Newbies - Clownfish question - possibly sick?

[Mombo]

So my tank is 1 month old now. I just got a pair of clownfish a few days ago. There is nothing in the tank except rock, sand, fish. I have filter floss in the back and carbon in a media basket. I am just wondering if this is normal behavior. Maybe they all have different personalities haha I dont know.

So the bigger of the two clownfish swims around like a maniac and eats alot. I am currently feeding LRS Reef Frenzy.

The other clownfish which is almost the same size but you can tell its a smidge smaller doesnt swim around much. He randomly will go and swim around the tank but most of the time he sits near the rock structure and it seems like he is trying to swim into a little crack in the rocks and lay down. He lays on his side until the current pulls him out and then he does that over and over.

Ive seen him take a few bites here and there but no where near what the other clownfish chases down and eats. He also sometimes swims to the back of the tank and goes vertical with the wall at night. Ive read that is kinda normal for tank raised fish though....I think.

Mostly the low eating response, laying on his side in his little crack, and the less active swimming is what I am worried about. Maybe he is just lazy! IDK just trying to be safe.

 

[chris k.]

I have 2 and 1 of them eats less. At night they hug the wall by the powerhead. Dont know about hiding in a crack. The rest seems normal

 

[Mombo]

Haha ya the laying down in the crack thing is what prompted me to ask. In my freshwater tank if a fish lays down it usually means he is about to die. But usually those ones dont get up and swim around like normal and then go back to laying down. They just stay down.

I wasnt too worried about the eating since he was eating a little and not swimming as actively so I figured he wasnt as hungry. At this point I figured it could all be related to something else though.

Hoping its just a unique behavior! Or just stress from the moving. If it matters the type of clown. The ones I got are called Picasso clowns.

 

[Mombo]

Oh nevermind! He is definitely dying. The laying on his side behavior has now gone to the sand bed. Very little swimming now. Ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are around 10. I had 5 gallons of salt water so I did a WC with that. About 25% of my total volume. Salinity 1.024 temps at 78

 

[Butitor]

Thats always happened in a new tank. if you're using an API test kit 10 ppm of nitrates will be more the result on some high quality test kits. At night it is normal for cown fish to lay in the sand bed or some rocks were they are comfortable. clown fish and tangs can not tolerate high nitrates they became weak and white spots appears to their skin (ich), they will die if not threated and will ruined your tank.

 

[Mombo]

Of course he went into the rocks now so I cant watch him or see whats going on.

 

[Mombo]

Am I going to need to take apart all of my rocks to get to the clownfish? I assume he is dead back there.

 

[LbulletM]

I had (have) a small phantom that was doing the same thing. Freaked out about it, but wasn't set up for a QT. Two days later he was fine. Is the other clown bullying him?

 

[Mombo]

Sadly he passed last night. He went into some rocks at the very end and died. Took me a while to get him out but with it being such a new tank I didnt want to risk him nuking the tank with ammonia. They didnt swim too much with each other and I never saw him getting bullied.

 

[LbulletM]

:-(