Sick or stressed clown

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RMPD109

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Dec 7, 2004
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Location
Rocky Mount VA
I added two O. clowns to my setup 5 days ago. My yellowtailed damsels pretty much ruled the roost and chased the clowns around. The damsels are dominating feedings but I have seen the clowns get their share. Now to the question. Both clowns stay within 2 inches of the substrate along the glass except feeding time(they still stay in lower half of tank). I was hoping they just needed to get accustomed to my setup. Now the larger of the clowns is doing something strange. She will be swimming fine then stop moving and sit completely still along the glass and substrate. No fin movement and rapid breathing. Then after a few he will swim off and be OK again. Is he sick or just stressed. The other 3 fish are ok. I just tested to be sure all is OK. Sorry for the long post

pH 8.2, temp 78, salin 1.023, amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 40, phos 0, ca 440 and alk 200(4)
 
If the clown is eating and otherwise looks OK, I would say the damsels are probably stressing them.
Maybe take one or both of the damsels back to the LFS if it does not settle down soon.
 
I figured as much- hope to get another tank up soon for them. I was planning on upgrading my daughters FW so I will take the old one for the damsels.

Do you think the clowns can wait? Or do they need to go sooner than that?

my LFS says he would them back if I needed
 
Hard to say because I am not there to see what is happening, but if there are no physical injuries and the clowns are eating and able to swim around without getting too beat up, you could wait it out for awhile.
 
I only feed once a day. I think the clowns could eat more but are a little nervous about coming too far up. No signs of injury to either clown. I do see the damsels swoop on both clowns once in a while.

I think they will just go to the LFS. I have my eye on a royal gramma that would be really cool. I would of gotten him sooner but didnt want to overstock. Now I can chose two new ones or maybe a flame angel.

thanks quarry kudos to you
 
I have my eye on a royal gramma that would be really cool.
Click to expand...
Now your talking, great fish!! :) One of the best fish in our hobby IMO.
Will get along with the clowns fine.
 
good choice. but now the hard part...getting the damsels out of the tank. that will take you awhile and if you have live rock its going to be a long long while. or at least it always was for me when i had to move my damsel from my other tank to my big tank.
 
I will skip feeding in the am and then hopefully scoop them up as they feed later in the day. Unless anyone else has a recommendation.
 
I plan on being on the chat tonight if you can think of anything else.

capturing damsels
clown behaviour
future tank mates

see you there
 
just to update everyone- I took the damsels out at about 6 pm tonight. When I returned at 8:30 the clown in question was hosting in my hairy mushroom. Too cool. The smaller clown is still towards the bottom but I think they both just need to get that safe feeling and they will be OK. Thanks to all for the advice
 
Well things just went bad again. I woke up this am and there she was. My first loss and I am not sure why. All perameters are good(nitrates 40) but that is my only problem. Could it have been the stress from the previous tenants? The little guy is perking up more now than when I first removed the damsels
 
Sorry for your loss. :(
hard to tell what the problem was, maybe she was already ailing for some reason.
 
I just did another WC to help with the nitrates. I know that 40 is not killer for fish but I want it better just incase it was a contributing factor to another problem. I will see how the little guy does. He is swimming well but still wont venture from the bottom of the tank. He got some food but not as much as I would like because he is so far down

Just checked the new water perameters.(I usually wait but). The water change seemed to help.

Temp 78, pH 8.2(?), salin 1.023, amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10 & phos 0
 
Well I lost clown # 2 this morning. I checked him at 6 am and he was swimming better than he has been. By 8 am he was gone.

I am at a loss as what is going on. I have searched a bunch of things to see if it could have been ick or velvet. Cant find any pics though. I neglected to tell everyone but on day two I saw some bumps on the back of both clowns. I didnt think this was ick because it is always described as small white grains. This was obviously under the skin and was only there a short time(12hrs) and then gone. I plan on leaving the tank empty from fish for 6 weeks just to be sure.

Could this be ick? How quick can ick kill? Any other suggestions.
 
Well from the pictures and description I had ich. This is the first description I have seen that described thit as cysts. It seems like a perfect description. Well I guess I will be concentrating on inverts for the tank for 6 weeks or so.

I know I should have but I did not QT. I have learned my lesson. In two weeks or so I will get some new fish and go directly to QT for 4 weeks.

QS- Thanks for all the help- kudos to you
 
I know I should have but I did not QT. I have learned my lesson.
Click to expand...
Don't beat yourself up over it. Many of us, (myself included) have learned this lesson the hard way.
 
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