Help: Clowns who bloat post-feeding!?

[Doglover_50]

I have 2 juvenile osc. clowns in a 24 gallon nano who were healthy for many months. Then I noticed one of them had a bloated gut to the degree that it could not dive. Upon closer attention, I have noticed that this ONLY occurs after feeding. The gut swells up very visibly, then it is stuck at the surface for an hour or two--then the swelling recedes and the fish can submerge again. This has been going on for several weeks (I am very slow getting this question to the forum). Otherwise health seems fine--and other clown is unaffected.

Then I set up another 12g nano with a separate clownfish (had been a friend's fish, so I know it to have a history of good health), and stupidly I added some rock and corals from the affected tank. And 5 days later, the new fish in the new tank is displaying the exact same symptoms.

So it must be something communicable--bacterial/GI?. Any ideas about what the problem/disease is, and how it can be treated? If it requires antiobiotic food, is it possible to treat it in the nano, or does it need a hospital?
Thanks, Doglover

 

[StarGazer_1]

mine is doing the same thing
i thought it was preggo
havent seen it for a couple days

 

[rlcline76]

Hmmm
Do you have water parameters, including temperature?
Sounds almost painful to witness. I would almost suspect an internal parasite. Have you tried any treatments?

 

[billsreef]

Since this only happens after feeding, it's feeding related. If your feeding flake or pellets that float, the clown is not only eating lots, but also ingesting some air. It's that ingested air that is causing swimming problems until it has worked itself out. Try pre soaking the food, or switching to defrosted frozen food mixes

 

[Doglover_50]

Bill, I think you have it. I decided to change foods last night from what they had been getting (flakes and freezedried mysis) to frozen. The problem didn't happen. So I'm guessing I should have been soaking the freeze dried mysis before introducing the tank, and that it was blowing up in the stomach.
I'll post more if it appears to be otherwise.

 

[StarGazer_1]

any dried foods i feed go into the power filter flow.
mine just got extremely fat
the other is fine
havent seen the fat one for 3 days now
he was living behind my BTA, but not a sign now

see.....

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1255127

 

[gotasplinter]

hehe yea mine have done this in the past, they even swim upside down, My best guess is that they were overe fed. We cut way back on there frozen food and not a problem since. Hope this helped

 

[Doglover_50]

The problem here was not overfeeding--it was the freeze dried food, which appeared to blow up in the gut. Increasing the frozen (vs. freeze dried) solved the problem.