[anmacara103]

We just got our first clown today. The LFS had him (or her) for a little lover a week, and I saw him/her a few times and thought it was a great looking fish. It had a good body shape, nice colors and was eating well. Brought it home and did my best to acclimate it. I floated the bag it came in for about 20 minutes to let the temp get the same (already very close), then I opened up the bag and added small amounts of my water slowly to the bag, untill the bag was 3/4 of the way in the water. Then I tipped the bag over and let the water mix and the clown swim around. Once the bag was starting to collapse, I tipped the clown the rest of the way out. My damsel fish started "showing off" and displaying his fins in front of the clown (it is a false percula and about half the size of the damsel). Now the clown is just sitting in the top corner of the tank. The damsel isn't attacking him, but he isn't going anywhere either. He seems to be swimming fine, but his breathing is a little labored. Should I be worried?

[anmacara103]

Clown jumped out of the aquarium area back into the filter area. It landed in the middle compartment on top of the section the bioballs are in and was laying on the grid. I set up a 5gal bucket that has a filter and heater and the wastewater from my waterchange earlier today and I plan on removing the damsel for a while, probably taking him back to the fish store.

[anmacara103]

I may be the only one reading this, but here is another update. The clown got chased into the filtration compartment again, this time into the pump compartment. We were watching, so I immediately unplugged it. We made the decision to remove the Damsel. I had to take almost every single piece of live rock out of my tank to catch the thing! It made a huge mess and I am really upset, because I liked the way the tank was looking. Anyway, we got the LR back in, got the clown out of the pump compartment, turned everything on, and he seems happier. The Damsel is in our temporary holding tank for return. He was a great fish, and beautiful, but if I can't have even one more fish in my tank with him, I just don't want that! Hopefully this clown makes it after all the stress it has been through!

[Tonz of fun]

How big is your tank what are your water oeramiters? They way you acclimated is not the way I would of done it. You should drip acclimate for 2 hours. DO NOT ADD THE LFS WATER TO YOUR TANK. Its bad bad bad. Always scoop out the fish and add him to your tank. What kind of Damsel is it. Also Im glad to hear your fish are now doing better. IMO you should not move your LR around after everything is set up but you have to do what you have to do. How is he now?

[swinginbeef]

I'm a 'fish pourer'. But I also acclimate for a long time. I float the bag and then pour about a 1/4 cup of tank water into the bag every 10 minutes. When the bag gets too full, I pour 80% of it out intot he sink and keep floating and filling every 10 minutes. I usually empty the bag in the sink twice and fill it a third time. Then I empty almost all of the water into the sink and then pour the rest into the tank with the fish.

[anmacara103]

First of all, I got my water from the LFS when I started the aquarium (29 gal Biocube). So my water paramaters are very close to the same as his, and I am not so woried about adding his water to my tank. My pH is around 8.4-8.6 (it is in between the two colors on the test, difficult to tell. My Amonia is down to trace amounts (the test seems horribly inacurate, but it is in between 0.0 and 0.25 ppm) Nitrites are unreadable SG is 1.024. These are all the tests I am doing right now. I tried to do a nitrate test, and it seemed high, but the temperature paramaters on the test were weird (it said it needed to be about 66 degrees F to be accurate) and my lfs said that it was a little high, but not abnormal, and to cut down a little on feeding, which I did. All of my corals and inverts are doing great, which makes me think that the Nitrates are not too big of an issue as my one faulty test indicated, so I will go with the lfs judgment on that and keep an eye on it. Finally, I really hated to move my LR, but I had to get the agressive fish out, and it was impossible with all of those hiding places! I returned the damsel (turns out it is a Figi Devil as opposed to the Neon Damsel I thought I was getting). He took it back for store credit and said it was no problem, as the fish was extremely healthy. Clown is doing very well now, eating and swimming in the curent, he stays close to the filter intakes, but I have seen a lot of ppl observing similar behaviors in their clowns, as they enjoy the curent. We found a second tank raised clown that looked healthy and happy at a Petco and was very close in size to ours (we really wanted a pair, but the LFS only had one that we liked). I DID NOT add the Petco water to my tank! They are both swiming together and not being agressive to one another at all, and both actively ate!!! We only plan on adding two more fish. A neon goby and possibly a red hawkfish or a six-line wrasse. That will be it for fish, the rest will be corals and maybe some cool inverts if we see anything that catches our fancy. Hopefully I will find a coral that these two clowns will take up residence in!

