maroon clown swimming funny

[harrisagogetter]

I have a maroon clown that swims in a pecular way. It swims veritcal with it's tail toward the sand and it's head towards the lights. Seems like his equalibrium is off. It has a loss of appetite and hasn't eaten much lately. any ideas?

 

[Pinksteel]

I could be sick from any number of things. Sounds like there could be a problem with it's swimming blater. Not much you can do but give it time and a good diet and hope it recovers. Selcon and garlic are really good for their immune system.

 

[leebca]

harrisagogetter,

I'm afraid you've given little to go on. It could well be a bladder issue, maybe infected as Pinksteel indicated. If this were true you'd have to treat with a special antibiotic known to help such conditions. One example is TETRACYCLINE formulated for marine fishes.

But there are other possibilities for the fish's behavior and without some background, I'm afraid we may not have a good diagnosis to support a treatment. Care to provide a lot more info?

How old is your tank? When did it originally cycle?
What kind of system do you have (tank volume, dimensions, bio-filtration method, the equipment you use, any carbon or other chemical filtration, kind of substrate, etc.).
List all specimens & sizes in the tank (fish, inverts, corals, clams, snails, crabs, shrimp, etc.).
If you have a refugium and/or sump, what is living in it?
Do you use a quarantine tank and procedure?
Foods you use and feeding schedules.
How long have you had this fish? If the fish was recently acquired (4 weeks), two more questions: Did you treat it or give it a dip before it went into the aquarium? How did you acclimate it ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ what procedure?
Do you use any vitamins? Fat additives? Any elemental or other additives? Please list all.
Chemistries ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ please give actual numbers (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, Silica, Ca, Alk., and any others you have)
Water parameters ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ please give actual numbers (pH and your pH range, salinity or sp. gr. & range, temperature range)
Do you see any of the following in your system: hair algae; micro algae; cyanobacteria growths (red slime algae); dinoflagellate (zooxanthellae) growths; brown algae; diatom growth; slimes; off-colored patches on rock or substrate that are not coralline; etc.?
Water changes (how much and how often). Kind of artificial salt youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re using. Kind of source water you are using? Have you analyzed your source water for the above chemistries? When did you do these tests last? What is the TDS of your source water?
List what you added or taken out of your aquarium system (living, decorations, and equipment) during the past 6 weeks.
Maintenance schedule. What have you done lately?

 

[leebca]

Pinksteel,

Good to see you posting again in the Fish Disease Forum. I appreciate your participation here on RC.

Providing guidance for fish symptoms is tricky and whenever possible we want to provide information based upon studies and scientific evidence. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case and then we resort to long-term experience, education and the last resort -- anecdotal information.

We do know some things about garlic and garlic extract. One thing that has never been shown to be true is that it improves the fish's immune system. This is a good article on this kind of information:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

I've used garlic for two things, and so far never found it to be particularly effective since I've studied it in the early '70's.

What does help the fish's immune system is certain vitamins and beta glucan. Particularly beta glucan, which should be used in times of fish illness/recovery, as long as the fish is eating.

Selcon is a fat supplement that does contain a few vitamins, but not enough of the right kinds of vitamins to have the optimum impact on the fish's immune system. A better vitamin product would be the same manufacturer's product: Selco. There are many other fish vitamins to choose from, so long as they contain as much 'natural' sources as possible.

My post on fish nutrition contains a lot of information along these lines:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=785228

I hope you'll continue to support our efforts here and again, I appreciate your efforts to help out.

:thumbsup:

 

[Pinksteel]

Thanks, I'll check out those links