Help - Wierd Clownfish Behavior

[newguy1983]

Hey all,

I am noticing a wierd behavior out of one of my two false perc clown fish.

I just started about 20 minutes ago and is intermittant. One of them seems to have a seizure - he will curl up on his side and kind of jerk through the water - it will last about two seconds and then stop...

I noticed they are both looking over this one spot of sand and even picking at it - which is wierd.

Here are tank specs...

10g
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
0 Nitrate
1.022 SG
8.1 pH

I just did a water change earlier in the day and have been fine all day...

Any ideas? They were the last two left at my LFS - and were healthy as I have been watching them there for a week prior to acquisition...I am wondering if this is a mating thing? I have no other fish in the tank...

[Arati]

This is how they esablish dominance. The dancer will become the male and the the other will grow wlarger and become female. The picking at the ground is most likely them establishing a territory.

[Slakker]

My female does it from time to time as well, but rest assured that this is completely normal and healthy behavior :)

[newguy1983]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone...

...I had a pair of clowns when I had my tank a long time ago...and never once saw this behavior, but from what my LFS said, these two clowns have been together for over two months...

I was going to split them up and only buy one for now, but couldn't do it once I saw how much of a pair they are...

I am glad this is normal behavior, because it just did not look like that, but glad to know. Now I can sleep (and my wife can too) because we were flipping out...phew...