Percula Clownfish Acclimation

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marinelif3

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
13
Hey everyone,

Once the Clownfish has acclimated to the tank on the first day, how long do you have to wait to determine whether the clownfish has fully acclimated to its new tank environment? When can you comfortably say that the clownfish is comfortable with the environment? meaning it has accepted the water parameters, temp, etc? After a few hours, days?

Also, I have been reading how there are difficulties feeding marine fishes. What do you do when the fish does not accept the food that you have? Do you try other foods? or keep feeding what you have until the fish accepts it? of course not to the point when it pollutes the tank.
 
Also, I have been reading how there are difficulties feeding marine fishes. What do you do when the fish does not accept the food that you have? Do you try other foods? or keep feeding what you have until the fish accepts it? of course not to the point when it pollutes the tank.

I would wait a day before feeding. They eat whatever frozen food you purchase. Or ask your LFS what they have been feeding them....IMO
 
Tank has a good point. Find out what it was eating at the LFS. Keep in mind, some fish won't eat for a few days. I like to soak my food in zoe, selcon and garlic guard for no longer than 30 minutes.
I also always drip acclimate my fish for at least an hour.
 
I used the float then add water every 10 minutes routine. It took about 45 minutes to do the whole acclimation process. The fish are free swimming and exploring the tank for 2 days now. I asked the pet store what they feed them and he said it was Flakes (what I was using) and brine shrimp (yet to try). How many days should I wait until I try to feed them again? How many days is it ok for them not to eat? Uneaten foods are trapped at the bottom of the tank, flakes are not the easiest food to pick up.
 
Fish can easily go 3 -5 days without food. I feed the tank every 2-3 days. My A. percula eat anything I put in the tank. The female even eats nori (dried algea sushi wrap). I feed flake no more than 1x/week. Freeze dried or frozen mysis shrimp are much more nutrious than brine shrimp.
Fish like a variety of foods, so mix it up. Try the flake one day, then the mysis a couple of days later. When they are hungry they will eat. Feeding sparsely keeps them in better health and helps keep the water parameters from getting out of whack due to the pollution caused by overfeeding.
 
One more thing, a little trick I learned. To help reduce the fishes stress level when adding to the tank, I keep them in a dark environment. I float and drip in the sump which is under the tank and dark. The dark seems to keep them from getting over excited in the new conditions and they seem to be much more calm when I move them to the main tank. I don't have a QT yet, but this has helped quite a bit. The same for when I actually put them in the main tank. I do it with the lights off. As nice as it is to watch them in the main tank right away turning off the lights for the introduction and giving them a first night in the dark keeps them less stressed and the new tank mates pick on them alot less.
 
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