My clownfish looks like he is dying

[SilverBlaze17]

Hey guys I have a pair of clowns in a 20G. He was acting perfectly normal last night and eating. I woke up this morning and he was swimming upright at the bottom of the tank. He has no marks or anything that looks abnormal about him other than he is now sitting at the bottom breathing super heavy.

Everything else looks fine, the coral and shrimp look normal. I tested the water and the parameters are what I always keep them at (nitrate 10 before someone asks).

I just don’t understand what could have happened. He is the dominant clown and there are no sign of injury so that’s not it, and everything else in the tank is fine. I just can’t think of anything that would affect a healthy fish that drastically in one night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: he died as soon as I posted this. Any thoughts would still be appreciated so I can hopefully at least learn something from this.

 

[Jekyl]

Can't tell if the pic here is blurry due to glass of if the spots and blur is on the fish's skin.

Do you have any surviving fish? Do you have a quarantine system in place?

Here is a detailed article on the information necessary for best diagnosis.

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[Sharkbait19]

The gills look red and damaged - it could have gotten injured by the other clown.
How does the other fish look?
Any recent additions or changes to the tank?

 

[NanoNana]

Post a thread in fish disease and illnesses. With pictures of the dead fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey guys I have a pair of clowns in a 20G. He was acting perfectly normal last night and eating. I woke up this morning and he was swimming upright at the bottom of the tank. He has no marks or anything that looks abnormal about him other than he is now sitting at the bottom breathing super heavy.

Everything else looks fine, the coral and shrimp look normal. I tested the water and the parameters are what I always keep them at (nitrate 10 before someone asks).

I just don’t understand what could have happened. He is the dominant clown and there are no sign of injury so that’s not it, and everything else in the tank is fine. I just can’t think of anything that would affect a healthy fish that drastically in one night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: he died as soon as I posted this. Any thoughts would still be appreciated so I can hopefully at least learn something from this.

Just an FYI - this fish was battered by likely another clown or other tankmate. Identify the fish before adding any others

 

[MnFish1]

What other fish do you have - any other illness/symptoms. It could be aggression, it could be an illness

 

[Bj’s Reef]

Following.