hot pursuit
New Member
Help!!!
I just don't know what to do. I recently got one of those hexagon tanks off Craig’s list and set up the saltwater tank that I’ve always wanted. I bought 4 snails, a cool crab of some sort, a clownfish & a school of 8 Blue Green Chromis (One big & seven small ones). Well everything went well for the first week or so. I read on this site about people getting up in the middle of the night and looking in their tank with a flashlight. I didn’t know if maybe that was good for the fish or something so I thought I’d better do it too. The very first night I put the light up against the glass not knowing what to expect. To my surprise the biggest Chromis fish came right up to the light. I must have blinded him with the light because while I was looking right at him the crab reached up to get him. He got hold of his pectoral fin and chopped it clean off. I turned the light off so he could get away from the crab. The next morning I could not believe my eyes!! Because of the missing fin he was only able to swim in circles! He was the dominant male and now all the other Chromas were following him. That would have been ok. Because it was a hexagon tank and to tell you the truth it looked pretty cool to see them all swimming around in circles. The problem became obvious within about two hours. The other fish got so dizzy that they would rise to the surface and float till they got it together again. I was so afraid of losing the other fish that I made up my mind to go after the culprit and remove him. Those darn Chromas things can swim faster then you would think! I had no luck after two hours and decided to try something different. I remember hearing about people shooting fish with a 22 rifle. I was getting desperate or I never would have tried to shoot him with my kid’s BB gun. I knew the water would slow down the BB before it hit the glass so it wouldn’t hurt anything. It was actually getting to be kind of fun with the kids cheering and all. If I had been watching closer I might have noticed the clown fish eating some of the BB’s. I was afraid at first that that the clownfish would die but it turned out alright. True, I have to hand feed the thing as it stays on the bottom of the tank a lot and don’t move really fast. Even that turned out to be a good thing as I had a bad diatom growth on the gravel and the clownfish has helped by dragging himself over it stirring it up & now it’s not so obvious. The tank is looking better with his help and the Chromas seem to recover from their dizziness after floating for about ten minutes. So what is my problem you ask? Well I was just reading the package the BB’s came in and it said they were copper plated to prevent rust. I don’t know how many the clownfish swallowed & I’m worried about the copper polluting the tank! Do you thing I should throw out the clownfish (it’s pretty easy to catch now) to save the rest of the fish or do you think thinks will be alright.
Thank you in advance for helping the new guy!
Uben Hadd
I just don't know what to do. I recently got one of those hexagon tanks off Craig’s list and set up the saltwater tank that I’ve always wanted. I bought 4 snails, a cool crab of some sort, a clownfish & a school of 8 Blue Green Chromis (One big & seven small ones). Well everything went well for the first week or so. I read on this site about people getting up in the middle of the night and looking in their tank with a flashlight. I didn’t know if maybe that was good for the fish or something so I thought I’d better do it too. The very first night I put the light up against the glass not knowing what to expect. To my surprise the biggest Chromis fish came right up to the light. I must have blinded him with the light because while I was looking right at him the crab reached up to get him. He got hold of his pectoral fin and chopped it clean off. I turned the light off so he could get away from the crab. The next morning I could not believe my eyes!! Because of the missing fin he was only able to swim in circles! He was the dominant male and now all the other Chromas were following him. That would have been ok. Because it was a hexagon tank and to tell you the truth it looked pretty cool to see them all swimming around in circles. The problem became obvious within about two hours. The other fish got so dizzy that they would rise to the surface and float till they got it together again. I was so afraid of losing the other fish that I made up my mind to go after the culprit and remove him. Those darn Chromas things can swim faster then you would think! I had no luck after two hours and decided to try something different. I remember hearing about people shooting fish with a 22 rifle. I was getting desperate or I never would have tried to shoot him with my kid’s BB gun. I knew the water would slow down the BB before it hit the glass so it wouldn’t hurt anything. It was actually getting to be kind of fun with the kids cheering and all. If I had been watching closer I might have noticed the clown fish eating some of the BB’s. I was afraid at first that that the clownfish would die but it turned out alright. True, I have to hand feed the thing as it stays on the bottom of the tank a lot and don’t move really fast. Even that turned out to be a good thing as I had a bad diatom growth on the gravel and the clownfish has helped by dragging himself over it stirring it up & now it’s not so obvious. The tank is looking better with his help and the Chromas seem to recover from their dizziness after floating for about ten minutes. So what is my problem you ask? Well I was just reading the package the BB’s came in and it said they were copper plated to prevent rust. I don’t know how many the clownfish swallowed & I’m worried about the copper polluting the tank! Do you thing I should throw out the clownfish (it’s pretty easy to catch now) to save the rest of the fish or do you think thinks will be alright.
Thank you in advance for helping the new guy!
Uben Hadd
