New Tank, One new fish not eating

[hongkongma]

Hi All - I am new to the board and new to the hobby of saltwater fish. I am in Hong Kong so have the added difficulty of a language barrier with the LFS. Anyway, I started a 30 gal tank about 6 weeks ago and added fish for the first time yesterday. I got 2 clownfish, 2 black velvet damsels, 2 lemon damsels, 2 yellow-tail damsels and 1 yellow tang. All seem to be doing fine, but one clownfish has not eaten. His behavior, and appearance seem normal other than the non-eating. Is there anything I can do to entice him? How long can he last without eating? It's been one day. Thanks.

 

[mandarin w]

Congrats on the new tank. I am very glad to see you waited to add your fish until the cycle has finished. But..... First of all you added too many fish at one time to this new system. You should have only added a couple at a time. Your tank may have finished it's cycling process. But it needs time to build up enough good bacteria to handle all those fish. And that takes time. You should have added two waited two weeks. Let the tank adjust to them. This also would have given you time to make sure the are healthy. Then get two more fish. put them in a QT (quarinteen tank) for a few weeks. Make sure they are healthy. Because if a fish you get is not healthy or devolope ICK from the stress of being moved to new surroundings, That fish could make all the fish you have in your main tank sick. They you could possible loss all of your fish. You should keep doing that until you have all the fish in your tank you want.
Then the other issue is: Damsels are aggresive fish. That is why most hobbist don't keep them in their tanks. They will fight with each other till the death. Then you will have a tank full of dead fish and nitrates. Clowns are semi-aggressive. That means for the most part they do not like to fight. They rather just spend the day minding their own bussiness. They will fight if they feel threatened. And damsels will threaten them. They will also get stressed out. Which they could get sick. Clownfish do not like being with other clowns unless the other clown is slightly bigger or smaller. That is how their --- will be determinded, and then they may take up with each other and become a mated pair. If not they could fight until one kills the other. This is the same for all of the damsels. If you do a damsel, it should be just one.
Yellow Tang, (any tang) should not be in a 30 gal tank. The tank is just too small for that type of fish. Tangs like to swim, They need to swim to stay healthy. And in a 30gal a tang just can not get the swimming in that they need. No sooner than they start to swim, and might get going they have to stop and turn around. Picture trying to walk from one end of your bathtub to the other for your exercise. It will take you a very long time to get any type of distance, and you can never get the speed up you need to do your heart any good. Same with a tang, they need to swim, really swim for it to be healthy for them.
I understand the wait was a long one. And how exciting it is to finally go and buy those first fish. How badly you want a tank full of fish. But the LFS stores too often just want to sell you fish. They don't care if the fish are compatible or not. So what if the fish die, Then you come back in and buy more fish. It is a win/win for the LFS.
I would suggest if you can take some of the fish back to the fish store and get credit, do so. Keep only maybe two. I would keep both of the clowns. Then do some research, find out which fish get along with clowns. Which ones are not aggressive, and which fish would work well in a 30 gal. tank. Because depending on you filtration you will only be able to keep a few fish. 6 or 7 small, or 4 to 5 medium. And you already hit that. So if all of those fish live. you can't go get anymore.
I say this about the filtration because it is a 30 gal, most 30 do not have a sump. It has a Hang on the back filter. And those can work only so well.
You have many choices as far a fish go. If your lighting is good you could get an anemone for the clown fish. You could do firefish, clown gobies. several other gobies choices there. Some of the dwarf angles. cardinals.
Hope the clown feels better. good luck.

