Clownfish Behavior/feeding

[Modemagic]

I have two clownfish..... both perculas... one is a small Orange one, the second is a slightly larger black percula.

These fish are simply wierd... I got the orange one Wednesday and had no real problems with him. The second one, I got on Saturday, (yes I know about buying them in pairs, I should have, etc.) and he hung out on the other side of the tank. Every since I've had the orange one, it seems all he does is swim his little heart out. Never really going anywhere, but really putting forth much effort. He always seems to stay along the glass as well. I'm guessing its because he can see a reflection of himself...??? The black one when i put him in the tank, was on the opposite side of the orange one. After a few hours of this, I netted him, and brought him carefully to the side with the orange one and they did a bit of a kissing ritual and kind of hung out only having one immediate skirmish that lasted about 3 seconds.

Now they pretty much always hang out together, but still constantly seem to swim an awful lot for no apparent reason. Is this normal behavior?? They never really seemed to do this in the LFS, which is what makes me wonder. They always would swim the entire length of the aquarium, rather then just a few inches of it. last night i woke up in the middle of the night and checked the tank on the way to the toilet, (give me a break... reefing is still new to me!) I thought they were dead. They were literally in the front corner of the tank motionless, no fins moving, nothing just laying there, not on their side, rightside up, and one next to the other notably. I paniced and thought they were dead so i flipped on the lights and scared them i think as they started swimming again superfast and retarded-like. Is their behavior normal or am I missing something? maybe just not adjusted to one other or their new home?

My other question is feeding. I feed them frozen brine shrimp and a pellet mixture, rotating, shrimp one day, pellets the next. The pellet mixture as recommended my my LFS guy. It has some good stuff in it, kryll (sp?), etc. I don't know if they are actually eating it or not, since they aren't aggressive food finders, often waiting for it to come to them, and they are skiddish, how can I be sure they get feed? Also, I read in the Clownfish FAQ that brine shrimp aren't good for them, not having much nutrition. Anyone know about this???

Background on my tank as it is right now:

75g RR AGA tank with wet/dry filter setup running a little over a month or so. Two snails and four hermit crabs currently in tank and 20lbs. of Fiji Live Rock and the Percula Clowns in question. No other fish or known inverts with the exception of a pesky aiptasia that I can't seem to catch.

 

[atram]

My clowns are busy swimming all day long, so I believe this is normal behavior unless their hosting something. I have had been feeding flake, mysis shrimp, rotifers and brine shrimp. I soak their food in selcon, this increases the nutritional value of the food.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5009

When the lights are off and it's dark the clown's will find some place to sleep. My clown's bunk down in a cubby hole in the rock, this is normal behaviour. You probably startled them when you turned on the lights.

 

[phishcrazee]

You might want to back off on feeding so much frozen food....... I'm betting your nitrates and/or phosphates are through the roof! Do you have a skimmer? Plan on getting more rock, as this will help with biological filtration.

Make sure you're testing the tank parameters, especially since your tank is so young. Are you sure the tank has cycled? You really need to get the aiptasia under control asap, as it will only get worse, and getting your water parameters under control in the first step.

 

[tibbs2]

You should give mysis shrimp a try. My ocellaris and marroon clowns both like it.

Clownfish don't swim around a lot by nature. They stick close to their anemone or their safe spot.

Chris

P.S. I didn't see that you said you have aptasia but if you do, kill it now or you'll regret it the rest of your aquarium career. I'd also never put mushrooms in a tank again either. They grow faster than aptasia in my tank and are harder to kill.

 

[Modemagic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9397518#post9397518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phishcrazee
You might want to back off on feeding so much frozen food....... I'm betting your nitrates and/or phosphates are through the roof! Do you have a skimmer? Plan on getting more rock, as this will help with biological filtration.

Make sure you're testing the tank parameters, especially since your tank is so young. Are you sure the tank has cycled? You really need to get the aiptasia under control asap, as it will only get worse, and getting your water parameters under control in the first step.

Actually my nitrates aren't bad right now. My phosphates are unknown whereas I don't have a test for them. I do have a skimmer and already planned on getting more rock to help as well as put some in the filter.

