whats wrong with my clownfish?

[scrubaholics]

I have a false percula clownfish that looks very bad. He was fine in my tank for a few weeks but now he is just kinda laying on the sand and looks as if he is panting/gasping for air or something. Doesnt look bad visibly at all. I thought he was going to die right away but he has been doing this the past 48 hours. My skimmer is running, along with 2 powerheads and my emperor 400. I have a nice lawnmower blenny who is healthy and also a healthy long tentacle ane. could my tank need Oxygen?

 

[FroggyFox]

Sorry I'm not a saltie so I'm not sure what could be wrong with your clown...but have you done water tests to see what levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate etc are in your tank? I believe those are as important in salt as they are in fresh.

 

[scrubaholics]

yea everything is good, maybe i just got unlucky

 

[jaws101]

I think it might be the nitrate, you might want to get a penguin filter, it has a bio-wheel wich eliminates nitrate and ammonia on contact, and you never have to change the bio wheel

 

[scrubaholics]

emperor has biowheels

 

[1979camaro]

biowheels are nitrate factories...a horrible option for a SW tank! i would take out any mechanical filtration you have and rely on the LR and the skimmer for biological filtration...that should really be all you need...i dont know why jaws101 would say "it might be the nitrate" given we have no idea what your water parameters are looking like...have you checked them?

 

[catfishmike]

have you considered a possible chemical contamination.many chemicals will make a fish gasp for what would otherwise be no apparent reason.it's not likely but it is possible.

 

[1979camaro]

good thought cfm...it could be the anemone on his way out...they create a big time mess when they die...how much light do you have for the anemone? how does it look

 

[scrubaholics]

my water is fine, my anemone is fine, my lawnmower blenny is fine. I think i just had a bad clownfish. he died yesterday. I don't think i should take out my bio-wheels? my nitrate reads 0ppm. I got a coral beauty today that looks good.

 

[scrubaholics]

oh yea, not worried about my lights

260 watts of power compacts (130 of that being actinic)