my clown isnt funny

[reefsurfer1]

I have a black clown fish and he is acting strange. First, his breathing seems labored, he breathes faster than normal and sometimes he has his mouth open for hours. He hasnt eaten in a couple days. Im not worried about him starving yet but I thought I would mention it. He has been hiding behind a lr at the bottom of the tank most of the day. At night he goes to the top of the tank and hides by my protein skimmer. I have seen some stringy poop clinging to him twice now and its clear on the ends with something in the middle. My tank is 85g, I tested my water today the sp is 1.025 the temp is 82f, ammonias and nitrites 0, ph 8.0, and nitrates are at 10ppm. The only tank mates he has right now are the cuc, and a arrow head crab. My tank is new I have had it up and running for a month and have had my clown fish for 2 weeks. Any ideas?

[Blake]

82 F is HOT, myabe thats it, other than that it sounds sick to me

[reefsurfer1]

Other than a chiller is there any way to lower the temp in my tank? My house is set at 78 day and night, but I live in surprise az, its hot here.

[Blake]

im by no means a expert on this hobby so dont take what i say into the extreme, but when i had MH lighting i used a fan that i bought from the LFS and that dropped it like 4 degrees, but i have T-5 now and it stays at about 78. i live in florida but my house is 76F

[leebca]

There is at least one, maybe two problems. I would treat for both problems.

Move the fish to a quarantine tank and treat for Brook. This can be done by FW dips, although the best treatment is by doing Formalin Dips. You do one dip every other day until you've done 5 dips.

For FW dips, follow this guideline except, leave fish in FW for only 15 minutes: Freshwater Dip for Marine Fishes

For a Formalin treatment, follow these procedures: Formalin Treatment - Marine Fishes

For the second treatment, the fish needs to be de-wormed: Strange Excrement from Fish -or- How to be a Super Pooper Snooper Since the fish isn't eating, you can wait for this treatment after or during the dip treatments for Brook in the hopes the fish will start to eat. If he doesn't eat by the end of the Brook treatments, then I wouldn't wait much longer and start the de-worming process by adding chemicals to the QT tank. If the fish does show signs of being interested in food, be sure to add medicines for de-worming to the food.

Regarding heat, that isn't the problem. However you can lower tank temperature by removing the aquarium top/lid and putting fan air on/across the water surface. This causes the temperature to go down some by evaporation. The dryer the air is around the tank, the lower the temperature will drop. If you can air condition the room the tank is in, that will help in addition to the fan.

Good luck!

[reefsurfer1]

Thanks lee. I was looking at my clown fish today and his gills are puffed out as well. I dont know if that changes anything but I thought I should mention it. I appreciate your help.

Tom

[leebca]

Thanks for the additional info. All info is important. The additional symptom coincides with Brook so I'd stick with the original recommendations given above.

[reefsurfer1]

Thanks I will give it a try.

[rluix]

Im not gonna lie to you, the title of your thread made me laught.