Clownfish Behaivor

[akelly310]

Hi everyone,

First time posting here and very new to the hobby. I have a 55 gallon FOWLR and I just got my first two fish on Friday Feb 14. I got an ocellaris clown and a black & white ocellaris clown. After reading several posts I've heard it is possible for them to pair up and the LFS told me it can be hit or miss so I went for it. My concern is that it has been almost a week and I dont believe they are paired. While the black & white stays pretty chilled out on the right side of my tank towards the front glass swimming peacefully at several depths, the orange or regular ocellaris swims against the back glass frantically from end to end of my tank, I believe 4ft in length. He/She will sometimes swim up and down the corner and then race back across the tank. Is this something I should be worried about? I have nothing else in the tank except roughly 35-40 lbs of live rock.

Also, the pair aren't big eaters. I am feeding them formula 1 pellets the smallest size and I threw in brine shrimp for the first time today. With the pellets they would typically eat maybe 1-2 maybe 3 and then they just kind of put them in their mouths and drop them out. Thoughts?

Thanks for any advice.

Side note: I'm geting better, but for the majority I have no idea what acronyms on this site outside of LFS and DSB, just to forewarn potential confusion

[nlgill13]

How big are the clowns? Do they ever interact with each other? If so how?

1-2 pellets seems a little low. How often do you feed them?

[akelly310]

I feed them twice a day. They are about 1 and 1/4 inch and unfortunately I didn't notice that they are relatively similar in size. The orange is a bit bigger and seems to be more aggressive. When I first introduced them they hovered maybe an inch off the sand and they were right next to each, but then later that day the orange started doing the swimming pattern and that is basically what it does whenever I am around to watch them except during feeding time. When I drop food in, the orange is more aggressive and will pick on the black & white if he tries to take food which I know is a sign of dominance, but the orange won't chill out long enough to hang around.

[snorvich]

It will be a while until they begin to interact. However, you need to feed a bit more. Probably still small enough to be sexually undifferentiated.

[akelly310]

I was thinking that the similar size may be causing dominance to take a while. They were hard to pick out at the LFS and the black one was supposed to be significantly smaller. I'll keep an eye on them and give them some more time. Should I not worry about the constant swimming end to end in my tank then? Also, how long should I wait to add snails and peppermint shrimp? Suggestions on types would be greatly appreciated as well as how many. Also good stocking ideas. I am quite fond of dwarf angels, scooter blenny, dottybacks is what I want down the road.

Thanks for you time everyone!

[Deinonych]

Mine took a while before they would eat pellets. I would feed them frozen mysis to start, then work into more nutritious foods like Rod's Food. Once they are eating that with gusto, you can try moving them onto pellets.

[shifty51008]

How long has the tank been setup, do you have algae in the tank?

[akelly310]

Tank has been up for about a month and a couple days. There is a significant amount of brown algae, which is detritus from my understanding. I am not noticing any green or red algae. What's the comparison between brine shrimp and mysis?

[Crooked Reef]

Brown algea could be cyano. Whenever I have it turn up it is more of a rust color then red. It is hard to tell without a picture. Mysis is more beneficial to fish. If you use brine shrimp it needs to have vitamins added. You can soak it in selcon if you would like. The formula one pellets may actually be too big for them to eat comfortably. You could probably swallow a whole cupcake if you had to but it wouldnt be pleasant. It is the same for a fish, but they dont really chew it.

[akelly310]

Interesting cupcake analogy, good mental image haha. Thanks for the advise, I'll pick some mysis shrimp up and hopefully they will go crazy on it. Any advise on getting rid of the possible cyano. I don't have a picture with me and I'm not home at the moment. Rust would be a pretty good description of the color. It's kind of spotted but pack pretty close together on most of the sand bed and a good amount on one piece of white live rock I have in there.

Thanks again!

[Cymonous]

Cyano is not brown. Your tank is new. You have diatoms, not cyano. Your tank is still going through its stages. Make sure to use RODI (Reverse Osmosis/Distilled) water. The diatoms will fade on its own. You may get cyano (red slime algae) at the beginning, but again it will fade on its own as this is also part of a new tank.

[Crooked Reef]

Cymonous is right. I have had both and thought they were both two types of cyano. Time will take care of it. It doesn't hurt to siphon it off if you can though.

[Spyderturbo007]

Originally Posted by akelly310

the orange or regular ocellaris swims against the back glass frantically from end to end of my tank, I believe 4ft in length. He/She will sometimes swim up and down the corner and then race back across the tank.

I'm pretty sure this behavior is indicative of stress. Has this clown always acted this way?

[Cymonous]

Have you performed any tests lately? The behavior of that clown can be stress. Can your provide Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates? What is your temp at?

[Blinkerbee]

Just a side note, my clown was acting strange (in my opinion) too up until like 3+ weeks getting adjusted. I got worried too and looked online. But sometimes the best thing to do is just wait

[akelly310]

The clown has basically acted like this since day one. He will chill out when it's feeding time. I plan to run tests tonight/tomorrow morning. I run my tank at 76-78 degrees. I'll try to symphony what I can of it. After seeing more pictures of cyano and detritus I am pretty confident you are accurate with it being detritus. Do you guys think it's reliable to have my LFS test my water? If you are familiar with Jacks aquarium and pets, I've had them do my last couple tests. They told me my nitrates and ammonia were safe prior to adding clowns.

[Spyderturbo007]

I prefer to do all my own testing. However, if you do have them do the testing, find out your actual levels as opposed to them saying "safe" or "not safe".

[akelly310]

They fill out a receipt type paper that has the levels they measured to the exact numbers if that's is what you mean? I forgot to mention that part. I previously checked out at zeros i beleive with a ph of 8.1. That would have been last week just prior to adding the clowns.