clowns hiding

[AndynSarah]

Is it natural for a pair of clown fish to hide behind the rocks in my tank, not even comiong out for food, but instead waiting for the food to come in behind the rocks to them? We have had them since before the last meeting.
Thanks,
Andy

 

[Bebo77]

mine are always out... even at night...

when did you get them?

What else is in the tank?

 

[AndynSarah]

about 2 weeks, we have 2 pepermint shrimp, 2 turbo snails, a lime stripe goby, a narsus (sp.?) snail, an anemonea, 2 finger leathers, 1 other leather a colony of star polyps, a frag of stars, 3 frags of zoas, and a green torch. This is in a 29 gallon tank.
Andy

 

[Bebo77]

2 weeks... hmmm do you have a power head in the front of the tank? what kind of clowns are they?

 

[AndynSarah]

marroon clowns, no power heads in the front of the tank, just re-arranged the rock hoping that if they felt trapped that they could get out, still nothing. Need to do a water change, then I will test water parameters and see where they are sitting at.
Andy

 

[ct_vol]

Are they young??? My maroon clowns stay in the rockwork more than any of my other clowns, but I've also bought them the youngest... Surprised Matt hasn't chimed in... I doubt they would ever feel trapped, so unless you're wanting a visual change, I wouldn't bother rearranging the rockwork... If they are young though, they probably like the security in the rockwork... I am surprised they don't come out at feeding time though, mine do...

 

[Neowind]

In my experience all the clowns I have had always are out in the front of the tank looking at me all the time. They seem to follow my face around. Maybe they will come around when they get use to everything.

 

[Angela Short]

Are you feeding the same thing they were raised on? That may impulse them to chase down something they are already use to eating better. FWIW I have a GSM from Matt and she stays in the rocks most of the time. They are still pretty small so I think it may be nature to hide.

 

[EvilMel]

If they are really young then they might hide. Mine, instead of staying in the rock work, always hid behind a big tube, near the top of the tank til they were a bit older.

 

[AndynSarah]

they are small compard to some of the clowns I have seen, so I am guessing that they are young, I think I am feeding them mysis shrimp, which I think is what the coral reef had been feeding them. I got them to come out from behind the rockwork last night before I turned out the lights, I tapped on the glass on the back of the tank and they came out to the front but stayed close to the rocks in front. On a side note Mel is it a bad thing to vacum red bubble out of the tank? I have some growing in the 29 now and it is all clumped together on the bottom (no substate for now). Will vacuming it cuaes it to release spores?
Andy

 

[EvilMel]

If you are vacuuming it up then you should not be releasing spores into the tank unless you are holding the tube really far away from the algae when you are doing it. Vacuuming it seems ideal to me.

 

[AndynSarah]

awesome, now I just have to go get my RO water.

 

[Fishboy42]

Sorry I didn't help out on this one--been up in AK and connections were limited. I think ct_vol has some good advice. It is normal for clowns to hide once in a while, but they should come out for food. Mysis is probably too big for them to eat; you might try brine, cylcop-eeze, or any food that you can break up into smaller pieces. As they become more comfortable, they should be more bold and come out of hiding.

Matt