jhoelter
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Heya folks,
Brief background: an acquaintence moved away and gave me his 30 gal SW tank with 2 ocellaris clowns and a buncha rock infested with bristleworms (and now some new little small tentacled creatures???). It has a HOB filter w/carbon and a bubble bar and I also added a powerhead for some circulation. They were fine for like 6 months....then after over a month straight of work travel and no water changes the smaller of the two clowns died (acted weird one night and was gone the next morning - I assume gobbled quickly by the worms after death). So of course I wanted to get a new mate for my clown, but I wanted to wait a couple months to make sure my tank water was a-ok before adding something new - didn't wanna kill the new fish too!
So its been a couple months and I found a local store who had tank bred ocellaris as well as some royal gramma basslets. I got a nice new (TINY!) clown and a maybe 1" royal gramma basslet. I took them home and put them in a bucket with some of the fish store water and slowly siphoned some of my tank's water into it (no quarantine tank...). While doing that the new clown was swimming around happily but the gramma was just lying at the bottom of the bucket!! Not dead but surely didn't look too good. I figured he might be stressed from the move. After a while they both went into the main tank with no problems...the clowns already started swimming together and the basslet went and hid (from what I read, they like to hide to feel safe). I hoped he wouldn't get eaten by the worms but he seemed okay. Then, I went back later to check on em and couldn't find the gramma. So I'm moving rocks looking everywhere and I can't find him at all! So I'm depressed and think he's already worm food. Then check back a little while later and he's right there hiding under a rock. Now after a couple days he's swimming around fine - I think he's still deciding what will be his "home base" will be but he seems okay. The clowns are both feeding great now and the existing clown doesn't seem confined to his bubble bar anymore - he'll swim around away from his "spot" some now - and the new clown goes all around the tank. Guess he doesn't know he's just supposed to swim in the current and the bubbles 24/7.
Anyway, I'm really enjoying the additions to my tank - I could just sit there and watch em all day! A few questions:
1. The clowns are feeding fine on flake food, but I haven't seen the gramma eat any yet even though some food has drifted right past his face. Think he's alright? I also read somewhere that he might eat bristleworms - is that true?? Is flake food okay for the gramma?
2. I plan to give these guys a couple months to settle in and make sure all is well and then will add some invertebrates - snails, small crabs, a couple shrimps maybe. I think then my tank would be complete. Any incompatibilities there? (esp. regarding the worms)
3. Any tips on taking photos? My digital camera seems to have a helluva time taking pics of my fish (low lighting and rapid movement don't make for good pictures...).
Jeff
Brief background: an acquaintence moved away and gave me his 30 gal SW tank with 2 ocellaris clowns and a buncha rock infested with bristleworms (and now some new little small tentacled creatures???). It has a HOB filter w/carbon and a bubble bar and I also added a powerhead for some circulation. They were fine for like 6 months....then after over a month straight of work travel and no water changes the smaller of the two clowns died (acted weird one night and was gone the next morning - I assume gobbled quickly by the worms after death). So of course I wanted to get a new mate for my clown, but I wanted to wait a couple months to make sure my tank water was a-ok before adding something new - didn't wanna kill the new fish too!
So its been a couple months and I found a local store who had tank bred ocellaris as well as some royal gramma basslets. I got a nice new (TINY!) clown and a maybe 1" royal gramma basslet. I took them home and put them in a bucket with some of the fish store water and slowly siphoned some of my tank's water into it (no quarantine tank...). While doing that the new clown was swimming around happily but the gramma was just lying at the bottom of the bucket!! Not dead but surely didn't look too good. I figured he might be stressed from the move. After a while they both went into the main tank with no problems...the clowns already started swimming together and the basslet went and hid (from what I read, they like to hide to feel safe). I hoped he wouldn't get eaten by the worms but he seemed okay. Then, I went back later to check on em and couldn't find the gramma. So I'm moving rocks looking everywhere and I can't find him at all! So I'm depressed and think he's already worm food. Then check back a little while later and he's right there hiding under a rock. Now after a couple days he's swimming around fine - I think he's still deciding what will be his "home base" will be but he seems okay. The clowns are both feeding great now and the existing clown doesn't seem confined to his bubble bar anymore - he'll swim around away from his "spot" some now - and the new clown goes all around the tank. Guess he doesn't know he's just supposed to swim in the current and the bubbles 24/7.
Anyway, I'm really enjoying the additions to my tank - I could just sit there and watch em all day!
A few questions:1. The clowns are feeding fine on flake food, but I haven't seen the gramma eat any yet even though some food has drifted right past his face. Think he's alright? I also read somewhere that he might eat bristleworms - is that true?? Is flake food okay for the gramma?
2. I plan to give these guys a couple months to settle in and make sure all is well and then will add some invertebrates - snails, small crabs, a couple shrimps maybe. I think then my tank would be complete. Any incompatibilities there? (esp. regarding the worms)
3. Any tips on taking photos? My digital camera seems to have a helluva time taking pics of my fish (low lighting and rapid movement don't make for good pictures...).
Jeff
