[RyanBeljan]

HELP!

I came home from work today and found my clownfish sitting/laying on the bottom of the tank with his mouth open gasping "for air"!

He moves around a little bit - looks like he tries to hide near a rock or something.

His body looks clean and no signs of parasites. He has been eating like normal the past few evenings.

No idea how this has happened. What should I do??

 

[hodge1995]

what are your paramters.Is there plenty of oxygen

 

[mrplum]

I just came on. Not much to do except add an air stone to insure there is enough oxygen. From my experience I think he is finished.

 

[RyanBeljan]

Salinity, PH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all fine - so are my other fish.

Why would the oxygen all of a sudden drop and he would suffer? I dont have any airstones but I may run to the store right away to grab some.

 

[RyanBeljan]

Should I place the airstone next to him?

 

[hodge1995]

It is hard telling what is exaclty going on if your others are fine. If you get a bacteria bloom it can deplete the oxygen in a hurry. He may just be sick.? I would put it on his end of the tank.not necisarily right next to him. Do you run a skimmer. If you do this should be oxygenating the water fine.

 

[RyanBeljan]

I do run a sea clone skimmer.

I just hooked up an airline to an air pump. Put it in the tank about 12" from him and it instantly spurred some life into him. He swam around near where he was, and now he is sitting/slowly moving around near the O2 line.

I've tried I place some food by him, but he doesn't really go for it.

Any other ideas??

 

[RyanBeljan]

Two days ago I swapped out some rock I had been using for a couple years with some new Dry Rock from BRS. The rock that had previously been in my tank was rock that was from my property here in Ohio and was probably causing an algea problem. (I have a whole thread about this... http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/is-this-good-or-bad-algae-190251.html)

When I received the rock from BRS I let it sit in a bucket of salt water for 2 days, then rinsed it off before placing it in the tank.

Could this be causing some swing in chemistry that is making him sick - without harming my Sailfin, Longnose Fly or Damsel?

 

[hodge1995]

I would think so especially if he is smaller. Did you check params tonight?

 

[Reefcamp]

I would...
Pull the rocks just in case, maybe something in them irritated his gill slits causing inflammation and swelling, reducing diffusion of oxygen. Leave lights on a little later and earlier to increase oxygen and if you are dosing probiotics stop.

 

[RyanBeljan]

Here is a link if the embed doesnt work...

http://youtu.be/VV6b7UX--7g


I just took a video of him. So sad. But you can see what he is doing. (And see my other fish swim by to see whats up...)

I'll remove the rocks now. I am not dosing with any meds. I will leave the lights on a little extra per your recommendation.

I did test the parameters about an hour ago and they were just fine.

 

[Reefcamp]

Oh man I hate to see that, poor guy, he doesn't look too good. Lets hope the night is okay. Might want to watch out and make sure that the crabs don't go after him

 

[RyanBeljan]

I don't have any inverts on the bottom, so no issue with crabs.

I placed my airline directly underneath my Koralia - so it is spewing air bubbles all over the tank to circulate the O2. Good or bad idea?

All of the new rock is out and I guess it's just a waiting game now.

 

[Reefcamp]

I think the powerhead is a good idea. Looking things up they can damage their gills from chemicals and have a hard time breathing, parasites can also cause this.

 

[RyanBeljan]

Thanks for all the help. We'll see how things go tonight. Hopefully I don't wake up with a totally dead fish...

 

[RyanBeljan]

Should I do a 5 gallon water change? If the new rock I put in had something to do with irritation, then perhaps I should swap out the water? Or will this just cause more un-needed stress?

 

[hodge1995]

I believe I would watch and wait.If I were truly worried about chemicals I would be inclined to do a lrage water change. Kinda hard to know what to do. I believe the damage is done and if the parameters are fine it is just hard to tell what is going on. If you get up over night i would check on the others just to be safe.

 

[RyanBeljan]

Yeah, if it ends up being a chemical thing, I can only assume the others will be affected soon enough. That would be devastating - and I would be very unhappy with BRS...

 

[RyanBeljan]

Should I take him out and put him in a smaller 10 gal QT tank with any medicine?

 

[RyanBeljan]

Welp - we lost him. He didn't make it through the night. When I just checked, he was laying on the bottom stiff as a board. It looked like his mouth was full of sand, really odd. I guess he croaked with his mouth open and sand just floated in his mouth overnight...?