Not eating- Swimming Erratically

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Claylewis

New member
I have had my clown for about a year and a half. Total system volume is 12 gallons. Only other livestock is a goby CUC and corals.

Yesterday my clown started exhibiting some very worrisome symptoms. Swimming erratically as if having seizures then "stalling out". Her spine would curl over she would stop breathing before sinking to the bottom and then springing to life again. This was about every minute all day yesterday and all night.

I tested water parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Nothing else in the tank is behaving strangely, and everyone else appears healthy. I did a 40% water change after noticing her symptoms.

Today she is still exhibiting the same behaviors, only now she will float to the top when "stalling out" instead of the bottom. No sign of parasites or infection. I tried feeding peas in case of a digestive/swim bladder issue but she will not eat. Not sure if it is swim bladder related because at times she darts around the tank quite competently. I am worried for her, any ideas on how to treat?
 
superfish

superfish

Member
it looks healthy and active. clownfish has lots of personality, yours is a unique one.
If she is alone, maybe she is looking for a mate. i have something you can match with her.
 
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Claylewis

New member
Unfortunately I found her dead this morning. Pretty upset as I was very attached to her. On the other hand she has been very distraught the past few days and I'm glad that if she was in pain it was not prolonged any longer. And [MENTION=2402]superfish[/MENTION] thank you for the offer, I'm sure she would have appreciated the company...to bad it didn't work out.

I am still so mistified at what could possibly have gone wrong. The only thing I can think of is a neurological disorder that caused her undue stress. No trace of ammonia of nitrites in the system, ph salinity and temps stable, and absolutely everyone else corals and inverts included remain healthy and normal. Inspecting her dead body showed no signs of infection. I will update if any sudden changes to system. Thank you all for the input, RIP Glass
 
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
Claylewis said:
Unfortunately I found her dead this morning. Pretty upset as I was very attached to her. On the other hand she has been very distraught the past few days and I'm glad that if she was in pain it was not prolonged any longer. And [MENTION=2402]superfish[/MENTION] thank you for the offer, I'm sure she would have appreciated the company...to bad it didn't work out.

I am still so mistified at what could possibly have gone wrong. The only thing I can think of is a neurological disorder that caused her undue stress. No trace of ammonia of nitrites in the system, ph salinity and temps stable, and absolutely everyone else corals and inverts included remain healthy and normal. Inspecting her dead body showed no signs of infection. I will update if any sudden changes to system. Thank you all for the input, RIP Glass
Click to expand...
I guess it wasnt happy and healthy and just needed to get laid . Sorry for your lose . Sometimes fish just get sick for no reason i was watching a wrasse i had for yrs swimming and all of sudden it just twitched floated to the ground and died like a stroke or heart attack was so messed up . Maybe was just her time
 
superfish

superfish

Member
Sorry to hear that.
My bad.
Lots of things can cause sudden death... hard to know for sure. did you recently add new fish to tank, or even coral or rock. could be some kind of unknow disease.
look back to the video. i do feel like it might be something on the skin made the fish feel unconfortable.... but its too late now..
hope all other fish is ok.
good luck.


Claylewis said:
Unfortunately I found her dead this morning. Pretty upset as I was very attached to her. On the other hand she has been very distraught the past few days and I'm glad that if she was in pain it was not prolonged any longer. And [MENTION=2402]superfish[/MENTION] thank you for the offer, I'm sure she would have appreciated the company...to bad it didn't work out.

I am still so mistified at what could possibly have gone wrong. The only thing I can think of is a neurological disorder that caused her undue stress. No trace of ammonia of nitrites in the system, ph salinity and temps stable, and absolutely everyone else corals and inverts included remain healthy and normal. Inspecting her dead body showed no signs of infection. I will update if any sudden changes to system. Thank you all for the input, RIP Glass
Click to expand...
 
G

gg1111

Member
I have never seen that curling on a clown/any fish. But looked like it had a breathing issue. Sorry for your loss :(
 
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Claylewis

New member
superfish said:
Sorry to hear that.
My bad.
Lots of things can cause sudden death... hard to know for sure. did you recently add new fish to tank, or even coral or rock. could be some kind of unknow disease.
look back to the video. i do feel like it might be something on the skin made the fish feel unconfortable.... but its too late now..
hope all other fish is ok.
good luck.
Click to expand...
My Cave Goby and Lobophyllia both added about 4 months ago. Only other change would be that within the past 5 months I installed the BRS 5 stage RODI+ and have been mixing salt with that, as opposed to LFS RO water.
Absolutely everything else in the tank is healthy, ( 2.5 weeks have passed since death).
Initially I was also thinking skin, because it looked like she was trying to shake something of, but was not rubbing up against anything and skin/colors looked beautiful as usual.

I thoroughly inspected her body the next morning and found no physical signs of common/known parasite disease . She must have died very recently before I woke up because her colors had barely faded. One thing strange I saw on her dead body, the top of her head almost under her skin a very dark brown/maroon color was showing through, and possibly slightly indented.(normal?)

The three days leading up to her death she was twitching a whole lot (like males do to show submissiveness to females). So something must have been freaking her out.

Another theory I have been tossing around is that I bought her as a pair, and at the time she was the smaller of the two (so male.) Her/his partner passed one month after bringing them home due to an insanely overzealous feeding regime from a friend while I was away (I know ultimately my fault for not pre-portioning the food). Possibly this experience early on in life could have caused some trauma or permanent neuro/physical damage. Or potentially the sex change never actually occurred and the symptoms she was experiencing in the days leading up to her death were brought on by a delayed sex change (hormonal stress?). I think it would be unlikely she would be undergoing a change after being alone for a year and a half already, but I am no expert.

My last question. Is it possible for a fish to die from coral toxins? I did move some Zoas around a week before symptoms occurred. Also my bubble coral has grown much to large for my tank and is starting to become insanely aggressive (sweepers out 50% of the time). One a side note I am looking to get rid of this bubble, it's 6" in diameter when extended and much too big for my 12 gal.

Thanks guys, still newish to reefing and trying to do the best I can. I will leave the youtube video and this thread up and hopefully it will help someone in the future.
 
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