Clown Fish

[amyv]

Good morning, I am fairly new to the Saltwater Aquarium, I have a 55 gallon breader tank with live rock and tufa rock, it finished cycling a few weeks ago and I have 6 blue green chromis, 1 occilarus (sp?) clown fish, 10 red leg hermit crabs, and 2 snails that are huge but I don't remember what they are called. I had originally purchased 2 occilarus clown fish together but one died about 3 days after I got it. I went to a different lfs and purchased a percalla (sp?) clown fish. I got him last Friday. As much as the occilarus tries, the percalla just won't school with him, they do sleep together but it appears that the Percalla isn't eating and hasn't since I got him. I rotate daily between flakes and mysis shrimp. I have also noticed that usually when the percalla is swimming, it seems to be at a 45 degree angle with its tail down. Is any of this normal or could there be a problem looming? all of my water perameters are good: spg - 1.022, amonia - 0 nitrites - 0 Nitrates - 5, and the ph is 8.2.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Amy

 

[Oliver]

trying to mate a ocellaris and a percula is stupid, to a lesser extent it is like mating a leopard wrasse with a six-line wrasse. They are different, you get 2 of the SAME types of fish to mate . Take both of the clowns back and but a mater pair, if you just buy another clown, either percula or ocellaris depending on which one u trade, it may not work and this is an extra burden.

 

[FloridaBoy]

Well, I won't refer to you or your efforts as "stupid" Amy, but I can tell you that Perculas are, IME one of the more difficult clownfish, esp. those which have been wild caught; they are easily damaged (ammonia, temp shifts etc.) in shipping and often this will not manifest itself until weeks after they are sold to hobbyists. Be advised; even tank raised clowns can be forgotten on a loading dock at the airport or left in the summer heat for too long somewhere in transit. The angle of swimming is cause for concern; if it's not eating take it back to the LFS before it dies and ask for another fish or a credit. If they won't work with you take your business elswhere.
For the record; I like other clowns better; tomatoes, clarkii, sebaes, cinnamons, maroons, (sorry lots of common name confusion in clowns, I may have been repetitive there as I am not a clownfish expert) these have all done very well for me over the years. Not saying percs are not good fish; many have great luck with them, but based on the years I spent as a fish retailer, it seems like have personally seen a much higher mortality rate with them over the years than the others I mentioned. Consult your LFS and use caution when mixing any types of clowns; some do not tolerate others of the same species at all unless they are a mated pair.

 

[amyv]

Oliver, first of all, what I am doing I don't feel is stupid. I have consulted many people and you are the only one that has advised against what I am doing. I cannot return the occellarus because the store I got it from would probably only give me pennies for it and I don't have money to waste.

I did contact the lfs that I got the perc from and he suggested live brine shrimp to induce eating. That didn't work so I called the next day and the store agreed to take the perc back for full credit. the lfs recomended not to get another false perc from there stock because he thought they were looking a little odd. he suggested either I wait till he has something more healthy or I could try a true perc that he had. I chose the later and the two clowns are doing very well together.

Florida Boy, thank you for the advise. Fortunatly the one thing that I have learned with this hobby is that you may get many different opinions on a topic and they may all be right but you really need to use your head and do what sounds the best to you.

 

[squirrel-e 2]

45 degree angle

I own two occelaris clowns, one that has been extremely hardy, and one that has been very sensitive to water differences. When i purchased the sensitive one and put it in my tank it swam at an angle, after a while it stopped and has been healthy until i did my most recent water change and it started to swim weirdly again. Since i knew that the water change water i used was perfect except for the slight difference in salt levels i figured out that the off-swimming must have been caused by different gravity than the fish was used to because the salt levels were slightly off. Also why would you spend extra buying a single percula when you could of bought a cheaper ocellaris? My lfs only sells perculas in mated pairs