Species of clown

[bromion]

My Reef Fishes book doesn't seem to have clowns. Can someone tell me the species these clowns are? The store said black & white True Percula, tank bred.

Black clowns are often called percula's for whatever reason ( more money?) but they are Amphiprion ocellaris.

Cheers
Steve

[steve r]

i did not know that. so does tha mean if i want to add a second ( much smaller ) clown as a tank mate for my regular orange ocellaris i can add a black one?

steve r

[bromion]

The mouth on one of them is constantly going, but the other one keeps it closed. What's up with that?

[revhtree]

I have 2 Black and whites and 2 Orange in my reef. They all get along except the two black will pick on the little orange if he gets in there territory. The Big Black and Big Orange seem to be mating up though...

On a side note, when I first added the 2 BW one of them picked on the little orange constantly. I caught the BW and took him back to the [acronym:e05e849e2f="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:e05e849e2f] and traded him for another. Added it and everything was fine. One day later the new BW was picking on the little orange just the same as the one before.....Now most is good.

Originally Posted by steve r

i did not know that. so does tha mean if i want to add a second ( much smaller ) clown as a tank mate for my regular orange ocellaris i can add a black one?

As Rev points out, yes you can. Ocellaris is ocellaris, the color does not matter. You can also mix ocellaris with percula.

Originally Posted by bromion

The mouth on one of them is constantly going, but the other one keeps it closed. What's up with that?

Could be a little stressed, especially if they are exibiting any kind of bonding behavior.

How old is the set up, are your water quality numbers and what other tank mates/tank size?

Cheers
Steve

[bromion]

Originally Posted by steve-s

Could be a little stressed, especially if they are exibiting any kind of bonding behavior.

How old is the set up, are your water quality numbers and what other tank mates/tank size?

Cheers
Steve

The mouth-mover is not eating. This is the second day of that. I've fed them flakes, frozen mysis, and frozen shrimp+scallop+nori mix I made; it seems to be refusing it all. The other one is eating and swimming around normally. They are the first fish in the tank, and none of the inverts interact with them.

58 [acronym:314dbe19dd="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:314dbe19dd] reef, cycled and stable. These are the first fish.
Temp varies from about 79-81 over the course of 24 hr
Salinity 1.023
pH 8.1
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Carbonate Hardness"]KH[/acronym:314dbe19dd] 300ppm
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Ammonia"]NH3[/acronym:314dbe19dd] 0 [acronym:314dbe19dd="milligrams or magnesium, depending on context"]mg[/acronym:314dbe19dd]/L
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Nitrite"]NO2[/acronym:314dbe19dd] 0 [acronym:314dbe19dd="milligrams or magnesium, depending on context"]mg[/acronym:314dbe19dd]/L
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Nitrate"]NO3[/acronym:314dbe19dd] 12.5 [acronym:314dbe19dd="milligrams or magnesium, depending on context"]mg[/acronym:314dbe19dd]/L
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Calcium"]Ca[/acronym:314dbe19dd] 420 [acronym:314dbe19dd="milligrams or magnesium, depending on context"]mg[/acronym:314dbe19dd]/L
[acronym:314dbe19dd="Phosphate"]PO4[/acronym:314dbe19dd] <0.25 (hard to tell from the color chart)
These parameters are quite stable over time.

Alkalinity is rather high, I would get that verified and if true, reduce it to 150-180 [acronym:75105a348b="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:75105a348b] via water changes. That is depending on the reading you get from a newly mixed batch of salt.

As far as not eating, this can be common in new animals. Either stressed or possibley the symptom of a parasite (please post anything relevent if present). Try a few water changes (in part for the [acronym:75105a348b="Alkinity"]alk[/acronym:75105a348b]) to see if that helps any. Believe it or not, sometimes that's all that needed even though water conditions seem fine. I would also suggest using a liquid marine vitamin additive to the foods that specifically contains a decent level of vitamin B12 (Zoe/Vita chem) and where possible use Selcon when you make your foods. Garlic would also be a decent once in a while additions as it does have antiparasitic properties and a good all 'round antioxidant.

Might not seem relavent but what lights do you have on the tank and what if any photosynthetic animals are there?

Cheers
Steve

[bromion]

Thanks for the reply. I did a 3 gallon water change yesterday and plan to do another today. I will check the [acronym:7f1ee78180="Alkalinity"]Alk[/acronym:7f1ee78180] with a more sensitive test as well.

Visually, the fish looks perfect. No spots on the skin. It displays odd behavior, however, like the rapid mouth movement and lethargy (compared to the other identical clown).

Light: I have 400W [acronym:7f1ee78180="Metal halide light"]MH[/acronym:7f1ee78180]. I plan to leave it off today and just expose ambient light. Inverts: 1 fire shrimp, number of hermits, emerald crab, 1 Linkia, a number of Xenia, three small mushrooms. Nothing in the tank seems to be bothering the fish, or vice versa.

Thanks for the advice!
Jason

Originally Posted by bromion

Light: I have 400W [acronym:a187ece676="Metal halide light"]MH[/acronym:a187ece676]. I plan to leave it off today and just expose ambient light. Inverts: 1 fire shrimp, number of hermits, emerald crab, 1 Linkia, a number of Xenia, three small mushrooms. Nothing in the tank seems to be bothering the fish, or vice versa.

Turning off the light or simpley running with actinics only if you have that option will help. Fish can become very stressed when going from a dimly/low lit environment to one that is intensley lit such as yours. Light shock if you will. Give it a few days to see if it adjusts and then acclimate them to the new intensity.

As far as the more than normal (?) mouth movement, it can be a symptom of stress or something amiss with the water, nothing even. I would suggest a few water changes over the next week, not just once a week. Keep watch and post back any relavent info you may encounter as well as an updated [acronym:a187ece676="Alkinity"]alk[/acronym:a187ece676] reading. If the clown keeps it's mouth open continuosly, post back promptly.

Cheers
Steve