin damage healed right up, her appetite returned with a vengeance and she developed a very entertaining habit of playing with the bubbles from the sponge filter in her QT tank. In fact, she would play with the bubbles nonstop during daylight hours, with the exception of the time she would spend feeding. The male remained healthy throughout.
Yesterday I placed them into their new home. It's a 30 gallon tank dedicated to them but part of a much larger system. She is still very active and has a great appetite and is behaving towards her mate as expected. My problems is this...
She appears to be much more buoyant than she should be. I don't 'think' it is a swim bladder problem as she has no trouble maintaining her orientation. She quite simply, has to swim way too hard to descend in the water column. Once she reaches her destination on the bottom of the tank, she clearly has difficulty maintaining it and inevitably ends right back up at the surface. I 'think' this behaviour was the same in quarantine towards the end but I didn't really notice it as she was spending so much time chasing the bubbles around and they inevitably go 'up' too.
So... I really don't think this is a typical swim bladder problem based on her having no problems keeping her orientation. I don't' think it's a respiratory problem causing her to go to the surface either, as she does not have any rapid breathing.
I HAVE noticed that she is gassy. i.e. bubbles escaping more than I'm used to seeing, from her anus. Not a huge amount, but enough that I've noticed it. She is not swollen and as mentioned previously, her appetite is good. So I'm left with two thoughts.
1) She has some sort of internal bacterial infection causing her to generate too much gas and this is causing her buoyancy problems.
2) (I don't THINK this could be it but I thought it deserved mentioning) She may have been eating all those bubbles she was playing with, and the consumed gas has yet to work it's way through her system.
This isn't an emergency as she is otherwise very healthy and active however I'd like to hear back from anyone who has any ideas on what this may be, and what I should consider doing for treatments. Obviously if it's number 2 above, it should be gone shortly. As a side note I would have thought that the hexamit/Maryacin mix would have taken care of any internal issues that could possibly generate such a problem in her.
Within two days of acquiring this pair she developed a skin infection of some type, stringy feces and was fairly lethargic. I treated with Maryacin and hexamit and she recovered very quickly (as a side note, the pair also got the usual formalin bath I give all WC clowns before going in QT). I allowed 4 weeks between the end of treatment before removing the pair from the QT tank. No symptoms of any type were apparent during that time frame. On the contrary, her slight fin damage healed right up, her appetite returned with a vengeance and she developed a very entertaining habit of playing with the bubbles from the sponge filter in her QT tank. In fact, she would play with the bubbles nonstop during daylight hours, with the exception of the time she would spend feeding. The male remained healthy throughout.
Yesterday I placed them into their new home. It's a 30 gallon tank dedicated to them but part of a much larger system. She is still very active and has a great appetite and is behaving towards her mate as expected. My problems is this...
She appears to be much more buoyant than she should be. I don't 'think' it is a swim bladder problem as she has no trouble maintaining her orientation. She quite simply, has to swim way too hard to descend in the water column. Once she reaches her destination on the bottom of the tank, she clearly has difficulty maintaining it and inevitably ends right back up at the surface. I 'think' this behaviour was the same in quarantine towards the end but I didn't really notice it as she was spending so much time chasing the bubbles around and they inevitably go 'up' too.
So... I really don't think this is a typical swim bladder problem based on her having no problems keeping her orientation. I don't' think it's a respiratory problem causing her to go to the surface either, as she does not have any rapid breathing.
I HAVE noticed that she is gassy. i.e. bubbles escaping more than I'm used to seeing, from her anus. Not a huge amount, but enough that I've noticed it. She is not swollen and as mentioned previously, her appetite is good. So I'm left with two thoughts.
1) She has some sort of internal bacterial infection causing her to generate too much gas and this is causing her buoyancy problems.
2) (I don't THINK this could be it but I thought it deserved mentioning) She may have been eating all those bubbles she was playing with, and the consumed gas has yet to work it's way through her system.
This isn't an emergency as she is otherwise very healthy and active however I'd like to hear back from anyone who has any ideas on what this may be, and what I should consider doing for treatments. Obviously if it's number 2 above, it should be gone shortly. As a side note I would have thought that the hexamit/Maryacin mix would have taken care of any internal issues that could possibly generate such a problem in her.
sorry lol. well ive never seen my clownfish fart so it could be option number two. sit back for awhile and see if it doesnt go away.
(she gets a mix of spirulina flake/argent cyclops-eeze flake/base flake twice a day, cyclops-eeze, mysis, brine, nhbs and a homebrew which is their main staple for their third feeding of the day which includes a mishmash of fresh seafood and prepared products/vitamins all blended together).
