Clownfish looks distressed

[magicwhistle]

So I already had a clownfish which is about 2-2.5”. And just added a second one.

I acclimated the new clownfish which is very tiny maybe less than 1”. Added the fish in and watched what happened. The bigger clown fish immediately chased the small guy and looked like it might have been nipping at it. So the little guy was zooming around the tank to get away. It ended up falling down my drainage... it could fit through the weirs (never thought about it) and got caught in a filter sock. It was probably in there for 10 mins before I noticed it wasn’t in the display tank anymore and found it in the filter sock. I thought it was just hiding in the rocks to get away from the bigger clownfish.

I let it hang out a bit in the sump and it was just staying in one spot on the bottom of the tank. After a bit it was swimming around and it still swims fine reacting to my hand. So I took it out of the sump and added it back to the weir. I don’t want it to go through the baffles and get up by my return pump otherwise I would leave it down there to chill out longer. I took some mesh I have from making the lid and clamped It covering the weir so the fish shouldn’t be able to slip through again.

When I added it back to the display tank the larger clown went back towards it but this time wasn’t crazy aggressive was just watching it. The smaller fish could still swim to get away but it went back down to the bottom and just sat in the gravel (right side up but not moving much. Breathing looked heavy and fast).

I figured the only thing I could do is wait. Right now the bigger clown is swimming around it and keeps checking it out. And it made its way into my rock work and is just chilling in a little crevice. The bigger clown fish kinda seems like it’s guarding it and checking if it’s ok now lol. It’s breathing has calmed down it appears at least.

So a few questions:

Anything I could do now to help the new clownfish?

Is it likely to survive?

Anything I could have done differently aside from the weir? I don’t have any acclimation boxes those hang on type but I’m thinking that might help with initial aggression?

 

[Big G]

Unknown how stress will effect individual fish. For some it effects them so much they slowly fade away. Others eventually adjust and are fine.

Could divide the tank with a piece of eggcrate material and 1/4" plastic mesh, held together with zip ties.

 

[magicwhistle]

Unknown how stress will effect individual fish. For some it effects them so much they slowly fade away. Others eventually adjust and are fine.

Could divide the tank with a piece of eggcrate material and 1/4" plastic mesh, held together with zip ties.

That’s a good idea.

Right now it seems fine though. It left the crevice where it was hiding In the rocks and is just swimming above the gravel now.

It seems to have to work really hard to even stay in the same spot so I turned my flow down to the lowest settings for the time being. The other clownfish hasn’t been aggressive to it anymore since the first time I put it in. Seems more like it just checks up on it every now and then and then goes back to where it normally hangs out.

 

[magicwhistle]

It survived the night.

Before I went to bed I checked if it was alive and it was just sitting in the gravel still so I put my hand in to see if it would swim or if it was dead and the bigger clown fish attacked the heck out of my hand haha.

This morning though the new clownfish was swimming at the top of the rock work and it ate fine. So hopefully it’s gonna be ok. Hasn’t been going down to the bottom of the tank at all.