42g - FO or FOWLR?

[SHARPiE]

OK - I got another addition to the tank - 1 percula clown.

I felt sorry for the clown I already had, so I got one that was also tank raised. The new clown is more of a red colour, the older clown was more of a yellow. They are almost identical in size (the red is a little larger)

I am hoping they might pair up.

As soon as I added the red clown to the tank, the yellow came up to see what it was, and ever since then, they have been doing this weird twitching, lay on their side dance. They have been together for an hour or so now.

Its really weird.


Will keep you posted.

 

[Aquarium1]

Any pics?

 

[SHARPiE]

So the clowns behaviour has changed a little now.

I gave them a small serve of live brine shrimp and they all loved it, besides the red one who ate a few and spat them back out.

The red clown is chasing the slightly smaller yellow clown around the tank. It goes on for a few minutes, then they stop, meet and start doing this dancing twitching seizure thing very close together.

The Yellow clown's stomach seems a little larger than before.
Here's some pics:

The first two are of them doing the twitch dance. The others are when the red one starts to chase the other around.





Should I be worried?
Or is this just normal pairing behaviour?

I'll keep a close watch.

 

[Aquarium1]

Really nice pics what camera are you using? Sorry I don't know much about the twitching dance, as I don't have sw.

 

[atte]

I don't have much experience, but I think its normal behavior - the twitching is submissive behavior towards the other clown.

Great tank btw, looks awesome

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

Clowns, will be clowns. Thats for dominance if i remember correctly.

 

[SHARPiE]

Thanks for the replies all Much appreciated.

It looks like they are spending a lot of time near each other now.
Not as much chasing by the red clown.

Just fed them some live brine and they all took for them.
The red wasn't as excited for the brine, but it did eat.

I was going to apologise for the quality of the shots -
I borrowed if off my sister - its a Sony Cybershot 7.2 MP camera.
I use a special JPEG compression program so the size isn't massive but the quality is still there.

 

[fishmonkey]

great shots man! the behavior is normal.

 

[SHARPiE]

great shots man! the behavior is normal.

Thanks fishmonkey!

I thought they were rather plain and out of focus!






Picking my 2 firefish in a day or so!
Wooo

 

[SHARPiE]

My 2 Firefish arrived last night.
In preparation I moved all my Live rock around - I think it looks much better with the new setup. (Photos tomorrow)

I acclimated these guys and introduced them into the tank. They swam straight to the bottom and hid. I left the lights off and after a few hours of them being in the tank, I went to check on them.

I could only locate the one, tucked in this tiny little cave.
I went back to check them in the morning, and I still could only see the one hiding.

I have a coral beauty on order now (brilliant coloration - bright yellows and I'm picking up in a week or so's time).

I also took my protein skimmer in for a little re-work (new quieter pump and shortening the intake pipe so it doesn't take as much real estate in the tank).

Photos tomorrow

 

[melosu58]

Glad it`s working out.

 

[SHARPiE]

Forgot to mention - RO/DI 6 stage system is in the post too -
Wooo!!


T5 lighting system next.

 

[SHARPiE]

Firefish are finally visible - I got to choose out of 6 - and I chose a medium sized male and female.
They are VERY timid at the moment, one slight movement and they disappear back into the rock.

Fed them some frozen brine shrimp - the firefish didn't really know what to do with it at first. I did see them eat a few scraps of brine tho.
Maybe they'll eat more tomorrow once they feel a little safer.

Here's some pics of acclimating them and when they finally came out of hiding:

 

[melosu58]

Looks pretty good. If you feed frozen brine make sure it`s vitamin fortified as regular brine is not very nutritional. Kind of like us sitting down to a plate of twinkies for supper.

 

[SHARPiE]

Cheers for the advice - I got some sinking small pellets that the guys now love.

I see the firefish out more often now, but I still haven't seen them eat yet. Should I be worried? Its been 4 days without food.

I might pick up some Live Brine, and see if they go for that.

Tank is looking much tidier:

 

[SHARPiE]

Hi again, here's some pics.
Got a coral beauty and a paired set of coral banded shrimp.

Stock list almost complete.
T5 light and corals coming soon!

 

[austinsdad]

Add some Garlic Guard or similar product to the brine, frozen or live to fortify the food. Add some Zoe or other vitamin too. It's what melosu58 is telling you also. The garlic can make new, finicky eaters eat.

 

[SHARPiE]

Good news and bad news.

5.45pm - ALL tank mates are eating the marine store recommended pellets.

7.45pm - One of the chromis went too close to the protein skimmer pump inlet hole. He was wedged in there really good. Had to yank him out. No hope...

The LFS said that the fish would be fine with this exposed...
Ahh well, I was eventually going to trade the chromis back.

For now I have put a bit of thin filter foam over the hole. Its a temporary solution for now. I might get some kind of mesh. Has anyone had the same problem?

 

[SHARPiE]

It seems behaviour changes so quickly with this tank!!

Left for work at 7am, all is well. Return at 6pm and find that my yellow clownfish has a notch missing out of his tail (I suspect he got a little too close to the coral banded shrimp). The clowns' behaviour has reversed - The yellow clown has grown quite quickly and is pretty much the same size as the red one. The yellow is chasing the red all over the tank quite aggressively. The red one isn't fighting back... I hope they don't turn into a pair of fighters...

 

[SHARPiE]

The clowns have recovered from the Fin Splitting now.
The yellow clown is definatley larger.

Firefish are out and about when the lights are on and are eating well. (I have had to cut down on lighting as I am getting diatoms (I am doing RO/DI water changes)

The shrimp have come out of their shells (excuse the pun) they have both malted, are quite active and usually say hello when I walk up to the tank. When I feed the tank the tiny pellets, the shrimp try to climb the glass to get the food first!

I'm having issues keeping my tank temp down.

We are into day 8 of our 39 celsius, 100 Farenheit plus weather.... Not nice, no end in sight either.

The temp of the tank was sitting at 29 degrees (84 F) and I was struggling to lower it (no chiller). I now have the lights on a 1.5 hour timer as the hood was getting very hot. I got out a pedistal fan, and this has dropped it to 27 degrees (80 F).

At what temp am I going to start having real problems?
Should I be looking at a chiller? I'm not going to get coral for quite some time.

I am planning on upgrading the 42g FOWLR into a 55g Reef Tank, and use the 42g as a FOWLR Lion Fish setup.
Does anyone here have experience with Lion Fish? (I have done lots of research, but have plenty of questions)


Cheers