how can i tell if my clown fish is stessed?

[honeysuckle11]

so i got a 30 gallon tank running. all my levels seem to be fine. i had it running for 2 weeks and was told i could put 2 clown fish if i put a bottle of start cycle inthe tank when i got fish. so i have 2 clown fish and the seem to love the one spot on the glass but will swim arounf the tank alittle. sometimes will eat good and sometimes wont. Sometimes they open they mouth and close it alot for couple mins then stop. but them seem to love that one spot on the glass and are always side by side. i had them in my tank about a week now. Any help plz i dont want to lose my fish?

[apinkmanatee]

I'm a newbie too...but from the experience I have had so far I have learned that that instant cycle stuff can be harmful to the fish and doesn't really work. So your tank is going to need to cycle. You're going to have to do water changes very frequently and watch the ammonia level closely. Hopefully more experienced people will chime in, but that's my take on it. Good luck...I hope they are ok!

[Octavio]

Patience is key in this world bro

[honeysuckle11]

Well I did a water change today and add stress coat fpr the fish. I leave the house for 4 hours and come home and one die and other looks stress out too. I'm feel like he may die over night. What can I do? If he dies I'm letting the tank sit for another 3 week or getting damsels

[qb6fire]

If it dies let it set for a few weeks keep up the water changes and test the water and check for ammo spikes.

What all do you have in the tank?
Sand rock cuc?

[Schism]

Your tank has not cycled. Never add fish until your cycle is complete and you know this by testing. And when you do add, go slow. Big changes cause big problems and they happen fast in a 30 gallon tank.

[Schism]

What else is in the tank? What is your filtration? How many lbs live rock do you have? What do you have for flow? Whats your temp, ph, salinity, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate lvls?

[honeysuckle11]

well my other clown fish just die. so i only had 2 clown fish in my tank. my ph is 8.2 no3 0 ppm ammonia .25 ppm. i have 2 hnagon marineland fliter a 50 gallon and a 20 gallon fliter a power head for 500 gph. i had clean the fliter in the 50 gallon scrub the brown algea off and swith the nitrite asborb bag and proshere bag out of the 50 gallon fliter. Then that when my fish died. what could of went wrong?

[Schism]

What when wrong is your cycle. You added fish without cycling. Fish do not tolerate ammonia. Your cycle killed them. Let your tank cycle and wait a month before adding a fish. Slow and steady wins the race. Nothing in a reef happens fast except bad things.

[honeysuckle11]

I'm 75 percent sure I did a water change to fast and spike the levels

[Schism]

A water change would not hurt anything. The levels spike naturally its part of the cycle which you sis not let complete before you added fish.

[Beetlejuice]

My girlfriend did the same exact thing with our 20gl we have. Your cycling was to short and that's 9/10 why you have no fish right know. I would suggest spending 20-25$ on a good marine aquarium handbook. I purchased Marine Aquarium Handbook, Beginner to Breeder by Martin A. Moe, Jr. This book as been a great help and as already paid for itself w/ great invaluable information.

[qb6fire]

I got salt water fish for dummies spent hours at different lfs questioning and pucking the one i liked the most and read for hours on here and alot of question were answered before being asked and made the process alot easier