phamily Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Hi All, My tank is setup for 4 months and the one of my favorite fish is the clownfish. Unfortunately, for some reason i can't figure out why I don't have much luck when it come to keeping them. I just lost my 2nd pair today( bought about 1 week ago). The fish looked a bet legathic last night, so I did 3 gal water change on my AP24. All corals (SPS , mushroom, and softies ), crocea clam, and sixline and watchman are doing fine. I just tested my water and these are the paramaters: nitrate = 0 nitrite = 0 ph = 8-8.2 ammonia= 0.25-.5 (maybe due to the last 10-12 hrs decay) sg = 1.028 (little too high) - need to get an auto top-off system. currently adding 3 cups of RO water to main tank daily. temp = 79-81 my tank setup been running for ~4 months : 24AP with MJ1200 sump running carbon and sponge + MJ600 in tank pump 150 MH (8-9hrs cycle)with DIY refigium sapphire skimmer ~30lbs of lr LStock: 10 - hermit crabs (scalet, blue leg, zebra, red) 1 emerald crab, (getting prettty big now) 1 sixline 1 watchman 1 clearner shrimp ~10 snails Please help, I really want to keep a pair of clownfish in the tank .... Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 I would get that salinity lowered and wait until the tank stabilizes (no ammonia or nitrites) then make sure the pair you buy are eating and in very good shape before you buy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wryknow Posted April 26, 2007 Share Posted April 26, 2007 OK, let's ask the really obvious: What/when/how much were you feeding them and were they eating well? Was there any type of markings or injuries on the fish corpses? (little white spots, gashes in the sides, etc) Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamily Posted May 2, 2007 Author Share Posted May 2, 2007 OK, let's ask the really obvious:What/when/how much were you feeding them and were they eating well? Was there any type of markings or injuries on the fish corpses? (little white spots, gashes in the sides, etc) Jason I feed frozen brine shrimps q.o.d, alternate feeding of dt's+frozen cyclopeez for corals and clam. Sometime i will feed them flakes. All small portions. Vary time of feeding. usually right before when MH on or right after MH off Corpses was pretty much gone by the time i got home. cuc almost finish eveything...no visible white spot or gashes the night before death. but did show sign of legathic and irregular movement (likebeing drunk). thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedude Posted May 2, 2007 Share Posted May 2, 2007 For what it's worth, clownfish have been coming in really crappy recently. They usually go through phases where for 6 months you get really strong ones, 3 months of death, then the cycle repeats. This is unfortunately a cycle of death in our case. The clowns seem to have some kind of disease that takes hold of an otherwise fine looking specimen and kills quick. I went through 6 clowns last week and all of them were dead in about 10 days while other fish did fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wryknow Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Hmmm. Well, it could be some sort of disease. It could also have something to do with a Ph swing or salinity swing (at night for example,) or an ammonia spike that caused some toxicity. Clowns are pretty resistant to nitrates/nitrites but ammonia is a killer. It could also just have been stress (a combination of a lot of little things.) Some fish have a hard time acclimating to their new homes. My $.02 on feeding: I can't tell what size or quanitity of frozen brine shrimp you're feeding but the clowns need something a bit meatier long-term (brine shrimp are not terribly nutritious) and should be fed at least every day. I feed Spectrum sinking pellets myself and all of my fish eat them greedily. There's a lot of choices out there though for prepared foods. I try to stay away from flake food because of the high phosphates. Definitely look into an auto-top off unit too. That can cause a lot of salinity and Ph movement in a smaller tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamily Posted May 5, 2007 Author Share Posted May 5, 2007 Hmmm. Well, it could be some sort of disease. It could also have something to do with a Ph swing or salinity swing (at night for example,) or an ammonia spike that caused some toxicity. Clowns are pretty resistant to nitrates/nitrites but ammonia is a killer. It could also just have been stress (a combination of a lot of little things.) Some fish have a hard time acclimating to their new homes.My $.02 on feeding: I can't tell what size or quanitity of frozen brine shrimp you're feeding but the clowns need something a bit meatier long-term (brine shrimp are not terribly nutritious) and should be fed at least every day. I feed Spectrum sinking pellets myself and all of my fish eat them greedily. There's a lot of choices out there though for prepared foods. I try to stay away from flake food because of the high phosphates. Definitely look into an auto-top off unit too. That can cause a lot of salinity and Ph movement in a smaller tank. thanks for all your help. Since my nano tank is fairly new, and i am still an amateur, i think the swing in PH and salinity kill those clownfishes. I'm looking into creating my DIY auto-top off unit and start dosing. That is one thing I start to like about saltwater...get to build/make stuff. And i just bought some sinking pellets...will start to alternate feeding meals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phamily Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 Finally I found my two lovely true perc. I bought them about 5 weeks ago and they are doing great. Very fun to watch. In addition of purchasing my favorite fish. I added a chiller to my 24 AP setup a week ago and everthing is going really well. Those new acro is enjoying the chill and the koralia1 flow. Hope everything will continue to grow and mature:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Congrats!!! The percs look happy and the tank looks great. Keep it up. Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 tank looks terrific! I nominated you for tank of the quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wryknow Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Great! Thanks for the nice photos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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