B&W Occeleris

[Widdy]

Hi Folks,

I bought a pair of B&W Occeleris from WWoF about 1.5 years ago. The past 2-3 days the female is exhibiting some irregular behavior. Her mouth just keeps yapping non-stop; about 2-3 times per second. Tested water parameters and had slight ammonia but I did a 20% waterchange yesterday, 0 nitrite and nitrate. Today I noticed her eyes slightly cloudier than the male's and mouth still yapping. No signs of external parasites, mucus or swollen gills. She's swimming upright, but low almost on the sandbed. Anything else I can do for her? Everything I've read from Google mentions Formalin Dip/Bath or FW Dip... would it be on the extreme side given the symptoms she's displaying? I don't want to stress her even more, however I don't want to sit idling by if there's something I can do about it.

Thanks much for any help.

 

[topmav1]

Is her stomach swollen?? Maybe she's preg?

 

[Widdy]

That's what I thought at first... they've been exhibiting the "mating" rituals for some time now, but I think the rapid yapping is too fast for her to be hydrating. Will continue to monitor unless advice tells me otherwise. Oh, she is showing interest in food, but hard to tell if she's eating it because of the constant yapping.

 

[KathyC]

I would try and get the ammonia back to zero (any idea why it was increased?) and do not do any dips.

If she is eating normally and has been exhibiting spawning behavior recently, this just might be a phase for her. I wouldn't suggest any action on your part, just keep an eye on her.

 

[Widdy]

Thanks Kathy. Ammonia is from a favia that was given to me, size about half of a baseball. It was slightly damaged when given to me, the rest of it died in the tank.

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep monitoring.

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

As kathy mentioned do not dip them... I think they will stress out more. Can you possibly take a pic or two of the clowns?

 

[Widdy]

Hey Alex, thanks for chiming in. A still picture would show the fish as normal. Here's a video posted by someone else, that's showing the same behavior minus the discoloration around the mouth of the fish in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp4Pze115Mw&feature=related