my clown had a serious fit. What gives?

cvermeulen

cvermeulen

Sucking up knowledge
May 18, 2007
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Los Osos, CA
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Cam
I have 7 clown loaches in my 185, water params have been stable for a couple of weeks, and I just did a 50% W/C about an hour ago. So I'm sitting in front of my tank zoned out, and I see a flash of orange as this clown loach streaks across the tank and dives into the gravel beside a large rock. He hit the gravel so hard he buried himself, and kept going, wedging himself further and further under this rock. He then lay there twitching, his black stripes going reyer and greyer. I thought he had a heart attack or something. I waited till he stopped twitching so madly, and then gently dug him out. he's now hiding about 2" from where I dug him out, looking freaked, but back to normal color. WTF?
 
Oh, everyone else is acting normal, no history of disease in this tank, no new additions... the only thing I have done differently in the past few days is feed them some earthworms from a local bait shop. The clowns only had a little bit of them though, the other fish in the tank got the lions share, and they all seem to be fine.
 
What is his size relative to the others? It sounds like he and another clown likely had a squabble regarding the pecking order and he lost. Clowns typically fade as a sign of submission after such battles.

I have actually seen my alpha one go after one of the middle of the pack ones who was picking on the smallest of the group.
 
well I originally thought someone pecked him really good and he was freaking out as a result. he was the largest in the group at about 2.5in.

Unfortunately last night he had another episode and died. He did about 5 full laps of the tank at full tilt and then dove into the gravel again and lay still with his subocular spines up. I had a close look at him when I netted him out, and he had no external damage, so I don't think he was fighting.

This is the second clown in the group to die, but the first one would never come out of hiding, and looked to have wasted away to almost nothing - this one was quite fat and active. Could the deaths be related? they seem quite different.
 
I would say from that behaviour that the fish experienced a stroke or similar. I had a large Pseudoacanthicus adonis catfish suddenly thrash around in the tank and then promptly die for no apparent reason a few years ago. Fish, just like humans can die suddenly because of a physical problem.
Your other fish sounds like classic Chronic Wasting Syndrome symptoms. Many Clowns come with internal parasites that eventually lead to them wasting away like this. Best treatment is Levamisole hydrochloride which is a livestock wormer.

Martin.
 
Weird.
 
I just did a PWC about an hour ago and now there's little activity in my tank. All my fish seem to be schooling with each other's individual species at the top and bottom corners of the thanks. The female mollies are together with the male, the zebras are uptop with the mollies, the platies and indian glassfish are together at the bottom with the goldfish, the only fish that are active are my betta and angelfish, the dojo loaches are hiding behind plants and one is in an ornament and the khuli of course is just hiding as normal.

It's weird, it's giving a feel that something bad is happening.
 
Goldfish? You mean, coldwater goldfish? I was told I couldn't put my goldfish in a tropical tank! How long have you had them int he tank with tropicals and at what temperature please?

I have 4 extremely large goldfish that I am considering selling/giving away as they are getting too big for their tank and I have no room for a bigger one; however I do have lots of space in my 100g tank, but was told not to put them in there as its tropical and heated to 80 degrees!
 
Sometimes large water changes can stress clowns. Is he acting ok now?
 
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