hyperventilating clown

[maximan1614]

I just added two clowns (black and white occelaris) to my 24gal. aquapod. One is fine and the other is staying at the bottom and hyperventilating. Is there any treatment I can do to help him? He has no visible signs of disease or discoloration besides the hyperventilating. Thanks for any help.

 

[hansonfam]

How old is your tank? And what are you water tests?
And last one

How long did you acclim them?

Lisa

 

[maximan1614]

They were acclimated for about an hour. This was yesterday. He has been doing this for a while now.

 

[maximan1614]

The tank is about 6-8 weeks old. I had a small ammonia spike after adding the fish that was expected since the tank is so new but did a 7gal. water change and added some amquel+ to help. Prior to adding fish tank showed zero nitrites, nitrates, or ammonia.

 

[Karl H]

I have a clown doing the same thing so I'll bump this thread for both of us.

 

[Ryanqk]

I've seen this behavior in a pair of clowns i put in a setup of similiar age... both ended up dying with no external signs of stress or disease. Even when a limewood airstone was inserted they seemed to suffocate over a period of days. Still dont know what happened, but the day after they died i put a new pair in and to this day they are fine.... this isnt the first time ive seen this happen, particularly to clowns.. I hope someone can help us understand why this happens. In the end every clownfish that has done this in my experience has ended up perishing from it, over a period of a week or less....
Ryan

 

[Karl H]

I just noticed the sick clown has white stringy feces. Isn't this a sign of internal parasites?

 

[maximan1614]

You're right. He died. Well I'm guessing he did. He disappeared yesterday and I'm battling ammonia right now. He never moved from the same area since I put him in so I'm guessing he died and the current took him to the back somewhere. For the future, if anyone knows what causes this please help.

 

[polabear627]

I had a similar problem - My percula was eating and swiming around fine for about 6 weeks then started hanging out at the bottom and breathing hard. Weird part was he still came to the surface and ate out of my hand. After a couple of days I -finally was able to get a QT tank going and put him in there with 'Clout'. It seemed to work - he was swiming around the QT tank and eating - breathing better but still faster than normai. After a week I put him back in the main tank - He acted better but 3 days later was dead on the bottom. No idea what casued it after so many weeks with him.

 

[BONDQ]

Most of the symptoms here, particularly the respiratory difficulties, seem indicative of Brooklynellosis.

I would suggest reviewing this for more information.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/brooklynella.html

With regards to "stringy poop", that sounds like an internal parasite to me. I've heard that some folks have had success with using PraziPro for this.

Hope this helps.

 

[FxdupCobra]

Well it’s really hard to determine the problem however I can tell you this much, if you had an ammonia problem when you added them you will have ammonia problem after as well. Amquel (in my experience) doesn’t neutralize the ammonia rather fools the test kit. The only thing that accurately breaks down ammonia is an established tank or some type of chemical filtration. Some fish are more sensitive (even the same species) then others when it comes to ammonia believe me I learned the hard way. I hope this helps somewhat.