Percula Clownfish Behavior

bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
I recently purchased my first pair of Percula clownfish. They are still juveniles, about 1" each. They are eating well, but their behavior is really peculiar (pun intended). They rarely leave the glass almost always touching it, and every morning I think they must have died only to find them as close to the surface of the water along the edge of the tank as possible. I have extensive rockwork and caves and nooks and crannies, but I have yet to see them pick at the live rock for food or to rub against it or to go through a cave. What is up with this? I am fairly confident they are aquacultured, the LFS gave me the run around when I asked. I am basing this on their behavior, I cannot imagine this constant out in the open behavior being advantageous from a survival standpoint, and I am assuming captive breeding would select for this.
Water parameters:
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 80
Ammonia: 0.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm
Alk: 3.0 meq/L or 8.5 dKH
pH: 8.2
Calcium: 420 ppm
Phosphate: 0.2 ppm (I am still trying to ascertain the source of this. I use RO/DI water, and freshly mixed saltwater tests 0.0 ppm, I feed only a few pellets or flakes every other day. My current theory is remainder end product from the die off on the live rock from the cycle. The phosphates have always been present, but have come down slowly. Cycle finished about one month ago.)
:joy:
 
iiinadav

iiinadav

Member
This activity seems normal, especially in tank raise percs. I purchased my first true perc clownfish last June and she is finally swimming around the tank and through the rock work. Her mate was purchased in November and he rarely left the glass on the left or back of my 29 gallon. I recently moved them over to my 72 gallon and they both swim in the open water now, but only the female swims through the rock work. Give them some time to adjust to there new environment. Also, do you have any other fish that may be territorial and running the clowns away from the rocks? Last your pH and Temp are slightly on the high side. I would drop the pH down to 1.024 and consider dropping the temp 1 or 2 degrees if possible. Good luck
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
Cool, thanks for the advice. I am glad they are acting normally. I forgot to mention they are the only fish in the tank.
24 gallon JBJ nano cube
Inhabitants include:
11 hermits
20 snails
2 Percula clowns
 
corally

corally

Active Member
I got my two false percs three months ago and they just now (and by just now I mean about 3 days ago) left the top of the tank. They were there constantly. Over the past couple of days they have started going about halfway down to the bottom.
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
I have two pairs of perculas in two different tanks (well, one pair are Onyx clowns) that are captive bred.
My female percula usually sleeps against the glass, in the back of the tank, behind the output from my HOT filter.
My male Onyx actually pins himself between a powerhead and the glass at night. Scared me first time I saw it as I thought he was dead!! The female sleeps in a corner, head down.
They have weird sleeping habits. They are called clowns for a reason!!! (probably not the reason, but it works!)
 
yimmy

yimmy

Active Member
I just got to clowns and they play around in the current near the glass, they try to propel themselves around the tank just using the nozzles which come out of the power heads
 
irish rage

irish rage

New Member
I've had my pair of true percs for about 6 months now and they have pretty much always stayed in the back right corner of the tank. They do come out and swim the length of the tank pretty often and will always follow me around the tank when I get close. They are all different though. I've owned 4 pairs over the years and they've all been a little different in their habits. Usually the behavior of the more dominent one (female) determines where they hang out and sleep
 
jjjoey

jjjoey

Active Member
i have 2 percs and during the day they are very active and once the lights are off they immediatly go to the corner and like vertically lay on the glass..kinda weird but i think they are just weird haha
 
socal57che

socal57che

Active Member
Our percs never acted "normal". They were the strangest acting fish I have ever had. They swam backwards in open water. They swam on their sides at the top of the tank (scary the first time we saw it). They layed on the bottom, not moving for hours. They never travelled more than 5 inches from one another. We tested water parameters constantly because we just knew something had to be out of whack. These are just funny fish.
 
rtrtlm

rtrtlm

New Member
My percs act the same. One on each end of my 46 gal tank and they constantly stay against the glass. At night they either float at the top or lay on their side at the botton. Rarely do they go near my LR, no other fish in the tank, either. I have had them for about 2 weeks now and they eat very aggressively and seem healthy.
 
kamaqazi21

kamaqazi21

Member
i got 2 percs, and they are always in the same corner. One swims around while the other one jus stays put for some wierd reason. But thats my percs, give yours sometime they should be fine i would think that. Are you doing a reef tank? If you are your salinity is fine but if its fish only then go lower. hopefully i helped
 
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