Newbie with New Clowns

darthsimon

darthsimon

Member
Hi guys,
Just recently joined this forum. I actually run a very large forum called Home Theater Forum, so am used to great forums such as these. I recently acquired a brand new 24G AquaPod to start off in this hobby. I did SWF with my older brother over 20 years back... Little rusty to say the least... Was only 12 at the time... My tank is setup, levels seem to be good, Water temp is 79-80. PH is 8.3 Nitrites and Nitrates are 0 for now :)
Put in 2 Pecula Clowns 2 days ago. They seem to be doing well... They just started eating, feeding them the Pellets...
My question is about respiration. What is a good sign of good breathing. They both do swim around and open and close there mouths a ton.... One faster then the other... Is this their breathing habit? Sorry for such a newbie question... One also shakes now and then, he will be swimming along and just get the shakes, and keep moving... It's pretty funny....
Thx in advance,
Steve Simon
 
ice4ice

ice4ice

Active Member
The shakes is a sign of mating. One of your clown is turning into a female. So I'm suspecting you may have tiny pitter-patter er ... swimmy fins once she's ready to nest. I'm not too sure on the breathing part. Maybe stress ?
 
sac10918

sac10918

Member
For how long have their mouths been opening and closing? Since you put them in the tank? If they have beend doing it for three days, but their behavior seems normal other than that, I think they are just fine. As long as your parameters are good (no ammonia or nitrites) and they are eating, I expect that they are going to be just fine!
The jittering is the clowns figuring out who is going to be the dominant fish. I dont know how much you know about clowns, but the female fish is always dominant and is generally a lot larger than the male. When I first got my pair over a year ago, they were almost the same size but one was a little bigger. The small one (who is most likely gonna be the male) will jitter to the female to show submisiveness. Now, my female is much larger than the male. Dont worry about the jittering, its a sign that maybe someday your fish will lay eggs. Mine have been together for 15 months and there still hasnt been any action, so it can take a while.
Good luck on the tank (I also have the 24 gallon aquapod). And keep the questions coming! We like to help newbies so you can avoid the mistakes we;ve made. Welcome to the boards!
 
sac10918

sac10918

Member
Oh, another idea...
Go to youtube and search for clownfish. You can see videos of them laying eggs and you could get an idea of how the mouths move on other people's fish.
 
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