Young Snowflake Clownfish in QT

[JillB]

I received a pair of young (1" long) ORA snowflake clown fish on March 12. I am using the Humble Fish Hybrid Tank Transfer method and am on Day 10 (a H2O2 dip this morning followed by the last tank transfer). I'm like a mother with a newborn...fretting about these babies constantly. Today I'm worried there might be something wrong...one (the large of the 2) spends a lot of time swimming upright along the back of the tank and the other spends his time hovering at the bottom. If I put the net in the water, they dart around swimming normally. I began feeding them micro pellets since day 1 but TBH they didn't seem very interested in eating so I added garlic oil to the pellets. I have seen them poking at the pellets on the bottom so I assume they are eating. I noticed that the salinity in the tank today is a bit lower than normal (1.021 vs 1.023)...not sure if that would cause issues. If so should I increase the salinity and how fast? Could this be swim bladder? I can't imagine that captive bred babies would get that but I'm brand new at this so I need advice. The tank is at 80 degrees and no ammonia. I have been very careful to do 50% water changes in the QT tank every 36 hours to eliminate any ammonia issues. The fish are due to go into the DT on Sunday and they will be the first to inhabit it. Any ideas what, if anything, is wrong and what I can do? Thanks!

 

[fishguy242]

short video of clown swimming breathing will help ,pics too...

 

[lapin]

Tank bred clowns. They only know corners and top and bottom as safe places. They dont know what rocks or sand is. If you want them to really happy live balck or white worms are the go to. They will lay eggs when mature about every 3 weeks.
TTM keeps the water clean so no need to worry about ammonia. I would Prazi pro them to be sure they are rid of flukes before placing in display. I do that 1 hour before moving them.

 

[Jekyl]

Agree with above suggestions. TTM doesn't treat everything that could be wrong. Also pellets aren't a preferred food. Rods brand fish eggs was always my go to.

 

[JillB]

I called ORA and asked them about feeding and they said that the babies were raised on micro pellets (1mm or less) so that's what I got for them

 

[JillB]

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[JillB]

short video of clown swimming breathing will help ,pics too...

just uploaded a video...Please let me know if I need to do anything. These are my first ever fish and I'm extremely worried about the change in their behavior

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

just uploaded a video...Please let me know if I need to do anything. These are my first ever fish and I'm extremely worried about the change in their behavior

Did the fish come straight from ORA, or did they go through a pet store first?

I’m confused - you say you are doing TTM, but then you mention changing 50% of the tank water every 36 hours? I’m not following that - TTM would have you moving the fish into 100% new water at every transfer.

 

[JillB]

They came directly from ORA....from the time they were packed up until they were acclimating in the QT was about 18 hours and they seemed fine...very active. The QT tank is bare...no filter, sand or rocks...bare bottom, heater, air stone and a PVC tube for hiding. When the water registers some ammonia after a day and a half and since these are babies, I do a 50% water change to bring the ammonia level to almost 0. Then at 72 hours, I do a complete tank transfer (I have a second 10 gallon tank for that).

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

They came directly from ORA....from the time they were packed up until they were acclimating in the QT was about 18 hours and they seemed fine...very active. The QT tank is bare...no filter, sand or rocks...bare bottom, heater, air stone and a PVC tube for hiding. When the water registers some ammonia after a day and a half and since these are babies, I do a 50% water change to bring the ammonia level to almost 0. Then at 72 hours, I do a complete tank transfer (I have a second 10 gallon tank for that).

What peak is the ammonia reaching?

I’m going to discount disease issues as fish direct from breeding farms are typically not carrying acute disease issues.

 

[JillB]

.25. I e-mailed ORA and they suggested raising the tank temperature to 82 degrees which I did. I also moved the air stone to the back of the tank so it's closer to where the clowns hang out. I'm also going to stop looking in on them every hour ....maybe I'm stressing them out.