I can't keep clownfish(only clownfish), help guys

chshwong

chshwong

New Member
Hello,
Background and setup:
i've been doing freshwater tanks for years and decided to try saltwater.
This is a 30-gallon FOWLR.
It has 40ish pounds of live rocks, cycled after a month.
I made a DIY 10gallon sump and a DIY protein skimmer for it. Temperature always between 26-27 celsius, with 2 submerged heaters, 1 in main, 1 in sump.
There is 1 Hydor Koralia # 1 for the water circulation.
I later added a Hydor Koralia Nano near the surface to increase water surface movement for oxygen.
It then has 2 cleaner shrimps, 3 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails, and 1 lovely royal gramma.
All is well. Then 2 weeks later.
The story:
I bought 2 active little ocellaris clown fish. That's how they looked:
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8587/…
This is how the tank looks like:
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9561/…
But they would never eat, but i learned that it's normal when newly introduced. But after a week, they still wouldn't eat. I worried. I always tried Omega One Flakes. Finally later I tried frozen krills. I tried Omega One Pellets with garlic. I tried spirulina flakes. They would never eat. Finally after a week from introduction, the smaller fish died. The other one looked like this:
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/5022/im…
It looks ugly, the bottom fins were closed. (what does that mean?) Finally 3 days later, the second one died.
I've been checking my water daily, ammonia and nitrites are 0. Nitrates is low under 20. PH 8.2 Salt at 1.022-1.023. Temperature at 26-27. The Royal Gramma is so shy and never bothers those fish. The clowns just kept swimming still near glass and finally died. What could I have done better?
Finally, after a week of sadness, i spent money on 2 more clownfish, true spec this time, and bigger, from another store. Look:
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/3272/…
Oh, and I got a yellowtail blue damsel too with them, a very small one. I rearranged the rocks after the first pair died btw, now that's my full tank:
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1091/…
The problem persists, all fish swim around and eat, except these 2 clowns again!!
Today is my third night... the best they did was put something in the mouth.. then spit it back. Never swallowed. I tried Omega One Flakes, Omega One Pellets with garlic, Seaweed(the seller said they ate that as well as frozen food), and spectrum pellets. Beside the seaweed, all of the packages have clownfish in the labels haha.
Now this is how they look tonight, the fins are closed again.. ****:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9969/im…
Tomorrow night i will try frozen food.
*sigh*..
tell me what can i do? i assure you the other fish and inverts don't bother the clownfish. The water circulation, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, ph seem to be all fine.
Please help... and i know that these fish are not tank-bred. And when I purcahse them, they come from tanks with lots of other clown fish and nothing else (no corals).
Please tell me my next step...
 
garick

garick

Member
Are your clowns wild caught or Tank raised? and those damsels will eventually be brutes to all your fish. They are cute but DEVILS I say.
If wild caught, Try live brine shrimp (not the just hatched ones but the grown ones) if you can't find grown live brine you /might/ get away with tiny gut loaded ghost shrimp(not 100% on that though). Feed them on feeder stuff and gut load them good before you let them into your tank. Wild caught animals often only respond to living active things. Clowns and other WC fish can be highly stressed by environment, water chemistry.. Lighting, current. You name it. Which can make them unwilling to eat to the point they starve to death, sometimes you may have to buy many to get a single or pair that will live and eat which is why supporting WC fish really damages their wild homes. (not riding you about WC just informing :D)
On a side note I've noticed many fish change in their diets often as much as DAILY. I've had clowns that liked flakes one day, but not the next and their tastes would rotate daily so I had to keep 5-10 diff foods around to test and see what they were in the mood for (good idea might be fresh seafood chunked tiny for them to try and eat, if they eat that soak it in selcon a bit for a good buffing on nutrients)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

You need more circulation (more power heads), try frozen brine shrimp...the water flow will send the shrimps everywhere and the clowns should chase and eat it.
Damsels are evil and may be picking on the clowns. They won't eat under stress.
I can't see your pictures
 
chshwong

chshwong

New Member
damn.. coming from freshwater keeper... i didnt' realize quarantine was a must....
I just set up 2 hospital tanks.... 1 to treat my clownfish (1 already died) with hyposalinity (with extra bucket to do formaline treatment every other day),
and another hospital tank to hyposalinize the rest of the fish members.
While the main tank will only have invertebrates, and the ich should be gone after 30 days.
My only concern is, all I have is live rocks for bio filtration. I'm using them for my 2 quarantine tank. I hope the beneficial bacteria will survive hyposalinity ....
 
contraband629

contraband629

Member
I just want to say that from my experience with my clown fish at first they wouldnt eat either. Then they started taking in food and spitting it back out. After a week they started going to town on just about anything I threw in there.
 
chshwong

chshwong

New Member
just curious, now that i know i need to quarantine my all my new fish, how do you actualyl quarantine a Yellow Watchman Goby?
Do i actually need to create a sand bed? (cause that's a lot of work, but if it must...)
 
garick

garick

Member
I mainly use water from my DT in my QT and give a thin sand bed with several fake rocks/decors to make the fish able to hide and feel safe. Also letting it stay dark at first can help it feel less stressed. Mainly the idea behind it is that this animal (which is most likely wild caught) is not carrying any obvious parasites, bugs or nastiness that can be passed onto all your other fish. Leaving it by itself for 3 weeks and giving it exceptional care will help you find that out and help it get ready for its new friends. Plus if your new fish is sick or carrying a bug it won't infect your DT and cost you a bundle to fix.
 
tampashane

tampashane

Member
Well just so you know when I got my clown I started with flakes which he had nothing to do with. Tried about 4 different foods nothing worked till I finally gave him frozen mysis shrimp. Don't think I saw that 1 mentioned but that's all he will eat. 3 months later its mysis or nothing. seems like any fish will eat mysis.
 
wfd1008

wfd1008

Member
did you notice any aggression from the royal gramma? i know it says peacful, but if it's been in the tank awhile and has its territory, it might have beat them up, and stressed them out. i say this because i bought one for my 46-gal when i moved back here, and it killed my firefish, and clarkii clown. i finally had to tear down my tank to catch it cause i added a pair of clowns. so just keep a close eye on the little booger.
 
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