Is that how fish sleep?

[johnbr]

Today for the first time I caught my clown doing this:


Is he tired? Is he breathing heavily? My clowns spend literally the hole day swimming in the hole tank.

 

[1MCp]

Looks fine, breathing seems like a normal pace and nothing on the outside from what I could see shows any damage. Later on down the road get yourself a nice bubble tip anemone and it'll host. Otherwise I think it just chose that spot to hang around in. I've yet to encounter many clownfish that swim excessively after getting used to the tank. 90% of clownfish find a corner or a cavey area and stick around there the whole day.

 

[1MCp]

This is what mine does the whole day just hanging out

 

[johnbr]

Looks fine, breathing seems like a normal pace and nothing on the outside from what I could see shows any damage. Later on down the road get yourself a nice bubble tip anemone and it'll host. Otherwise I think it just chose that spot to hang around in. I've yet to encounter many clownfish that swim excessively after getting used to the tank. 90% of clownfish find a corner or a cavey area and stick around there the whole day.

This is what mine does the whole day just hanging out

Wow I would like to get one. Still have a lot to learn. I was worried about these sleeping patterns and wasn't sure about the breathing.

Thanks again 1MCp for stepping up.

 

[1MCp]

Wow I would like to get one. Still have a lot to learn. I was worried about these sleeping patterns and wasn't sure about the breathing.

Thanks again 1MCp for stepping up.

Until they find a spot that they like, they will stake em out and the breathing doesn't seem abnormal to me, let's see if anyone else can chime in, but that's my two cents.

 

[johnbr]

Until they find a spot that they like, they will stake em out and the breathing doesn't seem abnormal to me, let's see if anyone else can chime in, but that's my two cents.

Thanks a lot bro.

 

[bellasdad0911]

Totally fine clowns are interesting creatures. They play dead too so don’t worry. They rest and sleep in very interesting ways

 

[Jacobscorals]

They will get on your light schedulemine goes upside down in the corner of the tank at 10 minutes till 10 before lights out at 10 lol and everything else does too

 

[newfishkeeper88]

Both of my clowns just swim near surface next to power head . They are definitely strange

 

[PatW]

I am a scuba diver. At dusk, you see the changing of the guard on the reef. The fish tend to go into nooks and crannies. The crabs, shrimp, lobsters, and octopus come out and take over. The clown’s behavior looks typical.

 

[Brice Wagner]

My two clowns are moving much more. It looks like weak swiming or fluttering. One is at the surface the other is down near a rock. Is this typical as well?

 

[theKoolAidMan]

My two clowns are moving much more. It looks like weak swiming or fluttering. One is at the surface the other is down near a rock. Is this typical as well?

Hard to say for sure without seeing them, but likely they're fine and that's normal. Clowns live up to their name. They're "weird" compared to what most people think of as normal fishy behavior like a tang or wrasse that constantly is swimming or gliding around the tank seemingly effortlessly. Clowns always look like some kid at summer camp that can barely swim being shoved into the lake to "learn". However they're just fine, they just look a bit awkward. There are many people that keep them in a high flow SPS tanks and the clowns keep up just fine. I can tell you from years of diving that the currents and flow at many real reefs far outstrips what you likely have in your tank and these buggers do just fine. Just keep in mind that you can't judge their health based on comparing their behavior to open water swimmings like tangs or wrasses because clowns are not at all the same. They tend to like enclosed secure places (like anemones) and will generally just flutter around that area most of the day. Especially if they're new they're going to explore and move around, but not like many other fish. They'll hang out in one area, then another, then another. Eventually they'll find a spot that is most comfortable and "host" it and spend most of their waking hours around that. If you're lucky, that place will be a cool rock structure where you can see them. If you're unlucky that will be a power head or overflow box lol. The warning signs you want to look for are very rapid breathing, especially if the clown is coming to the surface and looks like it's sucking air. Just being near the surface isn't cause for concern, because again, clowns are weird and will do stuff like that. However, if you're testing for ammonia and that's 0 or very, very close to it, you shouldn't see that behavior at all.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Today for the first time I caught my clown doing this:


Is he tired? Is he breathing heavily? My clowns spend literally the hole day swimming in the hole tank.

Do fish sleep like this? No. Do clowns sleep like this? YES!. Haha I had a pair in a previous tank where they would host a rock structure during the day doing their awkward clown thing and then once lights out would float up to the top and "sleep" right at the surface of the water in the top right corner just behind the powerhead.

 

[Brice Wagner]

Hard to say for sure without seeing them, but likely they're fine and that's normal. Clowns live up to their name. They're "weird" compared to what most people think of as normal fishy behavior like a tang or wrasse that constantly is swimming or gliding around the tank seemingly effortlessly. Clowns always look like some kid at summer camp that can barely swim being shoved into the lake to "learn". However they're just fine, they just look a bit awkward. There are many people that keep them in a high flow SPS tanks and the clowns keep up just fine. I can tell you from years of diving that the currents and flow at many real reefs far outstrips what you likely have in your tank and these buggers do just fine. Just keep in mind that you can't judge their health based on comparing their behavior to open water swimmings like tangs or wrasses because clowns are not at all the same. They tend to like enclosed secure places (like anemones) and will generally just flutter around that area most of the day. Especially if they're new they're going to explore and move around, but not like many other fish. They'll hang out in one area, then another, then another. Eventually they'll find a spot that is most comfortable and "host" it and spend most of their waking hours around that. If you're lucky, that place will be a cool rock structure where you can see them. If you're unlucky that will be a power head or overflow box lol. The warning signs you want to look for are very rapid breathing, especially if the clown is coming to the surface and looks like it's sucking air. Just being near the surface isn't cause for concern, because again, clowns are weird and will do stuff like that. However, if you're testing for ammonia and that's 0 or very, very close to it, you shouldn't see that behavior at all.

Thanks, that's good to know. I hope that they settle in. Sorry for the poor light in the video, I wanted to show the behavoir without waking them.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Oh yea, they're just being clownfish.