Post ammonia scare, are fish ok?

[DrBoxedWine]

Hello Everyone,

I won't go into the details of what happened (i did that in other threads), but i added a couple clowns to my QT over the weekend and then realized ammonia was really high, around 3 ppm. I added a 5x dose of prime to the tank within minutes of adding them, but then they stayed in this overnight until i could get them into a 5 gal bucket the next morning. Once in there, they weren't exposed to anymore ammonia, and the QT tank is back to 0 now and they're in there again. They're eating just fine. one of the fish likes to hang out basically with his face down towards the bottom in the upper corner of the tank now, although he sometimes comes down and hangs out other places as well.

What i'm wondering is, are there any signs to look for that might indicate they suffered irreparable damage? I'd rather just put them out of their misery than let them suffer indefinitely if i've done too much damage to them :thumbdown

Visually, they look fine. But they're such weird little swimmers anyway that's it's hard to tell if they're fine or not.

Thanks, i'd love any thoughts you guys have.

 

[billdogg]

Ammonia can burn their gills, so labored breathing would be one indicator. Clowns are tough liitle fish, so if they made it this far, they will probably be fine.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Thanks!

 

[Saltliquid]

Permanently flared gills mate, if that's the case they have permanent damage, no big deal if they have that and the one sitting in the flow, "more oxygen through the gills with less effort if gills are adversely affected. My black orcelaris has it and it's fine from two years back.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Thanks sir, any chance you have a pic if what that looks like? The tank will have a ton of flow, so he might be alright if that's the case. Where exactly are the gills on a clown? Right behind the side fin?

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Is it normal for them to swim up near at the top? It's almost like they've made the top corner of the tank their home. There's no powerhead or anything up there, just open space. One also kinda jumped out of the water, didn't fly out, but did we heard the flop of him on top ... Is that normal? Am I being a paranoid freak?

 

[DrBoxedWine]

The reason i notice it is because when I saw them in the store they were swimming around the tank more, which they have yet to really do in almost a week in my tank (that I've seen)

 

[m0nkie]

my pair made a home out of top corner of the tank. they swim all day and sleep at the corner

 

[shesacharmer]

Clowns will choose a spot and that's it for them. Partly it depends upon how mature they are when you get them how soon they do so. I'd take a wait and see approach with your pals.