QT/Acclimating O. Clown

[Kurt_Nelson]

Question about O.Clown behavior while acclimating to a new tank...

So I finally get the QT cycled and am ready to quarantine my first residents for my main tank. Last night I go out and buy a cute little 1" long O.Clown and a good sized cleaner shrimp from the same tank at the LFS. Get home and water parameters in LFS water were nearly exact to my QT! (SG 1.024, my tank ph 8.3-8.4... LFS water maybe 8.2). I do a drip acclimation on both clown and shrimp for about 60 minutes since the parameters matched fairly close, and put them both in the QT. Temperature difference might've been 2 degrees at the most.

Once in the QT, the clown stayed about half way down in the tank, and was swimming vigorously in one spot. Kind of looked like me treading water. After the lights went off (dimmed 15W in the QT, with a night light in the fairly dark room) the clown pretty much drifted up towards the top, staying in one place just barely under the surface. This morning (about 12 hours after going in the QT) he's still in the same spot, near the surface - not swimming as hard as last night, but still seems to be swimming harder than he needs to, to stay in one spot.

I guess I'm just looking for others experiences to know if this is "normal", or if I should be doing something that I'm not. Can't think of what that something would be offhand, but figured I'd see what folks had to say.

I haven't fed him yet, but plan to tonight. The shrimp - the one I was most concerned with - is just one happy go lucky guy. He's bebopping all around the tank, seemingly pretty happy. He goes over and checks on the clown every once in a while and then seems to have a little obstacle course route through the PVC couplings and over to the filter intake.

As a side note, I finally put substrate in my main tank, will probably add a cleanup crew this weekend once things settle back down in there. Will finally get some pictures up soon as well as a "lessons learned so far" writeup that I promised a few weeks back.

 

[austinsdad]

Clowns are weird like that IMO. When sleeping, they do seem to swim in place.

I wouldn't worry about him for now. I'm sure just he's still getting used to this new tank and won't venture too far yet.

Got a hiding place for him? Not that he'll use it. They don't usually go into those PVC pipes pieces anyway, but it is good to have for other new fish in QT.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Got a hiding place for him? Not that he'll use it. They don't usually go into those PVC pipes pieces anyway, but it is good to have for other new fish in QT.

I've got a small chunk of live rock in the QT that has a couple little overhangs. Right now, the clown seems to be hovering at the top near where I have the thermometer suction cupped onto the front of the tank glass. I was considering moving it to the side (I've got the QT sides blackened also), but then started wondering if the clown is comforted by it - almost looks like he's using it as a "host".

 

[austinsdad]

I think he's alright. They are just werid that way. But in the future, add a couple pieces of
3-4" long, 2" PVC pipe for your fish to seek shelter and cut down on their stress. Clowns probably won't use it but others will.

Lemme know how the feeding tonight goes.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I think he's alright. They are just werid that way. But in the future, add a couple pieces of
3-4" long, 2" pipe for your fish to seek shelter and cut down on their stress. Clowns probably won't use it but others will.

Lemme know how the feeding tonight goes.

Actually... I do have a couple 2" PVC couplings in there already. And wouldn't you know it, I've got a clown that wanted to prove you wrong! He/she wandered down there this afternoon and hung out around one of the couplings. It seems to be mellowing out quite a bit. Being my first fish, I just wasn't sure what to expect.

It ate great tonight! Frozen mysis shrimp. He wasn't a total pig, but did eat quite a bit in my opinion. The cleaner shrimp was a little slow getting a whiff of the food in the tank, but you could sure tell when he knew it was there. He came bounding over the rock like someone shot him out of a cannon. Cleaned up most of what the clown left behind.