Something wrong with clown fish

[jpesce]

I just bought two ocellaris clowns from tropic isle the monday night, both looked to be fine when I introduced them, when I got home last night one of them was like swimming upside down and in circles just acting strange but the other one seems to be doing great. All water tests come back fine. Any ideas what this could be?

 

[gobie1313]

Did you drip them when you acclimated them, or just introduce them. Is his breathing very heavy?

 

[jpesce]

Yes I did a drip when I acclimated them, now he is like burying his head under rocks but still alive, sometimes he will move to a cave but you can tell he is swimming like sideways or something. The other one is fine and looks happy as can be.

 

[biggyclops]

you have a QT tank? might want to get that going..

 

[afboundguy]

This may sound weird but is it's spine bent? I've had this happen before when one got sucked into a powerhead but not enough to kill it and keep it stuck to the powerhead... That was the first thing that came to mind... If it does have a curved body you might want to look at humane ways to euthanize him/her because it is prob suffering...

 

[JPags]

Not sure if this is the same thing as what my Gold Fish had, but it was called Swim Bladder disease. My Gold Fish would swim upside down, and side ways. He would then swim fine for a while again. A couple of times I though he was dead but when I netted him, he started swimming again.

He lived that way for a while. i did a lot of research and tried feeding him different food, but in the end he died.

John

 

[buddy524]

Sounds like his swim bladder I had a fish that was hit from the side and hurt his bladder, he was qt for two months and one day when I came home he was back to swimming normal again.

 

[new2saltyfish]

if it is swim bladder i just read that "Take a soft, cooked pea (either fresh, canned or frozen and then cooked), crush it and feed it to the fish"

this might help...
http://www.helium.com/items/1274652-swim-bladder-problem-in-fish

 

[phaedraeos]

Not sure if this is the same thing as what my Gold Fish had, but it was called Swim Bladder disease. My Gold Fish would swim upside down, and side ways. He would then swim fine for a while again. A couple of times I though he was dead but when I netted him, he started swimming again.

He lived that way for a while. i did a lot of research and tried feeding him different food, but in the end he died.

John

Fancy goldfish are really prone to swim bladder disorders, which they get more often than not from eating flake food floating on the water's surface, and gulping huge amounts of air in the process. I've heard of frozen peas helping them half the time.

I just did a quick search on swim bladder problems in saltwater fish, and it appears they're not too common. However, one Q/A site brought up the possibility that nitrite or nitrate poisoning could be the cause for a saltwater fish swimming upsidedown and sideways. Have you tested for both of these?

A third cause for upsidedown swimming that I've seen in my goldfish is constipation. This will usually work itself out (no pun intended) within a couple of days. If your water checks out and you fed heavily upon the fish's introduction to the tank, you might want to just fast them for 2 days and see what happens.

Finally, if it appears he's really struggling, you might want to consider putting him in a QT tank with around 1.020 salinity (takes some of the stress out of osmotic regulation) and only a few inches of water and low flow so that he doesn't have to fight so hard to swim. Good luck!

 

[unexpectedsnail]

this happened to a fish of mine, check his fins to see how they are doing. He might be being harassed by something in the tank. I never quite figured out what happened to him but the conclusion i drew was that a hermit crab had been harassing him and ended up injuring his fins and the injures and stress did him in ( i ended up consulting multiple people cause i thought this to be be VERY odd behavior ) anyway, i hope for the best for your fish, let us know how it does.