Is My Clownfish dying?

[djbabylove]

Help! I bought 2 Clownfish and an Anemone yesterday. At first the clownfish were doing fine. One is bigger of the two and kept pushing it out of the Anemone. Now the smaller just sits on the bottem of the tank and does nothing. (Well he is breathing) Is he dying. I have enclosed a picture to give you some idea. This is all he does.
Thank you for your help in advance,
Nessa aka DjBabyLove
:help:

 

[reef junky]

Looks like he may be dying. Sometimes, if you do not buy mated pairs of clown fish, they fight. Are they of the same species? Did you buy them together??

 

[djbabylove]

Yes ... hey are both Tomatoe Clownfish and I bought them together. I look at him now and I an pretty sure he is dying.
They were both living in the same tank when I bought them along with the Anemone. My water tested fine and the bigger one seems to be doing great. I also have two damsels which have been with me for about a month now and they are doing fine. I feel bad now.

Thank you for yuor response Reef Junky

 

[reef junky]

How did you acclimate them? Does he show any signs of having a disease? Any slimy stuff on him?

 

[djbabylove]

I only did what the guy at the store told me to do. He told me to let them float in the bag for about half an hour themn add them to the tank. No slime or anything. Just lil' white dot where he had rubbed up against the Anemone all night lastnight.

 

[wocka]

u didnt acclimate them write.. get ready to set up a tank to treat ich

 

[reef junky]

I always acclimate using the drip method where you drip water from your tank into either the bag you get the fish in, or in a separate container with the water and fish you get. The drip double the amount of water you start with so the fish can adjust to your PH and temperature.
Strange though that one is doing ok and the other is not. You said the bigger one was picking on him?? How so?

 

[reef junky]

I have only heard of the floating bag technique used with freshwater. Never with saltwater.

 

[wocka]

me too.. but i recenlty found a new way. this is my plan it should work.
cut bag open into a bucket and let fish go in bucket.
every 10 minutes add a half of cup of water to ur bucket.
do this untill the water has doubled or for an hour.
take the fish out with a net... never do inverts and fish in the same bucket.

 

[djbabylove]

He would try to get in the Anenome and the bigger one would just push him off. Do clownfish need the Anenome to live once they are use to it?

 

[wocka]

no.. they will usually do fine without one. i think ur clownfish is looking bad becuase u acclimated him wrong

 

[tizzo]

No they do not need one to survive. You mentioned that you bought them at the same time and that they were in the same tank. Did you notice if they were both hosting the same anemone then. Reason being, I think that if you purchase 2 females, they will fight.

 

[reef junky]

I agree, I also think the bigger one may show sings soon of doing the same thing. Call the supplier where you got them from. Find out why they told you to acclimate that way. See if you can bring them both back and get different ones with a different anemone.

 

[tizzo]

I also think Wokka may have a very valid point. When you float the bag you match temperatures (that's why it's OK for freshwater fish), but you didn't match up the salinity and PH. Even though one is OK, doesn't rule out impropper acclimation.

 

[wocka]

what kind of anemone is it? if the bigger clown wont let the other clown in the anemone, it might not let another one if u buy one

 

[djbabylove]

Originally posted by wocka
me too.. but i recenlty found a new way. this is my plan it should work.
cut bag open into a bucket and let fish go in bucket.
every 10 minutes add a half of cup of water to ur bucket.
do this untill the water has doubled or for an hour.
take the fish out with a net... never do inverts and fish in the same bucket.
Just regular tap water?

 

[wocka]

take it from ur display tank but dont add it back into when ur done

 

[reef junky]

Do not use tap water. Take the water from your tank and mix it with the water that you get with the fish. Then once youve doubled the water that you started with, add only the fish to your tank. This avoids mixing water from an outside source into your tank. NEVER mix water from a fish store into your tank.
What did the fish store say?

 

[wocka]

they told him to float it for 15 mins then put the fish in the display.. i hate when LFS's give out bad advice

 

[djbabylove]

Ok ... I guess I will know next time. Your acclimation procedure is so much easier than the SWF procedure. This is how you do yours?
Also here is a picture of the bigger clownfish rubbing up against the Anemone. He seems fine. The fact that my supplier just started taking in saltwater may also be the cause. I am a computer geek so I will just do research before I jump into anything else.