New ocellaris behavior

[Doobze]

Just got my first ocellaris in my 46 gallon yesterday, he's got 2 green chromis, a sand sifting sea star, a nassarius snail, 3 turbos, 5 hermits, a peppermint shrimp, and a new striped cleaner shrimp (got introduced with him, seems to be happy and thriving).

The problem is I can't get him to eat much. I've thrown a few varieties of frozen food at him, flakes, sinking pellets, and freeze dried brine shrimp, he'll occasionally check a piece out maybe put it in his mouth, but it sort of looks like he spits it back out a lot. He's definitely not getting outcompeted for food, I've been overfeeding a little bit to try and entice a feeding response from him.

He seems to like staying in one corner of a tank and kind of swims and bobs up and down the glass there, occasionally swimming to the other side of the tank to spend a minute or two there before going back, always staying near or on the glass. That being said, he is looking lively, not lethargic. I can't tell if he's respirating rapidly, I cant really get that good a look at his gills or mouth.

I dripped both him and the cleaner shrimp for about 50 minutes, and my params are:

SG 1.025
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: looks like zero, hard to tell with my test (API) at least for me, but it's very near the zero for sure

So, is this normal "getting used to the tank" behavior? Should I be doing something different or be worried?

Another question, I didn't think about this before, but if I introduce another ocellaris, will they readily form a mated pair, or should I have introduced the two of them together? And if I introduce one now will it make him feel more comfortable or just add to his stress?

[aquaph8]

I would just give him time. IME clowns are the most hardy eaters around. Let him get used to the aquarium and see what happens.

[Doobze]

That's what I've heard from all around, that's why I was concerned when he didn't seem too interested in eating. He seemed alright in the LFS, I even saw him actively hunt and eat an amphipod in the sand. Nothing visibly wrong with him that I can tell, good colors all around.

[Doobze]

Is there something I should be doing to help him out or entice him to eat?

[jflick345]

My percula hardly seemed at all interested in food for the first 3 days I had him then all of a sudden started gobbling down freeze dried mysid and flake.

[youpey]

mine did the same thing. i found that if i didnt watch him closely, but at a distance, he would eat. now he will eat if i am in front of him.

i did find that he wouldnt eat frozen bloodworms at all, but now he loves them

[Doobze]

Ah ok, that helps put my mind at ease.

What about other behaviors, such as where your guy's false percs seemed to hang out and such? Because mine mainly seems interested in the front 3 panes of glass and the two front corners, like he's looking for a weak spot to break out.

I'm already thinking of naming him Steve McQueen, if he lives haha.

Share your guys' false perc introduction stories so I have some sort of reference to go by.

Also, will it be possible to introduce another false perc later this week and have them pair up? Is there a way to tell if they're male or female or should I not worry about that since they're hermaphroditic?

[youpey]

mine mostly hangs out in light water currents although sometimes they swim towards the power head to fight the current. they do this for an hour or so, then they will go to the light water currents.

when they sleep at night they kind of sit up against the rocks until i wake them up by turning on the lights or walking near the tank.

my 2 clowns hang out together and they pretty much never are apart

as far as telling if one is male or female, the females are much larger. the safest, although no guarantees on compatibility is to get an undeveloped clown, preferably very small and not the only one in the tank at the store

also the sooner the better, if your clown is alone in teh tank for 2 weeks, there is a good chance that it is female.

[Doobze]

Hmm... I do have a Koralia 3 powerhead in there, I'll get some pics up in a sec of how it's positioned. Maybe you guys could suggest a better position for it?

[Doobze]

Ah, well pics won't be coming soon, camera's awol.

Corallary question, is the Koralia 3 too much for a 46 gallon? It seems rather powerful at times. I have 2 of them, but only one in the tank, I was gonna plan on pointing them at each other, but after seeing how strong just one was I've been kind of hesitant to throw the second in there.

[youpey]

the koralia doesnt have direct flow like a jet, it pushes it out in all directions. i cant answer if two of them are too much or not, but the way the koralia does the flow is better then the jet type

[PRDubois]

This is normal

[alaska clowns]

My very first saltwater fish was an ocillaris clown. I had never really watched one before, so the way she was bobbing up and down in the water, and at times doing it near the surface and over in one corner of the tank, made me think that she was sick and dying. I stayed up really late that night searching for information on what I could do to help her. But that was 7 months ago, and I think she's doing great, and now I'm used to the way she swims, especially when she's sleeping I had a hard time finding a second healthy fish here in town, it took me several months, in fact. Finally the LFS got in a group of juvenile ocillaris, and I added one that was much smaller (probably half her size), and they have paired nicely without any trouble. I alternate feeding mine frozen brine and frozen mysis, and spectrum thera-a pellets for small fish. I soak a drop or two of Kent's garlic Extreme into the frozen foods after I rinse them in RO water; my fish are crazy about food. Hope that helps, and good luck with your clown. My ocillaris are my favorite fish!

[PRDubois]

They call them clowns because they do funny things

[beerboy]

dont freak out when you see them parrallel to the water on the surface at night sleeping, I freaked and spent a couple of hours searching the net and found out its what they do when they don't have an anenome to host in, or havent hosted in one you provided.

[Doobze]

3rd day and he's still not really taking to food :/ Anything I can do to jumpstart his appetite?

[aquaph8]

you can try garlic, works for some people. Im not a big fan other than for nutritional purposes. Some people say it works as an acractant though. Other than that, just try different types of food. Mine seem to like mysis the best. Best of luck to you and your fish.

[Doobze]

Ah, he just started eating tonight, so relieved haha.