Adding a new clown for my female clownfish

[drewwCh]

Hello R2R!

So today i got my first fishes which were two Picasso Ocellaris Clowns. well the male died unfortunately due to him burying his head into the sand when he was hiding. he was actually behaving a little weird prob because of a salinity swing. well the female is out and currently swimming in a high flow corner near my zoas and i was wondering how long should i wait till i add a mate for her and how i should go about doing so.

thanks in advance!

 

[rwreef]

A clownfish burying thier head is not normal. Is this a new tank? What are your parameters? I would wait. When you do add another clown make sure it is roughly half the size as your current clown.

 

[drewwCh]

A clownfish burying thier head is not normal. Is this a new tank? What are your parameters? I would wait. When you do add another clown make sure it is roughly half the size as your current clown.

yes this is a new tank parameters are as follows :
ammonia : 0
nitrite : 0
nitrate : around 10
phos : i don't have a kit to test it yet
ph : 7.8 - 7.9
temp : 24 - 26 C

the male was breathing heavily and laying on its side when i put him in the tank, i don't think it's disease because he was active in the bag. so best guess is acclimation stress. would the female be fine being alone for a while?

 

[rwreef]

Yes, the female is fine to be alone until your tank stabilizes. What is your salinity?

 

[drewwCh]

Yes, the female is fine to be alone until your tank stabilizes. What is your salinity?

1.026 and the water in the bag was a shocking 1.020. i did drip acclimate until double the water volume but maybe that wasn't enough

 

[rwreef]

1.026 and the water in the bag was a shocking 1.020. i did drip acclimate until double the water volume but maybe that wasn't enough

That is a large difference in salinity. How long was the acclimation?

 

[drewwCh]

That is a large difference in salinity. How long was the acclimation?

i didn't time it sorry, i added water slowly until double the volume of the original water.

 

[rwreef]

i didn't time it sorry, i added water slowly until double the volume of the original water.

Part of the learning process unfortunately. Sounds like the acclimation was too fast. Normally you would want that type of change to take a few hours. Ideally it would be QT over a few days to slowly raise the salinity to match your tank.

 

[drewwCh]

Part of the learning process unfortunately. Sounds like the acclimation was too fast. Normally you would want that type of change to take a few hours. Ideally it would be QT over a few days to slowly raise the salinity to match your tank.

yeah it's all part of the learning process. i'm going to take things a lot slower from here on out. thanks for your help!

 

[rwreef]

No problem, glad to help! I agree, long term success in this hobby is based on patience and consistency.

 

[californiarob]

how long has the tank been set up, and has it cycled, clowns are very hardy and can take alot but something stressed the guy out, did you see if the other clown was fighting which is normal if they are not actually paired yet, this can happen through the night so you might not of noticed... so many questions on this one

 

[drewwCh]

how long has the tank been set up, and has it cycled, clowns are very hardy and can take alot but something stressed the guy out, did you see if the other clown was fighting which is normal if they are not actually paired yet, this can happen through the night so you might not of noticed... so many questions on this one

the tank has been running for about a month and had finished the cycle about a week prior. they were already paired when i got them and they were nowhere near each other when in the tank. i think that the salinity juml stressed the little guy out, the female is already doing okay now but still adjusting as she hasnt taken any food yet

 

[jesspal]

how long has the tank been set up, and has it cycled, clowns are very hardy and can take alot but something stressed the guy out, did you see if the other clown was fighting which is normal if they are not actually paired yet, this can happen through the night so you might not of noticed... so many questions on this one

I think this happened to me, I added a second ocellaris to my tank. They seemed fine for 48 hrs and this morning one won’t come out from a little overhang. Seemed overnight the one decided to dominate the other. Is it possible that as they morph to their gender it will go away?