pecula clown breathing fast

[737mech]

I posted a few days ago in the fish discusion area, but maybe it is more appropriate here.
I got 2 false peculas from the best LFS in Dallas 6 days ago. After a 2 hr acclimation they were put in my tank with no other fish, but 2 hermit crabs. I still need to get a QT tank set up. The larger of the 2 clowns is doing well. The smaller one stopped eating anything that I've put in on the 4th day, before that he eat like a big. So far 3 days and no eating.
I have seen no external parasites. He is however breathing faster than the larger one. Could he still be getting used to the tank? Or is he sick? LFS told me to give him some more time to get used to his new home. The larger one sometimes bumps him in the side. I don't want to see the fish any more stressed by this.
Could I still set up a hospital tank with h20 from my main tank and put the smaller one in there? What about the bio part of filtration? Doesn't that need time to be established before putting in fish? Or can I get away lots of monitoring and h20 changes?
What should I treat him with? Since all I have to go on is the fast breathing and no eating, I'm not sure what I should do.
H2o is amo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10, sg 1.021, temp 78

 

[chevytrks]

To me it sounds like he may be stressed by the other clown
usually clowns can pick on each other.
With no signs of any other problems or illness, only thing that comes to my mind is possible water contamination, or bad water surface film trapping in gases
Do you have surface water agitation?
BTW what is the best fish store in DFW from your statement?

 

[737mech]

LFS is The Dallas North Aquarium off of Trinity Mills in Carrollton. Their tanks and display tanks are by far the very best that I've seen around here. Their staff is also very good.
There's a powerhead that looks like it's breaking up the water surface. I just called LFS and they said that maybe I should consider trading off the small one. I wanted to try and see if these two would become a mated pair. Since they were both added at the same time, I hoped that they would get along???

 

[beth]

Before you jump in to trading for another fish, I would spend some time really looking at your fish for behavior patterns. See if you note any real aggression going on between the clowns, or other fish. When looking, don't let your fish know that you are observing. This may take a bit of time as you need to spend some time looking at them.
Also, if you have a magnifying glass, give the smaller fish a good once over. Look at the gills to see if they appear red or swollen, irregular breathing.
What does the fish do all day? What happens when you put food in the tank?

 

[737mech]

Beth,
Thanks for your reply. I came home from work today and found the small clown lying on the bottom of the tank. It was near the end when I arrived. It shows no signs of red or swollen gills. The breathing wasn't irregular just faster then normal. No slime from the gills or parasites that I could see.
He was disinterested in the food after the 3rd day in the tank. No matter what I used. After that during the day it would swim some, but not very much. It seemed fine until the larger one started getting more used to the tank.
The larger one's appetite is good. This one gets excited when food is introduced to the tank. I still would like to have a mated pair but really don't want this to happen again. LFS doesn't have anymore that are big enough for the one that I have.
During this time, I will get my QT set up. Have you ever heard of putting some mollys in a QT to keep it going?
I did see aggression from the larger clown. It would chase it away or charge it in the side. Of course this wasn't all the time.I am surprised that this was enough to kill the fish. Stressed fish are very vulnerable to many problems. I guess I'm learning it the hard way.
Thanks......

 

[beth]

You really don't know the history of your clownfish. Fish are fish, but clownfish actually live in family communities in nature, and can suffer adverse effects from being ripped from thier natural families...thus the encouragement these days for hobbyist to get "tank raised". Know that 2 clownfish do not make a mated pair. Clowns establish their own mates in nature, of their choosing. Yes, we can try to accomplish this with some success if the clowns are still juvenile, but it certainly is not a given.
I would not add any more fish now to your tank for a month, since the clown's demise remains for unknown reasons at this point.

 

[eden]

737 - This is the same experience I just had with my new clown fish. I am thinking at this moment it was my acclimation proceedure. It was too long and I left the tank lights on and it stressed the fish.

 

[beth]

I too have seen this going on with clowns over the past yr. Including 2 I had. Nothing I did resolved the matter.