Fish Behavior

[DLANDINO]

I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me why my two false ocellaris and my yellow tang always hang out on the right side bottom of may reef aquarium. All of my water parameters are perfect except my Nitrates which I struggle to keep at about 20(I know they should be 0) I perform 10% weekly water changes and my temps hover between 79 and 81 degrees. I have about 60 lbs of LR and 80 lbs of LS and the tank has been up and running since Dec. There is no host organism for the clowns, not sure if this would make them act funny. Thanks for reading!

Dave

 

[haitwun]

I got a clown from another member which used to host an anemone. I did not have an anemone in my tank and the clown perpetually stayed in the far left corner of the tank. They need a feeling of security. Are your clowns captive bred or wild caught? Wild caught ones take longer to adjust to being anemone-less.
As for the yellow tang, I don't know.
How long have you had your fish?

 

[Ruskin]

If it's for your 46 gallon then the Yellow Tang is probably stessed form being in a tank too small for its size. Stress could lead to all sorts of things, including being overly shy or aggressive.

Im not sure about the clowns? They dont "need" a host to be out and about. Mine are out all day long and dont have a nem'. Are the being bullied into the corner by any other fish(including the tang)?

What's your light cycle like? Do they get enough time to rest at night in complete darkness?

 

[DLANDINO]

haitwun, not sure if these guys were tank or wild. I didn't know to ask at the time I purchased them, but know better now. It is a stumper.

 

[DLANDINO]

Ruskin, I was definitely considering the size of the tank as an issue for the tang. My lighting cycle runs as follows

1pm actinic on
2pm daylights on
9 pm daylights off
10pm actinics off
2 led moon lights on 10pm-1pmthe following day

The are not being bullied at all and I actually watch the tank all the time. I have a diamond watchman goby in there too but he doesn't bother anyone.

I have an IP camera on it. Maybe a look of my set up would help in the diagnosis.
In internet explorer go to

http://71.139.140.21/
user name "davesreef"
password "123456"

 

[snorvich]

I took a look and did not see fish at all. For a tang, there is sure not a lot of swimming room. Normally clowns are happier if they can associate with something, an anemone, or frogspawn, or whatever.

 

[Ruskin]

I agree with snorvich about your tang not having much swimming room. I watched for 5 minutes or so, and you're right he stays in that bottom corner an awful lot. I saw him once or twice swim across the back of the tank, but never out in front. Maybe there is more room outback then up front for him? Either way I believe he's too big for your tank. Didn't see any other fish except for a reflection.

Also, I had a thought, and I dont know how valid of a concern it is or not but I'll throw it at you anyways and you can decide. Could they possible be getting confused with what side is the front and which is the back? Silly i know, but with an uncovered back wall and perhaps more space at the back then at the front of the tank it popped in my head as a slight possibility. Try adding a dark background (black cardboard or bristle board works fine) and seeing if that helps at all.

HTH,

Matt

 

[DLANDINO]

I know, the Tang was an unresaerched purchase but at the advise of my LFS to rid the tank of a little hair algae that I had just after the cycle completed. If I could do it over I wouldn't It isn't fair to the Tang.

Now, I made sure to watch last night and at about 5pm and all fish were out, swimming and happy. Now, I am wondering if this has to do with two things that are going on in my tank, 1. I turned both power heards on full and bypassed my wavemaker creating more turbulent flow and 2. I am having a heater issue, purchased a new one last night but have not yet installed it. My current heater is keeping the tank too warm and is not turning off when the temp reaches 80 degrees. So I manually turned the heater off and the temps came down from 85-86!!! to a normal temp of 79. I will have to keep an eye on this. Thanks for all of the advise!

Dave

 

[snorvich]

79 is a good temperature. The problem with most heaters is the control mechanism goes nuts. Ranco controllers will solve that problem.

 

[chrisstie]

Hey Dave, if a tang is acting weird in that small of a tank its very more than likely the tank is undersized for the fish. The clowns however have been known to host in sand, powerheads, magfloats, you name it. I'm not sure what makes the tang want to stay near them but I would give him up to the LFS or a fellow reefer.

For your LFS to give you an unncessary fish to fight algae.. well it may make the problem worse not better and isn't the best advice I can think of.

If I may interject - nitrates (and phosphates) tend to be associated with treated tap water instead of good clean RO\DI water. If you are using RO\DI look to your feeding schedule and what you feed. If the fish are creating a lot of waste despite your water changes it could be the problem, especiatelly if you're feeding pellets and flakes versus frozen. I have in personal experience found a correlation with dry preserved food polluting the water parameters a tad more than strained frozen food.

Another quick thought- are you making sure the tang is getting his veggies despite whatever territory issues you may have?

Back to the water params- when you do water changes you may see a little bit of difference if you take a clean turkey baster (dollar store is usually a good place to get) and use it to "dust" off your rock. 60 lbs is quite a decent amount for that size tank and without a lot of good strong flow or direct dusting, some particles get trapped in your rock and essentially fester and pollute the water.

Other than that double check your bulbs aren't old for your lighting schedule and that you just aren't overfeeding in general and hopefully one of these things will address the algae issue more than putting a fish that poops a w hole heck of a lot in a smallish sized tank to eat.

A good tip on feeding- tangs are pretty good munching on algae all day long but for the other guys try using a good frozen mysis shrimp (you can always add vitamins if you wish and garlic) and remember that a fish's stomach is about as big as its eye. If your clowns are young yet they may only need to get by on 2-3 mysis shrimp. Compare to that to what you feed now and see where you register in.

Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone with your water quality and the tang