clowns stay on top, don't look good

[lbear]

I got a pair of O. clowns a week ago and stay in 10 gal QT. Everything was fine until tonight I went home. I see them stay on top at tank corner and keep waving their fins. Usually they stay at bottom and sleep at night.

I did about three gal water change every two days for the past week. I have sponge filter, air pump, 50w heater and several PVC joints in the tank. I fed them evrey day with either formula one, two or frozen mysis shrimp.

I fed them mysis shrimp this morning. There are leftovers before I took off from home.

I immediately did 3 gal water change and test amonia. It's less than 0.25ppm. SG is 0.020. temp 80

Any suggestion of what should I do? Are my clowns in trouble? I am afraid they dance to death.

 

[Steven0000]

every clown that i have ever owned has always gone to the top to sleep when i turn the lights off

i dont know why
but they just do
they always have and i have had one pair for 3 years
if that is all they are doing then i wouldnt worry

 

[lbear]

You are right. Now they behave "normal" as before.

 

[dantodd]

If they are acting nomal otherwise they may have just chosen a new place to sleep.

Look for the following symptoms.

Are they still eating well?
Are they gaping or breating heavily?
Are they swimming in a vertical position?
Is there any white/cloudiness building up on their slime coat?
Are they clamping (keeping closed) their dorsal fins at all?

If you see changes in these post again.

 

[Wryknow]

I'm a little concerned that you are getting an ammonia reading at all though. Can you test your nitrate levels?

 

[OCDP]

Yeah, a tank really should have 0 ammonia and nitrite

Anyways.. when I got my first pair of clowns, it freaked me out when they slept at the top.. it was so weird (but so cool, this just was my first indication of how different SW fish are to FW)

Anyways, after reading a bit more about clownfish I found out this is perfectly normal. Clownfish are truley weird.. but that's what makes them so great.

 

[tanked001]

When I first got my clowns they stayed at the top and I couldn't figure out for the life of me what their problem was. but they did fight like crazy when they firsy went in.

Now they hang out in one of my anemonies....figting over who gets to be in the middle lol

 

[lbear]

Thanks for all your inputs and suggestions.

I fed my clowns this morning with newly ordered cyclop-eeze. They love it and even tried to pick food from my hand. They look pretty healthy in my point of view. no signs of which spots. no breathing heavily.

As amonia level, I use Salifert test kit and the lowest level in the comparison chart is (<0.25). I think it's 0.25 in the QT since there is much filtration. I do 3 gal water change regularly every two days. Hopefully the amonia level is kept low. Nitrate was about 5 I tested it last weekend. I will test it tonight.

Here come my question: Is it a good idea to use rid-ich at this point? It's the 2nd week of quarantine. How do I know if they have any parasite problem. I have formaline3. Do you guys suggest me to use it or keep observing?

 

[dantodd]

unless they look stressed or show other signs of brook I wouldn't bother with any treatments. As for ich, I wouldn't bother unless there were visible signs of illness, if you give him a good f/w dip on the way from QT to display any external parasites he may have should fall off and die.

 

[Sk8r]

Quarantine is just to watch the fish for a while. I wouldn't medicate unless you see a problem. If they're eating well and adjusting, you're doing well.

Do keep up the water changes and careful checking of those ammonia/nitrate levels, also ph, and salinity. A small tank can get a salt increase very easily.