Just got a couple Nigripes clowns! Please guide me through this.

[JamesJR]

My LFS is pretty awesome. They had been on the lookout for some more unusual clownfish for me and they were able to get me some Nigripes clowns.
They are small juveniles and are a little smaller than an inch.

So far so good. The guy who ordered them was also buying a couple out of the lot for himself. I got to inspect all of them and they seemed to be healthy. They looked a little spooked and were not particularly interested in their surroundings but physically they looked fine.

I have them in a ten gallon quarantine tank that I set up six weeks ago. The temp is at 76, I have a heater. I have a seachem ammonia monitor. I have a couple of air pumps going (no air stones) and a hang on the back filter with sponges. SG is 1.024. I tested the ammonia with a salifert kit and it came up negative. I have been adding flake food to this tank periodically to keep the nitrogen cycle going. It is bare bottomed with a few plastic plants.

My problem: I do not know if they are tank bred or wild caught. My lfs guy told me he tried to find out but couldn't. They look a little bit lighter in color than I would have expected and I am hoping that they may actually be tank bred. I do not want to risk anything with these two fish and I was thinking I may medicate them to err on the side of caution.

I have Formalin, cupramine, praziquantel and nitrofurazone in my fish medicine cabinet. I was thinking of doing formalin dips and running copper and nitro furazone concurrently. I was thinking I would then treat with praziquantel. Then after about 6 weeks in quarantine I was thinking I would move them to the main tank.

Any criticisms or suggestions?

 

[deangelr]

Your plan is sound.. Active quarantine is better than passive..

Find out where the LFS got them from.. Then call the wholesaler and do some digging.. You should be able to find out where they came from.

 

[JamesJR]

I started with nitrofurazone last night. They are breathing a little bit heavier than I would like but otherwise they look fine. I left the light on in the room they are in today just to keep a little bit of light on the tank.

 

[Reefvette]

Wild Caught or Captive Bred

Wild Caught or Captive Bred

You should first find out if they are captive bred or wild caught.

IME wild caught nigripis do better with an anemone then normal QT.

 

[deangelr]

James, How are they eating? I usually acclimate them to their new home and then let them adjust for a day before starting treatments.. As long as they are eating I wouldn't worry to much.. Heavy breathing, although never a good sign, happens often with new clowns acclimating to a new environment..

IMO.. Adding an anemone will only complicated the active quarintine process. I would for sure treat with an antibiotic and also formalin. You would have to move your clowns around to treat with various products. Better left alone in QT..

 

[JamesJR]

I tried offering them frozen mysis. They seemed interested in exploring the food I offered but they didn't actually eat anything. I will try mysis again and also some frozen cyclopeze.

I think it was a little bit early for me to start antibiotics but I was just not wanting to take any chances. I was not planning on adding an anemone for the qt process. The natural anemone host for these clownfish is difficult enough to keep as it is.

I will get home tonight. I will do a about a 10% water change and test the ammonia. I will try feeding again.

 

[deangelr]

I have found that clownfish prefer smaller food when they are being finicky eaters, or new to the tank.. Foods like cyclops and live brine are great to get that feeding response going and get them more comfortable in the tank.. trying cylopeeze is a good idea

 

[ezhoops]

they tend to be a difficult species at the beginning but once established you should be fine.


We need pics!!!!!

 

[JamesJR]

My luck didn't turn out. They never reduced their rapid breathing and never ate. I lost them both last night. I am very bummed out to say the least.

 

[JamesJR]

I contacted the guy I got them from. The whole lot went under as far as I can tell. It stinks but I don't feel as bad about it.

 

[Big E]

See if you can have your LFS order some tank bred Nigripes from Sustainable Aquatics.

That's how I picked up my pair, & they have done great from day one. I've had them for almost a year now.

 

[JamesJR]

that is definitely what I am going to do at some point in the future. Love this species of clowns.

 

[Reefvette]

Wild caught clowns dont know what is like to be woth out an anemone, most times that means death.

For wild caught clowns i think an anemone is much better at first then meds.

 

[Winwood]

This is very hard species to get established for the first 4 days or so after that you usually have a pretty good shot. WC specimens are really crap shoot whether they will pull through or not. I have never had labored specimens respond positively to meds despite a wide variety of treatments.

With these and other sensitive species such as chrysopterus and tricinctus I have always reduced their salinity in a qt tank to around 1.010 and covered all four sides with almost no light. I do this to keep stress to absolute minimum. I have had relatively good success using this method.

As stated above, if you have the oppurtunity to order from Sustainable Aquatics, I recommend that route. I have recieved fish from them and all were healthy. That being said, they are not impervious to the other diseases associated with this species. A friend of mine, who also recieved fish from SA, lost his after he added another WC individual to his established group.

Once settled in, IME, nigripes are a pretty hardy fish. However, one should really be careful about the introduction of new fish to their system and I highly recommend strict qt procedures for all fish that would be potentially introduced to their tank.

 

[JamesJR]

Wild caught clowns dont know what is like to be woth out an anemone, most times that means death.

For wild caught clowns i think an anemone is much better at first then meds.

This is completely false. And in this case the other nigripes were kept in a tank with an established H. Magnifica and the fish still succumbed.

 

[Reefvette]

Which other clowns?