Clown fish acclimation

[pascal32]

I just picked up a new tank which included two small clown fish that looked great! They were in transport for about 5 hours, so i floated them for about an hour - they looked great. I moved them to a Styrofoam container and dripped them with about 1/4 to 1/2 the initial volume over 30 minutes.

Put them in the tank and one of them started doing some unusual maneuvers. 30 minutes later I found him stuck under a rock, I freed him and noticed a small snail had taken hold. I removed the snail and he tried to swim, just didn't fair well. I moved him into an isolation container in the same tank and about 30 minutes later he passed away.

Strange part is that the other one looks healthy as can be.

The water he originated from:

salinity - 1.024
PH - 8
KH - 7

My tank:
Salinity 1.026
PH - 8
KH 9

(note that my test kit reads KH about 1-2 low, I used the same kit for both)

Did I do something wrong acclimating?

The strange part is that earlier this year one of my two clowns vanished, now this one. End result is two unmatched clowns, one large, one small.

not feeling so good about this.

 

[jdoenumber2]

What are you nitrates at? Take him back. Any reasonable LFS will offer exchange or store credit. Clown fish only cost a few dollars.

 

[pascal32]

My nitrates are 0. He was part of a full tank setup I bought privately. I was hoping that i would learn something out of this miss-fortune. In 4 years of having salt water fish I have lost 2 - both clown fish.

 

[jdoenumber2]

Hmm . .. . Not a clue. Could of just been stressed from the move.

 

[superkat]

here's what i've discovered....sometimes...regardless of what your water conditions are...the difference between one tank and another, on top of the stress of a move (5 hours is kinda a long time...did the water temp drop during that time?) is sometimes all it takes for a fish to belly up. I've gotten fish before that come from a tank where the water is not up to par, doing great, plop them in my tank and BAM...clean water? can't handle it. And visa versa.

Sorry about your clownfish, however. I hate losing fish.



(and when i say "plop", for those of you going? what? no acclimation? I mean "plop" in a very loose sort of interpretation. I acclimate everything....slowly. And Eileen? Setting up a QT tank. So you don't yell at me anymore.....)

 

[Gravesj1s]

I dont have a lot of experience with many fish but the common clown is one Ive always taken interest.Ime they dont ship well and are prone to brooklynella.Some where between shipping and acclimating is the risky part, if they make it through there very hardy.

Ive found a really slow acclimation of 2 or more hours works well.I clamp the bag in the sump and use a drip line from the tank to the bag.It seems to work well for me.

 

[pascal32]

I dont have a lot of experience with many fish but the common clown is one Ive always taken interest.Ime they dont ship well and are prone to brooklynella.Some where between shipping and acclimating is the risky part, if they make it through there very hardy.

Ive found a really slow acclimation of 2 or more hours works well.I clamp the bag in the sump and use a drip line from the tank to the bag.It seems to work well for me.

playing it safe with the urchin and sea cucumber. 3 hours of acclimation. slow drip to triple the original water. emptied half, fast drip to full again. float for the 1 degree temperature difference in the container.

 

[superkat]

keep us posted, Blurry.

 

[pascal32]

here's what i've discovered....sometimes...regardless of what your water conditions are...the difference between one tank and another, on top of the stress of a move (5 hours is kinda a long time...did the water temp drop during that time?) is sometimes all it takes for a fish to belly up. I've gotten fish before that come from a tank where the water is not up to par, doing great, plop them in my tank and BAM...clean water? can't handle it. And visa versa.

Sorry about your clownfish, however. I hate losing fish.

it's a bummer. I was most perplexed by how well his friend is doing...

 

[solRNY]

congrats on the new tank pascal!
sure would like to see a pic of that urchin your talking about

sorry to hear about your nem, was he a juvy?

just a thought and its a way out there thought, when we had our first batch of cardinals, some of them would exhibit these, what i would call, " unusual maneuvers" too, they would be darting at lighting fast speed without any control, and then they seem to be paralyzed and slowly floated down to the bottom, there some would remain for long time. so we thought they were dead and scooped them out, this was happening very frequently, eventually i got sick of this and left the deads one where they were, to our amazment they can come back after serveral hours! i believe this is a "play dead" defense mechanism, maybe your nem played dead but then a snail got to him before he can recover...just a thought

i got a great video of this if u want to see it, lmk

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

what kind of snails you got that would eat Clownfish... Nassarius or ?

What species of clowns in your present 'odd couple'?

 

[pascal32]

The clownfish (bot the first and second set ate false percula (I didn't count the spines, but the black band is really thin).

The snails (i was told by the previous owner) are Nassarius, but they have black shells and don't look like the ones I got a few years back.

solRNY - I was wondering if he played dead so I have him some time, unfortunately he wasn't faking it

Kat - The tuxedo urchin and sea cucumber look like they are doing well, as are the damsels and corals i moved over.

I still have a 20 long downstairs with 3 large pieces of liverock and a spine urchin that need to be acclimated. I set them up in their own aquarium with the original water as i didn't have the space or time so late to acclimate everything. I'll probably do them tomorrow as today is pretty busy and I want to take my time.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

End result is two unmatched clowns, one large, one small.

not feeling so good about this.

so you now have a large and small ocellaris?

Did you place the new pair of ocellaris into the same aquarium that held the other established ocellaris?

 

[pascal32]

so you now have a large and small ocellaris?

Did you place the new pair of ocellaris into the same aquarium that held the other established ocellaris?

oh oh, I feel like a child who is about to get in trouble

Yes, I placed the two small clowns in with the single large establish clown.

The remaining small one and the established one are getting along great. They go everywhere together.

I heard that you shouldn't have more than two, I was hoping that the tank was big enough and had enough hiding places to support the three of them.

did I do wrong?

PS - sorry for the previous lack of spelling, i was using my phone.

 

[shawna1972]

sorry about your clown

 

[superkat]

well, that is kinda the rule of thumb...but i do have two sets of clowns in my 90g, percs and tomatoes. there was an hour or so of....if i have to get these guys out, it's going to be ugly...but they finally took to their own corners (and nems) and have been fine every since...

but...it could explain why maybe you lost one, did you see any attacking going on?


i'll leave the verdict up the the experts.....

 

[block head]

sorry about your clown. floating bags can be a bad thing. the water in the bag will often heat quickly to the temp of the tank. a very rapid major change of temp can be a deal breaker. the water in bag can easily go from 60 to 80 in ten minutes. u also have ph,o2,fish poop, stress,etc etc. i use a quick float (5-10 min),or a long 1-3hr drip for inverts. i'm also a big fan of qt tank . my qt is a well established 10 g w/live rock. i release my fish in very low light conditions. it's usually overkill,but i never lose fish.

 

[superkat]

sorry about your clown. floating bags can be a bad thing. the water in the bag will often heat quickly to the temp of the tank. a very rapid major change of temp can be a deal breaker. the water in bag can easily go from 60 to 80 in ten minutes. u also have ph,o2,fish poop, stress,etc etc. i use a quick float (5-10 min),or a long 1-3hr drip for inverts. i'm also a big fan of qt tank . my qt is a well established 10 g w/live rock. i release my fish in very low light conditions. it's usually overkill,but i never lose fish.

this is excellent info. thank you.

 

[pascal32]

thanks for the great info. I'm going to start acclimating the last of the new livestock I got with the tank. The octupus skimmer that was with the setup is all cleaned up and ready for use down the road.