New Clown fish, Are they sick, what can i do?

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solidsnakejv

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
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161
My tank cycled last week and i wanted to add a couple of fish.
I was going to get three damsels, but i decided not to do so because i didn't want to tear down my rockwork trying to get them out later.

My current water reading

Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and my nitrate is 20 ppm.
my temp is currently 78.5, and that's because i finally turned on my AC last night when i noticed that the temp was 83

I bought to clownfish yesterday at petco, 8 turbos snails and 7 hermit crabs.
I used the floating bag method to acclamate them and i did so for about an hour.

As soon as i put the clownfish in they went all the wyay to the bottom and started swinning funny. As if they were swimming against the current. They both stayed together at the bottom like 1 inch off the sand. All they have been doing is swimming that way wihtout moving around. This morning i found one clown fish in the other corner of the tank doing the same thing and the other was on the other side doing the same thing. i took the one that moved to the other side and put him back with the other one. They have stayied together since.
I turned off my powerheads thinking that i have too much waterflow in there and that has made them a little more active but they still don't look normal. I have a 90 gallon tank with two koralia 3's and the rio pump 2500 which does about the 750 gph, while each Koralia does 850gph.
Here's a link to a video of the clownfish right now.

YouTube - solidsnakejv747's Channel

By the way, they are tank bred.
What should i do? are they fine and just getting used to the tank? they have been in there for almost 12 hours now.
 
They look fine to me. I'd be more worries about my test kits. Your posts say you cycled a 90g with uncured rock in 3 weeks. I'd keep an eye on those params just in case
 
to be exact i set it up on 7/3/09 i clean the rock very well. spent like 3 hours on it. The ammonia was through the roof for a few days after week one. And the the nitrite were. About five days ago my nitrite went down to zero. I rearranged my rock once i put the sand in and that raised my ammonia and nitrite just a little, but it went back down to zero.
 
Your new mates look good to me also. Your tank is very clean, how do you get your substrate so clean with such a new tank?
 
I understand that, and that you said the tank finished last week.. which is where I got the 3 weeks from.

My only (and last) point was that for using uncured rock 3 weeks is on the quick side for a cycle and that it may behoove you to keep an eye on your levels just in case.
 
The cleanliness of the tank was my subtle way of querying if the tank had completed its cycling process. Behoove!! What a great word.
 
I agree with the Captain. 3 weeks was an extremely quick cycle. Better safe than sorry. Keep a close eye out.
 
well i turned on the lights for the first time this morning, and they were looking a little better. The smaller of the two seems to be doing better than the other. I kind of noticed a small white spot on the bigger one, but i'm not sure it's ich, it's not that obvious right now.
I'll keep an eye on them. Hopefully they'll be fine when i get home from work.
 
You said that you bag floated the fish to acclimate them. Bag floating IMO is not a good way to acclimate. Next time try drip acclimating maybe the fish were shocked a lil from goin to the fish stor parameters to yours, but don't worry it is a learning process. Watch out for a mini cycle down the road. Just remember keep your maintanence simple and you will be fine
 
Why a mini cycle?
When the ammonia, and nitrites rise. There is several reason for it a new tank that doesn't have enough bacteria build up and fish being added to quickly, something died in the tank and the CUC didn't take care of it, overfeeding, or even changing to much water and the filter at the same time can cause it.
 
Your fish look fine, also note when you wake up in the morning you will find them doing some strange things, but not to worry about 10 minutes after you put the lights on they will be back to normal. They have strange sleeping habits.
 
They have strange sleeping habits.

100_0638.JPG
 
I have just lost my occ. I think I would love to have a pair of these. I still have my other occ; will have to seriously think about what to do!!
 
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