Clown staying in same place, heavier breathing

[Apwhite]

I’ve had a clown since April and have had no real problems yet. This is my first marine fish so I’m still pretty inexperienced. This weekend, I was out of town so I had a friend feed him for a couple of days. Sometime while I was gone, the power went out causing the auto timer for my lights to shut off. I don’t know how long the lights were off, but no more than a day to a day and a half. I got home earlier today and I can’t tell if my clown is acting weird or if I’m just overthinking it. He usually hangs out around the top left corner of the tank, but he now seems to not move from there at all. He’s swimming upright, but doesn’t move from the spot he’s in. Occasionally it looks like he stops swimming all together for a second or two before resuming. I’d just pass it off as weird clown behavior but he also seems to be breathing heavy and not have interest in the food I put in the tank. I don’t know if this is a result of the lights being off for a little too long, a sign of some sort of sickness, or what! Parameters are fine. Please help!!

 

[connorlindeman]

I’ve had a clown since April and have had no real problems yet. This is my first marine fish so I’m still pretty inexperienced. This weekend, I was out of town so I had a friend feed him for a couple of days. Sometime while I was gone, the power went out causing the auto timer for my lights to shut off. I don’t know how long the lights were off, but no more than a day to a day and a half. I got home earlier today and I can’t tell if my clown is acting weird or if I’m just overthinking it. He usually hangs out around the top left corner of the tank, but he now seems to not move from there at all. He’s swimming upright, but doesn’t move from the spot he’s in. Occasionally it looks like he stops swimming all together for a second or two before resuming. I’d just pass it off as weird clown behavior but he also seems to be breathing heavy and not have interest in the food I put in the tank. I don’t know if this is a result of the lights being off for a little too long, a sign of some sort of sickness, or what! Parameters are fine. Please help!!

I think that your friend is more sus than the lights.

 

[Donya]

Any rough idea on how long the outage itself was? Outages lasting more than a few hours can sometimes cause mini-cycles or even larger cycles for longer outages due to the filters stagnating (more of a problem with canisters than HOBs). If that happened, the effects may be over already as far as detectability on most test kits but it can stress fish. Otherwise it's hard to diagnose the lack of eating and swimming behavior without seeing the fish. Clowns can be weird in terms of movement and if they are stressed by something (such as being in the dark) they can be weirder, but the not eating is definitely concerning.

Light bulbs and fixtures can also be damaged by brown-outs and surges that go along with outages, and the issues aren't necessarily visible to the human eye - sometimes my only cue that a light is failing has been from anemones suddenly trying to hide away from it and/or fish going crazy. It's a hard one to diagnose but also reasonably rare with modern equipment, but it is something I have seen myself that can cause fish to hide in a corner for no apparent reason if other ailments are ruled out.