So, Right now we have:
2 Clowns (false Perculas)
1 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Turbo Snails
2 Hermit Crabs
2 Other Snails (one that lives in the sand and one other small one Nassarius and something else)
1 Hammer Coral
1 Cluster with three different kinds of Zoa corals

[Tonz of fun]

I was just checking, So no QT correct? Im glad to see your fish are good. It you want some frags Im a fan of buying small and cheap and letting them grow big. I bought frogspawn and capnell and a zoo from this guy and was very pleased. Nice and big. His other stuff is small. Try him out. He doesnt have anything listed but he has tons of pictures and stuff to sell you should pm him. eBay My World - grizzvander

[anmacara103]

Sorry, I tried to post this last night, but it got hung up somewhere

No I do not have a QT tank. This is my first Salt Water Aquarium, and this Aquarium has only 4 planned fish. I thought about getting a very small aquarium (3gal or less so I could set it up with a 10% water change). I just worry about my ability to keep a fish that is sick alive in a tank like that for more than a couple of days. Any suggestions? The 5gal bucket with a filtered powerhead and a heater worked for an overnighter, but I wouldn't want to rely on that in the future.

Thanks for the advice

[rlcline76]

You can get nasty crap in your tank with 4 small fish. Plus, you have to realize, fish die...then fish get replaced. So QT is a good thing. If you are doing small fish, a 3 gallon is OK. You really do not want a sick fish in your main tank because most of the time we are not just dealing with old age and eating disorders for health issues. Plus, it is easier to QT one fish at a time than it is to have a parasite invasion in the main tank and then have to QT everything for 6 weeks or more.

If you have to move your LR, you have to move your LR.

Be very careful about allowing anyone other than you test your parameters. Some people use the LFS water and it works out OK, some people have used the LFS water and did not test and things have gone horribly wrong. If you do not want to invest in a small RO/DI and your own saltmix, that is up to you, but please test. Get a good test kit (NOT THE STRIPS)...Sera, some of us use Salifert and test for yourself. Too many people blindly trusting the LFS. We should almost have a thread for horror stories so that those who think we are being unfair know why the rest of us seem skiddish.

[anmacara103]

Yes, I am using my own salt mix and RO/DI water (I am buying it at the grocery store for now, since my water changes are so small). I just put LFS water in when starting the aquarium to help get the system established (along with LR and LS).

I will look for a 3 gal the next time I go shopping. We won't be adding another fish for at least two weeks.

I don't trust the LFS to test it for me, but, like I said, the other indicators of very high Nitrates were not there (listless fish, corals closing up, etc.). And, like I said, I did test it, but it didn't seem right. I will check out the Sera and Salifert tests, because mine is from Red Sea, and seems woefully inadequate!

The ammonia test even says that a reading of .1 is too high, but the color deliniations for the test go from 0.0 (yellow) to 0.25 (green). Thanks for not providing an accurate enough test to show the danger level Red Sea! On the other hand, the pH and Alkalinity tests seem to work fine :P

[blind1993]

Originally Posted by Tonz of fun

I was just checking, So no QT correct? Im glad to see your fish are good. It you want some frags Im a fan of buying small and cheap and letting them grow big. I bought frogspawn and capnell and a zoo from this guy and was very pleased. Nice and big. His other stuff is small. Try him out. He doesnt have anything listed but he has tons of pictures and stuff to sell you should pm him. eBay My World - grizzvander

srry if this is hijacking but i sold a frogspawn that looks like that

4 full grown head on 1 side the other branch has 2 full grown. and aton of little frags. right.

[anmacara103]

Here are pics of my clowns and my two biggest corals. My LFS has lots of coral frags. He actually doesn't seem to cary many fish at all, because he really enjoys working with corals and coral frags (I also suspect that the profit margin is higher). Both of these corals were bought at the LFS the hammer is my favorite so far!

[anmacara103]

Just an update, both clowns are doing great! I added a bit of screen to block off the filter compartment of the Biocube, as both of them have ended up in the filter compartment at one point in time or another (water goes right up to the lip of the compartment). Now there are no worries at least. Also added a yellow watchman goby, and he is doing well also