Hi all,
Question about my clownfish. She's about 8 years old so I'm used to clowns acting odd, but haven't seen this before... I added a lot of background info to give a full picture of what's been going on so I apologize for the lengthy post, but hope I covered all my bases!
Tank is 37gal, I have the clown, a valentini puffer, and a royal gramma. I'm running a HOB filter rated for 50gal, plus another hang-on sponge & biomedia filter rated for 10-20gal (going to try to make a refugium out of that when I can get rid of the flukes, but for now it's running as just the filter). Salinity is 1.023, Ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates slightly above 0 but under 5ppm, temp is 78F.
I've been treating for gill flukes with Prazipro for the past 10 days (no carbon in the filter of course). Gramma was added 10/22 along with a cardinalfish; I was stupid and didn't QT because I trusted the source, but the new fish brought in flukes- cardinal died within 12 hours of putting it in the tank, it was breathing incredibly heavily the whole time. Clown and puffer started flashing/scratching a week later, and puffer was breathing a little more quickly. Dosed prazi on 11/2. I had another cardinal already in the tank, never saw him flashing but unfortunately we lost him two days after the first dose. I did a FW dip after he died and did not see anything, but I'm still pretty sure it's flukes... A few mins after the first dose, the puffer was scratching quite a bit and then no scratching for about 3 days. Gramma had been hiding since everyone started showing symptoms, and he's been coming back out again since the first dose. Everyone has been breathing normally since the first dose. Second dose was on 11/7, and same deal after that- puffer was scratching a few mins later, clown coughed a bit. No scratching for two days, then yesterday the gramma started scratching on the gravel. I'm planning a 3rd dose for 11/14 because I don't think I waited long enough for the second dose and may still have some flukes hatching. No one has developed any spots, no observable appearance changes, all eating very well despite the prazi, normal poops, and no behavior changes besides the scratching.
Anyway, today is 4 days post-second dose and I did a 20% water change/gravel vacuum. The clown always stresses when I have my hands in the tank and bites the heck out of me, but always calms down not long after I'm done. This time though, she's acting very odd. For about an hour post water change she was holding her mouth slightly open and breathing heavily, I thought either she hurt herself biting at me and/or the flukes make it harder to breathe so the extra stress and aggression got her out of breath. But it's been almost 3 hours post water change now and she's not holding her mouth open as much anymore (still more open than usual though), still breathing heavily (not quickly, normal rate, but gills flaring a bit more than usual) and the weirdest part- she's been holding onto the algae with her mouth. I've attached a video to show exactly what she's doing with the algae. She'll hold it for up to a minute, then spit it out and swim around for a few mins, then go back to holding it. Otherwise, she's still swimming normally and did eat when I fed them a little while ago.
Everyone else is acting normally, I checked Ph before and after the WC and it's still the same, temp went up to 80 but has come back down to 78, salinity of the new water was matched to the tank and I dosed prime in the new water prior to adding it to the tank. I also add WC water a gallon at a time, so the 2 degree temp change shouldn't have been an immediate change either. I run a bubble wall in the tank, plus surface agitation from the HOB which I've turned up to a higher flow since dosing Prazi, and a little added agitation from the secondary small filter, so I wouldn't think it would be an aeration issue (plus, water change, so there's definitely oxygen in the water).
Anyone have an idea what's up with her and what she's doing with this algae? Maybe using the algae to scratch her gills from the inside, either because of the flukes or maybe she swallowed something while going after me that irritated her mouth? She does host the patch of algae under the patch she's holding onto, in case that matters at all. Does this seem concerning, indicate something other than flukes, should I be treating differently...?
Question about my clownfish. She's about 8 years old so I'm used to clowns acting odd, but haven't seen this before... I added a lot of background info to give a full picture of what's been going on so I apologize for the lengthy post, but hope I covered all my bases!
Tank is 37gal, I have the clown, a valentini puffer, and a royal gramma. I'm running a HOB filter rated for 50gal, plus another hang-on sponge & biomedia filter rated for 10-20gal (going to try to make a refugium out of that when I can get rid of the flukes, but for now it's running as just the filter). Salinity is 1.023, Ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates slightly above 0 but under 5ppm, temp is 78F.
I've been treating for gill flukes with Prazipro for the past 10 days (no carbon in the filter of course). Gramma was added 10/22 along with a cardinalfish; I was stupid and didn't QT because I trusted the source, but the new fish brought in flukes- cardinal died within 12 hours of putting it in the tank, it was breathing incredibly heavily the whole time. Clown and puffer started flashing/scratching a week later, and puffer was breathing a little more quickly. Dosed prazi on 11/2. I had another cardinal already in the tank, never saw him flashing but unfortunately we lost him two days after the first dose. I did a FW dip after he died and did not see anything, but I'm still pretty sure it's flukes... A few mins after the first dose, the puffer was scratching quite a bit and then no scratching for about 3 days. Gramma had been hiding since everyone started showing symptoms, and he's been coming back out again since the first dose. Everyone has been breathing normally since the first dose. Second dose was on 11/7, and same deal after that- puffer was scratching a few mins later, clown coughed a bit. No scratching for two days, then yesterday the gramma started scratching on the gravel. I'm planning a 3rd dose for 11/14 because I don't think I waited long enough for the second dose and may still have some flukes hatching. No one has developed any spots, no observable appearance changes, all eating very well despite the prazi, normal poops, and no behavior changes besides the scratching.
Anyway, today is 4 days post-second dose and I did a 20% water change/gravel vacuum. The clown always stresses when I have my hands in the tank and bites the heck out of me, but always calms down not long after I'm done. This time though, she's acting very odd. For about an hour post water change she was holding her mouth slightly open and breathing heavily, I thought either she hurt herself biting at me and/or the flukes make it harder to breathe so the extra stress and aggression got her out of breath. But it's been almost 3 hours post water change now and she's not holding her mouth open as much anymore (still more open than usual though), still breathing heavily (not quickly, normal rate, but gills flaring a bit more than usual) and the weirdest part- she's been holding onto the algae with her mouth. I've attached a video to show exactly what she's doing with the algae. She'll hold it for up to a minute, then spit it out and swim around for a few mins, then go back to holding it. Otherwise, she's still swimming normally and did eat when I fed them a little while ago.
Everyone else is acting normally, I checked Ph before and after the WC and it's still the same, temp went up to 80 but has come back down to 78, salinity of the new water was matched to the tank and I dosed prime in the new water prior to adding it to the tank. I also add WC water a gallon at a time, so the 2 degree temp change shouldn't have been an immediate change either. I run a bubble wall in the tank, plus surface agitation from the HOB which I've turned up to a higher flow since dosing Prazi, and a little added agitation from the secondary small filter, so I wouldn't think it would be an aeration issue (plus, water change, so there's definitely oxygen in the water).
Anyone have an idea what's up with her and what she's doing with this algae? Maybe using the algae to scratch her gills from the inside, either because of the flukes or maybe she swallowed something while going after me that irritated her mouth? She does host the patch of algae under the patch she's holding onto, in case that matters at all. Does this seem concerning, indicate something other than flukes, should I be treating differently...?