Is this normal?

[Mightymcc]

Today (around an hour ago) I bought a clown fish pair. The pair consists of a black and white and an orange misbar, I chose different colors because I thought an inter racial clown fish pair would be unique. At first they explored the aquarium a bit but when i came back they were just hanging around the filter intake at the top where it is hard to see them. So my question is will they pair despite color difference and why are they near the tank and will they always stay there?

 

[woodsonfan]

Sounds to me like normal behavior considering they were just added to the tank. How did you acclimate them? It will take them time to become comfortable. What other livestock do you have? What are your water parameters? How long has the tank been setup?

 

[Mightymcc]

I put the bag in till the temp. matched then added a little water from my tank into the bag waited 10-15 minutes and gently poured them into the tank(the way i was taught) I have a bristle star, hermit, and added a small cleaner shrimp with the clowns. my water parameters are a slightly low PH which i have been using marine buffer to fix since my last water change (yesterday or the day before), ii have no nitrates, no ammonia and somehow my nitrates have gotten worse since my water change( from 20 to 30) so any explanation of my spontanious nitrate spike would be appretiated, and around 3 years.

 

[woodsonfan]

The acclimation process you used was not one that is advised. There are several issues there. However, the biggest issue is pouring the water from the bag, into your tank. That said, your clownfish should be fine once they get adjusted to their new environment.

As far as the nitrate spike - there could be a lot of factors to cause it to spike. Did you notice the spike after the fish were added?

 

[Mightymcc]

Yeah, I checked it when you asked about the parameters.

 

[Mightymcc]

Oh, and thank you for the info about the clowns.