Help with Oscellaris Clown, video inside

F

fuzzy_dunlop

Member
I've had this little guy for a little over a week, for the first couple of days he was active and swimming all over the place. Then he disappeared for 2 days, now he came out of hiding, but he won't leave this spot, ever. he's been there for like 3 days already. And to top it off, in the little over a week that I've had him, I don't think I have ever seen him eat anything. He keeps opening and closing his mouth a lot, is that a bad sign? Does he look normal?

I'm still fairly new to SW Fish, so I'm kind of at a loss. The tank has been up and running for about 2 months with about 80lbs of live rock that came from an established tank, and I cycled the tank for like 5 weeks with a couple of damsels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNjvC45inw4
 
My first one hid behind filter for three weeks coming out every so often then one day just felt at home and has been wonderful ever since. But he was the only one that ever did that.
 
how did you acclimate the clown before putting it in your tank?
it is difficult to see in the vid, but deep breathing with a wide open mouth is not a good sign...
are there any white dots or visible slime coating on it?
 
For acclimation I floated the bag for around 20 minutes, then drip acclimated for like 2 hours until I got the sg and ph about the same.

No white dots, don't really see any slime coating on it either.

Think I figured out the problem though, the one thing I didn't think to check at first, temperature. The temp was at like 86 a little while ago. I disconnected the heater, and opened the hood. I'm only using 4 T5's, no halides, so I didn't think temp would be an issue. But I guess with the hood always closed the heat builds up? The return pump and skimmer pump are both very cool to the touch, so I don't think they're the issue.

I keep the house at 78, so hopefully the heat will dissipate with the hood open and the lights off.
 
Congrats on being in the hobby :)

Sorry to hear your little guy isnt feeling his best right now.

(hint: to drop temp safe/quickly you could float a bottle of icewater -take a water bottle, fill with tank water, and freeze, then float it in your tank,if any water comes out by accident, it wont interfere with your parameters)

Is he the only fish in the tank? Hard to tell from the video. Have you removed the damsels? Damsels are notorious for being mean/harassing. He may be hiding from them, and not able to eat if they scare him off. If they are still there, I would remove the damsels, and place another small clownfish in the tank, the two will bond and make the adjustment period easier.

Good luck- keep us posted :wavehand:
 
Chelle's Ocean said:
(hint: to drop temp safe/quickly you could float a bottle of icewater -take a water bottle, fill with tank water, and freeze, then float it in your tank,if any water comes out by accident, it wont interfere with your parameters)
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree...
the safest way to cool down your tank would be to run a small clip-on fan and have it blow air across the surface of the water...temp changes should be done slowly as to reduce any stress on corals and fish...IMO there is no safe/quick way of doing this since "quick" and "change" should not go together in this hobby...
changes should always be gradual
 
IF your house temp is 78, you do not need a heater in the tank.

86 is hot, when your temps get higher you have less oxygen in the water. That could be why it is brerathing fast and heavy.

As said, if the damsels are still in the tank, they may be harassing it.
 
86? Go step in a tropical ocean. They're like 76.

Clowns are hardy and cannot be killed unless you REALLY screw up or the clown is sick. My tank has gone close to 100F (accident) and everything died except for my Ocellaris. Bring it down QUICKLY. Do a WC with cool water. They can't last long at that temperature and you may be killing some of the bacteria in your system.
 
FWIW, I have kept reefs at 84-85 with no problem.

In fact studies have shown that animals maintained at the higher temps, can handle higher temp spikes then those kept at lower temps. See Bornemans Aquarium Corals book.

Scientific studies show a huge range of temperatures in the oceans, and esp. the shallow tropical reefs most of our fish come from.
 
The Damsels are gone actually. One of them actually disappeared the same day I put them in, never to be seen again. The other one jumped a few days ago (I knew about their aggression issues before hand, I just decided to take a leap of faith, I guess he did me a favor my taking a leap of faith himself :o ) I bag floated and drip acclimated the damsels too, no idea why one of them went MIA so fast. I have since secured a mesh screen to the opening under the canopy.

Within a few hours of opening the canopy and unplugging the heater (The heater light wasn't on, but maybe it was malfunctioning? ) the temp dropped a few degrees to about 82ish. When I woke up this morning, it was a 78 :thumbsup: I guess I'm going to just leave the canopy hood open from now on, or better yet, just take the hood door off, and just leave the canopy housing.

And finally, my little dude died last night after all. Found him stuck in the current of the overflow teeth:( I actually did put two clowns in at the same time. I did a bag float and followed by a drip acclimation, and 1 of them died later on that night. He started swimming all crazy and topsy-turvy, like he had swim bladder disease or something. When I found him dead, he was covered by a thick slimy mucous coating. I'm assuming I just got a sick fish, since the other one lasted a little over a week before he died, presumably because of the temp.

The bad thing is, the LFS I bought all of the fish at has zero warranty on SW fish. I bought all four of the fish from them, and 2 of them died or disappeared within the first few hours. I'm thinking I might need to find a new LFS, or possibly start ordering online. My water parameters are all good, well except for the temp slip up, so even though I'm new to SW, I don't think my water or tank was the issue with the two that died almost instantly.

So now I'm 0 for 4 with fish. 2 very quick deaths, 1 jumper, and 1 probably died from the heat. My snails and hermit crabs are all doing good though. I think I'm going to place an order with Liveaquaria soon. Since I have no fish in there right now, would it be a good idea to add another fish to keep an ammonia source present before I get some new fish, which will probably be by the end of next week. I found another LFS that I like a lot better, they seem more focused on SW fish, where as the first store I bought from seemed to do SW on the side, and tropical fish are more there thing.
 
Last edited:
Post your water test results. May want to have someone else double check them as well.

As for gaurantees, most stores do not do this for salt, because there are so many more variables that can play into the health of a saltwater fish.
 
sorry about the fish, i would start with a couple damsels, wait a month or so with those, there cheap and easy to keep alive, if you get it so that they are happy and healthy, then you could always move on to clowns, some clowns are kinda costly to gamble with, that is what i did when i started years ago, also on the heater, i usually put a heater in a container with a glass temp to check its consistency, if after several days of keeping temp i then put it on my tank, ever since my tank sits at 76 night time and 78 day when lights are on,
 
Jeremy Blaze said:
Post your water test results. May want to have someone else double check them as well.

As for gaurantees, most stores do not do this for salt, because there are so many more variables that can play into the health of a saltwater fish.
Click to expand...

ph- 8.2
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 5
temp- 78 (now)
calcium- 460
salinity- 1.025
phosphates- 0
kh- 10

Tested with API test kit. I've used API for years on my freshwater tanks, never had any problems.
 
IMO you need a QT. Hard to see in the video, but the respiration I was able to make out sure looked like a symptom of brook.

BTW I dig the screen name. did you get it from The Wire?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ClownBubbaJoe
Can I trust My Favorite Fish, A Clown Trigger In A Reef Tank ?
Replies
6
Views
123
SantaMonica
S
M
help with new dracula goby
Replies
5
Views
435
leebca
L
B
Ritteri Swollen Mouth
Replies
8
Views
626
Bakeman
B
griss
Ellisville Petco
Replies
4
Views
366
griss
griss
D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
1K
wvned
wvned
Back
Top