# New black clowns



## eglavasa240 (Jan 22, 2008)

Hey all, 
I have a question need an opinion. I bought 2 black clowns on Friday (they are a tank raised pair, male and female already morphed). I have an agressive green chromii who was being very defensive and tried to chase the clowns, but the clowns just kind of chased my chromii away. They didn't really seem stressed or bothered by the chromi. So that was a good sign and I wasn't too concerned. Then Sat i woke up and all the fish seemed to be doing fine. Saturday night the female couldn't seem to stop swimming fast around the tank ,while the male tried to keep but had a hard time. I know it was a sign of stress possibly so i just kept my eye on her. Then yesterday (sunday) all fish were doing fine again, Chromi still trying to establish terroties and vise versa. My new clowns just kind of stayed in one spot and didn't swim quite as much as they started. I so i fed them breakfast, which was some frozen food mix chromi went nuts and ate but i couldn't tell if the clowns were actually eating. They could smell the food and seemed interested but no evident signs they were actually eating because i didn't seem them going after big pieces. I did see the male eat sat night so the female is who i'm mostly worried about. I fed them at dinner again, same thing they didn't really seem to want to eat but was interested in the food. So i'm not sure if im feeding them the right stuff? or if the female is sick? or if they're still getting adjusted. 

My tank is a 29 gal. 
live rock, 3 snails, 3 emerald crabs, one un id crab ( i think its an emerald as well), a chocolate chip starfish, ph about 8.0 ( little low i know), nitrite at 40 (high i know as well), nitrate = 0, salinity 1.020. bio wheel filter. 

If any ideas or comments let me know. 
Thanks


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

hopefully others more knowledgeable than me will chime in with more specifics regarding the cause of the clownfishs' behavior, but as far as the water parameters, definitely try and get the nitrates down, try to keep the pH up closer to 8.2 or 8.4, and also raise the salinity to 1.024-1.025.

I suppose its possible that the water itself is causing the odd behavior, but even if its not, you should still try to adjust the parameters 

I've certainly heard of new fish refusing to eat in captivity, and having to be 'enticed,' but not for tank-bred fish. So I doubt that is the issue. Sorry I couldn't be of more help


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## eglavasa240 (Jan 22, 2008)

yeah i talked to the guys at the fish store.Totally trust them and said that these guys are pretty hardy and aren't too picky with my levels. I also forgot to add that I haven't checked since last Sunday so i need to double check my pH again. Thanks for trying.


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Wait, Nitrite is at 40? Or do you mean nitrate?

Do you have the BIO-Wheel in the filter, or is it removed? That is most likely the problem to your 'trates. A bio-wheel does not help in saltwater tanks.

How long has this been set-up and what system are you running?


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

actually Cody is right... I totally missed that and assumed it was nitrites 0, nitrates 40. Nitrites should return to 0 after the tank has cycled, and stay at zero. How long has your tank been set up?


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## gymnothorax (Sep 20, 2007)

definetly want to bring your nitrites down asap, 25% water change and some buffer should do it, keep us updated. also, what is your temp. at?


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## eglavasa240 (Jan 22, 2008)

*update*

Nitrates are at 40 sorry which ever is suppose to be at about 20 is at 40. I get them mixed up. I've had the tank set up since november. Now my female looks like she has cloudy eye and is staying lower in the tank, what can i do to help her get destressed or healthy.


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

*Re: update*



eglavasa240 said:


> Nitrates are at 40 sorry which ever is suppose to be at about 20 is at 40. I get them mixed up. I've had the tank set up since november. Now my female looks like she has cloudy eye and is staying lower in the tank, what can i do to help her get destressed or healthy.


And what system are you running (reef, FOWLR, FO)? You want to raise the salinity level as well to around 1.023. Take the BIO-wheel out. That is the reason for your 'trates. It is a 'trate factory in SW tanks.


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## eglavasa240 (Jan 22, 2008)

*Bad news*

Well i have some sad news..
my female clown has died. and within in a 1 1/2 hour span. My boyfriend came home and found my choclate chip starfish actually covering her so im not sure when she died and if the starfish helped with it..im removing my starfish cuz he's done some "fishy" things other times. Im going to take my biowheel out and my nitrates do seem to be slowly going back down to 20 after i took some sand out. my boss at work said that messing with the sand will create nitrates too. Is this true?? So now my nxt step is to possibly see if i can get 1 new clown before my male becomes too use to being the only one. What do ppl think of that?

p.s this is a fish only tank


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