I need something that will kill the aiptasia. I'd like a peppermint shrimp, but those seem to have bad reviews and like to eat everything else. Any other ideas?? Actually 'catching' it is about impossible, I've been trying that route for weeks now.

Atram, do you get your selcon from AE locally, or buy it from the interweb?

 

[phishcrazee]

When you say your nitrates aren't bad, what are they at? Any nitrates at all will fuel aiptasia and algae growth. Your aim should be 0-5ppm for nitrates for a reef tank. Of course it could be phosphates. Get a test for one, it'll be a better investment than a peppermint shrimp, imo.

Also, there's a lot of difference in the performance of skimmers, but A skimmer is better than no skimmer

Not sure what you mean by catching it..... they (aiptasia) are attached to something, so it's not like it's running away from you

Just mix up some kalkwasser (pickling lime is the common name, used for canning/pickling) into a paste and use an eye dropper to cover the aiptasia. If you have powerheads blowing over the area, turn them off so the paste will stay on the anemone. Of course, if you can take the aiptasia/rock out, it's much easier. You may have to do this several times to make sure it is all dead, and watch for outcroppings of new, smaller aiptasia.

 

[phishcrazee]

double post

 

[Modemagic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9398475#post9398475 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phishcrazee
When you say your nitrates aren't bad, what are they at? Any nitrates at all will fuel aiptasia and algae growth. Your aim should be 0-5ppm for nitrates for a reef tank. Of course it could be phosphates. Get a test for one, it'll be a better investment than a peppermint shrimp, imo.

My nitrates run between 0-5ppm. I also them weekly.

Also, there's a lot of difference in the performance of skimmers, but A skimmer is better than no skimmer

Its by no means the best skimmer, but it does remove crap from the tank, making it better then no skimmer as you said.

Not sure what you mean by catching it..... they (aiptasia) are attached to something, so it's not like it's running away from you

Just mix up some kalkwasser (pickling lime is the common name, used for canning/pickling) into a paste and use an eye dropper to cover the aiptasia. If you have powerheads blowing over the area, turn them off so the paste will stay on the anemone. Of course, if you can take the aiptasia/rock out, it's much easier. You may have to do this several times to make sure it is all dead, and watch for outcroppings of new, smaller aiptasia.

Catching it and removing it.... using a net and scooping it up and out. I wasn't sure what was the easiest/best route to go... find something that feeds on it, or another method.

 

[atram]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9398216#post9398216 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Modemagic
Atram, do you get your selcon from AE locally, or buy it from the interweb?

I buy it from the web. I like to support AE but they charge about 2x the amount that I pay on the web. Also, Drs Foster & Smith are selling it with a 10% price reduction. I usually purchase a few dry goods at a time to justify shipping costs.

 

[tibbs2]

Here's my aptasia mix.
Boil water and add sea salt until the water is supersaturated.

Turn heat to low and keep adding pickling lime to the water until it is very very thick.

Then I put it in a jar. I bought a plastic dental syringe used to spray water in your teeth and I cut off part of the end of the tip to widen it for the thick paste.

Then turn off all pumps and drip a few drops onto each aptasia. Let it sit for an hour. Turn on pumps.

Some of the aptasia will survive. You may need to re-apply it later again.

Be careful not to use too much of the kalk in one sitting so you don't unbalance your alkalinity.

I used to skip the salt and boiling water step but I've read that the high salt content induces a feeding response in the aptasia and encourages it to swallow the mixture.

I'd try some peppermint shrimp too. I had no luck with them but maybe your luckier than me.

Apparently there are two different peppermint shrimp. One that eats aptasia and one that doesn't. Not including the camel shrimp which is mistaken as a peppermint shrimp.

I've always want to verify this but haven't had the chance yet. Here's the link.
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/hopkins_redfield.html

 

[Covey]

The peppermint shrimp I have gotten from AE have always been the Aiptasia eater if that helps mode. Also I have never had them bother anything else.

 

[Modemagic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9402577#post9402577 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Covey
The peppermint shrimp I have gotten from AE have always been the Aiptasia eater if that helps mode. Also I have never had them bother anything else.

Funny you should mention this. I stopped in and talked with Adam for a bit before I went to work and he said the same thing. The peppermint shrimp he has don't bother corals... and love the aiptasia variety! I may be picking one up... still on the fence about that one.