Urgent help needed clown fish with mouth open

Fraser W

Fraser W

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hi all

on saturday afternoon i came home to find my female clown fish swimming around with her mouth open very wide looking like she was breathing hard, male and other fish seem fine corals all fine too.. i checked my sump and saw that the water level was very low, so i suspected that maybe the salinity was the cause, i slowly added water back up to the correct level and check the salinity was at 1026

today the mouth is still open and she still is not eating she tried to nibble on a bit piece of flake but ended up spitting it out i do bi weekly water changes so this weekend was my no water change weekend

has anybody encountered a similar problem could it be one of those "isopods" caught in her throat or do you suggest i just do a big water change

thanks fraser w
 
A water change will do nothing but waste time and money, sounds like she might have got hurt from a fight etc. have you got a pic?

Can you catch the fish? If so , float a clear tub/container will drilled holes so that you can keep her separated and watch she eats, she also won't get distracted by other fish
 
I found this on the Web for you...hopefully it could steer you in the right direction after eliminating some symptoms..with the hard breathing I'll say that it could be a parasitic attack..?
Hey buddy,
There maybe one or more reasons for the clownfish to have its mouth in this position.
If the area is irritated from parasitic attack, the fish may find it uncomfortable to close its mouth.

There is a possible physical damage (injury) to the mouth area.
There is a possible hyperextension condition in the fish.

To further investigate a parasitic condition I'd need to know if the fish is having any difficulty breathing and
does it have a white lip?

An injury would cause swelling and when the swelling goes down the mouth will return to normal.

If the condition is one of jaw hyperextension then there are two ways forward:
- do nothing and hope it returns to normal in a few days;
-- anesthetize the fish and manipulate the urohyal bone which has jammed into the cleithra.
-- I can explain in more detail how to perform the latter treatment.

If the fish is having difficulty in breathing, it could die from the condition.
Usually a parasitic attack affects breathing, so if the fish breathing normally,
it reduces the likelihood of parasites.

Unfortunately, certain cases of jaw hyperextension can also place the gills into a position where they will not function properly,
causing respiratory stress (rapid breathing), that can lead to death.

In general, there is a 50/50 chance things will return to normal providing the fish is still eating and getting the proper and best nutrition.
80% of the remaining cases, the fish is helped by manipulating the urohyal bone.
The balance (20% of the remaining cases) the fish is helped with a treatment by an antibiotic.

Let me know if this helps...
Click to expand...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1966798
 
I had the same thing happen to my clownfish. It recovered on it's own. I think that one of my corals stung it on the mouth. I have frogspawn, torches and leather corals.
The clownfish's lips turned white and it also tried to eat and would spit the food out. It did manage to eat a little and then recovered after a couple of days.
This might not be the case for your fish though.
 
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i have a similiar issue though i added in another clown and 2 black clowns on Sunday so hoping they will all become friends soon.
 
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