Unfortunate News & Advice Needed

[harpham]

When you get back, I would get a video of the flow in your tank just to see how powerful it is. I’ll second what others have said. A blenny or a goby could make great additions to your tank.

I’m hoping this works… I’ve taken a video this evening. The clowns seem a bit more active to be honest than the norm however hopefully gives an idea on flow?

I bought the ReefWave as a bit of a slave to having everything matching and via a single app. I’ve got this running at 10% at the moment.

 

[Cthulukelele]

So I’m currently away with work for the first time since setting up the tank (first time in ages!)

Last week, we added a Cardinal into the tank, alongside my pair of clowns. It was clearly very nervous, as it stayed in the back corner the majority of the time, but I thought that it would eventually become a bit more confident. Every so often it would venture out the corner...

Unfortunately yesterday, my other half found it floating at the top, however still alive (just). She phoned the shop we bought it from who advised to take it back, as it sounded like the clowns had stressed it out. It unfortunately didn’t make the journey back - I’m actually gutted about it all, especially as there was nothing I could do to help! It was fine on Sunday; ate and wasn’t really showing signs of stress.

To rule out water parameters, the shop offered to test our water, which they have done today - All was fine thankfully and they confirmed that it couldn’t have been water quality!! So they think it was down to the clowns being aggressive (albeit I hadn’t observed anything I felt was aggression).

I’m gutted that we weren’t able to save the cardinal and that it’s clearly been very unhappy! I don’t like the thought that a living thing has suffered on my watch!!

I guess my question is to ask what our options are for other fish to add to the tank?
I was planning to get a Royal Gramma and that would have been it. However it would be good to hear any other thoughts or advice; or even stories of similar experiences?
Either way, I’m going to give it some time before I do add anything else in; however just wanted to research my options.

I have a Red Sea Max Nano G2 Cube (20 gallon tank), so I was only planning to have 4 small fish, some CUC and then coral.
I currently just have the clownfish pair and a turbo snail.

Any advice or support would be greatly appreciated.

I'm echoing others here about the sad truth of cardinals in the hobby. Most die early and unexpectedly. They're very terrible shippers in my experience and quite delicate for the first few months as well as being picky eaters early on.

I actually think a small chrysiptera species damsel like a springeri or talbots damsel would be fine in that tank as clowns can very much hold their own. Few things bully clownfish as they're essentially pit bulls when provoked.

 

[exnisstech]

I would roll with just the two clowns if it were me. They'll most likely be fighting soon enough when they try to figure out which gets to transition to female. That can go smoothly or with some bickering and can even end in the death of one of it refuses to submit.

 

[BryanM]

I'll add my .02c, even though I'm pretty new to reefing.

After a fair amount of reading, and purchasing two fish from an LFS close to me, who both seem to have died, only saw a couple times after purchase, never acted right, etc...

I've come to the conclusion that aquacultered fish are much better, at least for me. Per all the press they are hardier, safer, more tolerant, etc. So while I want to support the LFS, and it feels a little rough to buy online and have livestock shipped, that's what I do. I also only do overnight, no sitting around, etc. The journey has to be stressful enough as it is.

Since that decision I've added 5 fish, 4 (maybe more) corals, without incident.

 

[Charles Zinn]

I do like Damsels, however heard that they can be very aggressive? I had been advised against them because of this. They do look lovely though, so if they have a chance I’d definitely consider.

This is my first tank, so I was trying to go with options that would be easy for me to manage

My initial idea was clown pair, cardinal and royal gramma.

clowns are of damsel family and do get territorial too. should have added more than one cardinal

 

[jabberwock]

Just say no to clownfish.

 

[crabgrass]

I'm echoing others here about the sad truth of cardinals in the hobby. Most die early and unexpectedly. They're very terrible shippers in my experience and quite delicate for the first few months as well as being picky eaters early on.

I actually think a small chrysiptera species damsel like a springeri or talbots damsel would be fine in that tank as clowns can very much hold their own. Few things bully clownfish as they're essentially pit bulls when provoked.

Second this. I have a pair of pjs and bengalis. The bengalis took almost a week to start eating and lost a couple PJs before I found a pair that was compatible and ate.

 

[harpham]

Thanks all for the responses.

I’ve since started with the diatom phase of the tank, urgh, so I’m letting that pass before thinking about adding anything else.