mopey clownfish

[jwalsh]

So I just got a pair of clowns last night from my lfs and added them to my tank. I aclimated them for 30 min per lfs instructions. I let them free in the tank at about 10 pm last night. I watched them swim around for about an hour then went to bed. I woke up this morning to see them laying near the bottom of the tank not moving much so I am worried. Please help me. I do use tap water for my tank but I use water conditioner per the instructions on the bottle. Amonia was 0 nitrite was 0 nitrate was <10 and salinity was at 1.024 as of last night at 8pm when I took it to the lfs to get tested. Any ideas of what could be going on? These are my first 2 fish I got for my 4 year old son so I need this to work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[mdavidson]

Give them some time,e to get used to the new tank and that should help. Fish get stressed when changing tanks and sometimes it takes them a day or two to get used to a new tank. When I brought my coral beauty home it hid in a cave in my live rock for close to two days and now is swimming around fine.

 

[paulace2372]

Sometimes any fish take a couple of days to settle in. Give them some food tonight to try and get them interested, they may pick up hopefully! Also, how are you testing your salinity?

 

[jwalsh]

I use a refractometor for salinity. But they were eating just fine last night that's why I was worried

 

[paulace2372]

Give them a few days, they should settle in fine. The stress of the move is likely the problem.

 

[jwalsh]

OK good I was worried since they were so playful and eating last night right after I put them in

 

[jwalsh]

Glad to report they are happy and healthy. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[jwalsh]

And I got them to eat out of my hand last night.

 

[Unicorn]

So I just got a pair of clowns last night from my lfs and added them to my tank. I aclimated them for 30 min per lfs instructions. I let them free in the tank at about 10 pm last night. I watched them swim around for about an hour then went to bed. I woke up this morning to see them laying near the bottom of the tank not moving much so I am worried. Please help me. I do use tap water for my tank but I use water conditioner per the instructions on the bottle. Amonia was 0 nitrite was 0 nitrate was <10 and salinity was at 1.024 as of last night at 8pm when I took it to the lfs to get tested. Any ideas of what could be going on? These are my first 2 fish I got for my 4 year old son so I need this to work. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

sounds to me like they were sleeping, fish do that too ya know
did u cycle the tank?
glad to hear that they are happy and healthy... pls observe the water for the next few days to see if ammonia is gonna go up in case you did not cycle

 

[jwalsh]

Yeah I think they were considering I have to get up at 330 am to get ready for work LOL now that I think of it my freak out was silly. And I did cycle my tank. Its been up and running for 6 weeks now but it was done cycling after 3.5 weeks. I monitered it the entire time checking peramiters every day or 2. So I watched it happen. I let it sit after that and stabilize for another week then put in some scarlet legged hermit crabs and astrea snails. They did fine. I went another week and a half and then I put in my occ. Clowns 2 days ago. I'm building this tank for mmy 4yo son. So I'm being extra cautious and trying to keep everything in order. Considering I'm a rookie it has seemed to go well so far. Except for the fact that I acclimated an emerald crab too fast and he died after 3 days. But I guess you live and you learn

 

[paulace2372]

As someone said to me recently - try telling that to the crab!
It sounds like you are doing everything diligently and with the correct amount of caution! As a rookie, make sure you ask for help on here whenever you need it! Good luck!