swimming sideways - with update

[lberenguer]

Ok... so, I used to have only 1 clown in my tank for the longest time. Recently I discovered there is a clown hatchery aquaculture type place near my house that breeds clown so I supported and bought one. They did fine together, everyone was happy, and one morning I came home and even found them cuddling. Great.

Until one day I woke up and saw the little one stuck to the side of a hang on back intake (which I have on for extra filtration as the tank they are presently in is new-er)... I removed it, put in him a breeder and he survived for about three days on his side.. breathing and swimming every so often but not very well and then died.

I assumed he died because of injuries sustained : however

This morning I woke up and couldnt find the larger clown (I assume my female) anywhere in the tank and I thought oh great.. sympathy pains!! but then I found her.. under a piece of rock where I had never seen her before face out seemingly guarding the little cave when I noticed her drift onto her side and then back up.

So now I'm entertaining the thought of there having something been wrong with the little one prior to him getting stuck in the intake.. which would make sense as the intake is not very strong at all. Could there be something wrong thats now affected my other fish? I also have a purple firefish and a blue/green damsel.. both active as ever

What could this be? And how can I save the larger one if it has the same thing? I haven't seen her move out from the cave it's like she's seeking shelter.. every so often drifting to one side before she corrects herself.

Help?

PS all my water levels are where they need to be.. just tested them.
I have been having a little bit of a brown/red algea bloom because my system is over 2 years old but I upgraded the tank recently and have been using algeafix to fight that



UPDATE

So I use bamboo skewers a lot to move things around and not stick my hand in there because this perticular clown hates my hand in the tank.. I managed to get her to come out and she swam just fine.. vertical as always but then went back into the little cave and I think she may have even dug a hole.

???! I was going to buy a replacement for the other clown today but now I'm not so sure??

 

[patriots81]

glad to hear.

 

[Nataliek2270]

I wouldn't get another clown for a while. Make sure the remaining clown does well and comes out from that hole. The smaller clown could have had some disease or parasite and was weakened and got stuck. The other clown was you said close and snuggly with the new clown, so it could be sick and the other fish have not caught it yet. I would wait at least 2 weeks before putting another clown in there IMO. Better yet, put the remaining clown in a quarantine tank so you can keep a close eye on it. And when you do decide to get another clown, make sure you do the quarantining process with him so he doesn't bring anything bad into your display tank, Good luck.