 

[ghostiroc]

Originally Posted by mandarin w
Congrats on the new tank. I am very glad to see you waited to add your fish until the cycle has finished. But..... First of all you added too many fish at one time to this new system. You should have only added a couple at a time. Your tank may have finished it's cycling process. But it needs time to build up enough good bacteria to handle all those fish. And that takes time. You should have added two waited two weeks. Let the tank adjust to them. This also would have given you time to make sure the are healthy. Then get two more fish. put them in a QT (quarinteen tank) for a few weeks. Make sure they are healthy. Because if a fish you get is not healthy or devolope ICK from the stress of being moved to new surroundings, That fish could make all the fish you have in your main tank sick. They you could possible loss all of your fish. You should keep doing that until you have all the fish in your tank you want.
Then the other issue is: Damsels are aggresive fish. That is why most hobbist don't keep them in their tanks. They will fight with each other till the death. Then you will have a tank full of dead fish and nitrates. Clowns are semi-aggressive. That means for the most part they do not like to fight. They rather just spend the day minding their own bussiness. They will fight if they feel threatened. And damsels will threaten them. They will also get stressed out. Which they could get sick. Clownfish do not like being with other clowns unless the other clown is slightly bigger or smaller. That is how their --- will be determinded, and then they may take up with each other and become a mated pair. If not they could fight until one kills the other. This is the same for all of the damsels. If you do a damsel, it should be just one.
Yellow Tang, (any tang) should not be in a 30 gal tank. The tank is just too small for that type of fish. Tangs like to swim, They need to swim to stay healthy. And in a 30gal a tang just can not get the swimming in that they need. No sooner than they start to swim, and might get going they have to stop and turn around. Picture trying to walk from one end of your bathtub to the other for your exercise. It will take you a very long time to get any type of distance, and you can never get the speed up you need to do your heart any good. Same with a tang, they need to swim, really swim for it to be healthy for them.
I understand the wait was a long one. And how exciting it is to finally go and buy those first fish. How badly you want a tank full of fish. But the LFS stores too often just want to sell you fish. They don't care if the fish are compatible or not. So what if the fish die, Then you come back in and buy more fish. It is a win/win for the LFS.
I would suggest if you can take some of the fish back to the fish store and get credit, do so. Keep only maybe two. I would keep both of the clowns. Then do some research, find out which fish get along with clowns. Which ones are not aggressive, and which fish would work well in a 30 gal. tank. Because depending on you filtration you will only be able to keep a few fish. 6 or 7 small, or 4 to 5 medium. And you already hit that. So if all of those fish live. you can't go get anymore.
I say this about the filtration because it is a 30 gal, most 30 do not have a sump. It has a Hang on the back filter. And those can work only so well.
You have many choices as far a fish go. If your lighting is good you could get an anemone for the clown fish. You could do firefish, clown gobies. several other gobies choices there. Some of the dwarf angles. cardinals.
Hope the clown feels better. good luck.

WELL SAID!!!! EXSPECIALLY ABOUT THE BATHTUB FOR EXERCISE PART!

 

[mandarin w]

Thank you, I liked that part too. I'am just getting so tired of LFS selling tangs to everyone. They are not asking any thing. The newbie doesn't know better. And most of the time they are trusting the LFS to give then good advice. You see it more and more, Yes a newbie is responsible for researching the fish they want. But in the new hobbist mind Asking the Fish store about the fish at the store is researching it. Fish store owners need to take their responsibilities serious also.

 

[xdave]

That is too many at once. Only get 1 a month.
Tangs have one of the highest profit ratios of any swf. Even higher than the parasite medication they'll sell you when you come back the next day.
I never put clown fish in a tank without an appropriate anemone, it just isn't a natural environment for them. If you get 2 small immature ones, the largest one will turn into a female and the other will mature as a male.

 

[dmjordan]

That is too many at once. Only get 1 a month.
i agree totally
I never put clown fish in a tank without an appropriate anemone, it just isn't a natural environment for them.

clowns don't need an anemone to live. they can survive just fine with out one. if the clown is tank raised it probably wouldn't host an anemone anyway.

 

[mandarin w]

I've have a clown in all of my sw tanks, and an anemone, Not one clown will host in the anemone. I have one that host a branching hammer. But none of the other three host anything.