Worried about a Clownfish - irregular swimming

[mess7777]

I just set purchased a set up and did the move from one location to another. 2 clownfish and a trigger have so far survived the trip since Friday. However, today one of the clownfish is swimming funny, it heads for the bottom and then floats back up, often going upside down. I checked my ammonia and it is fairly high(possibly approaching .25ppm, hard to say on the colour chart exactly where it is. My daughter is currently asleep but when she wakes up I will head to the LFS to get some AmQuel, are there other steps I should be taking.

Does this sound like an ammonia issue?

Nirtrates are near 0, nitrites .1

pH 8.0 - 8.2

I hope it is not already too late.

I believe I lost some live rock bacteria during the move process as it was sitting in rubbermaid containers(in water) for a couple days before going into the tank.

[mess7777]

I also should note that it looks to have a bloated belly.

[gweston]

Any detectable ammonia is very bad. A move can cause an ammonia spike when the sand bed/rocks are disturbed. I'd suggest an immediate water change of notable size. You may need to do multiple changes spread out daily over a few days. Keep a close watch on your ammonia.

The best way to reduce ammonia is by water change, but if you are seriously cornered, using a product such as Amquel+ is an option to quickly bring down toxic levels.

If it looks like the tank is going through a cycle (which it probably is), you may need to think about removing the fish and moving them to a quarantine tank. Set up a tank. Put some liverock in it, a power filter. I'd use -some- water from the display tank. Maybe 50%, then 50% fresh salt water. Transfer the fish over. Then monitor ammonia levels in the quarantine closely. Keep the levels down with water change(s) and amquel+ (or similar) as required. The goal here is to keep the fish in a healthy environment while the display tank cycles.

If you don't have a quarantine tank or can't set one up right now. You will need to keep on water changes and monitor the display. The ammonia is toxic to the fish and causing stress which will ultimately lead to fish death. If you keep the ammonia at 0, keep the tank params in check with a close eye.. eventually the tank's biological filtration should catch up.

Also.. your liverock in the rubbermaid should be fine. As long as they were submersed in water, had a heater and a powerhead for circulation. It doesn't take much to keep liverock 'live'.

[Sk8r]

Buy a bare glass small tank and get that fish over into strongly aerated, strongly filtered clean water with no sand or rock. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992853&highlight=shopping+list+for This link will get you to a thread on how to set up a qt tank to save that fish.

[stingythingy45]

The bloated body doesn't sound good.
How old is your daughter?
Does she feed the tank daily?

[mess7777]

My daughter is 9 months old, so she isn't doing any feeding yet! We just set up the tank but she goes crazy when she sees the fish swimming around. Right now there are only 3 fish (2 clowns and a trigger). Once things stabilize we'll get a couple more (110 gallon setup) and she will really enjoy it.

I only set this up on Friday, and the only food I gave the fish was starting on Monday morning. All 3 ate well.

Interestingly enough, while I went to the LFS and back now the clown seems ok. Everyone gobbled up some lunch in about 1 minute.

I am trying one treatment of SeaChem prime. If the levels spike again I can be pretty confident a new cycle is happening since there are only the 3 fish to contribute to the bioload.

The previous owner neglected the setup and everything was very dirty. The rocks were quite "gunky" and it took me 2 days to clean his equipment. They were smokers, in their house, so the cooling fans on the lights were absolutely digusting. I honestly have no idea how these 3 fish were still alive when I got them.

There also was a brittle starfish, who was alive on Sunday but crawled under the rocks as they tend to do. I saw one arm moving yesterday, so I guess it still has a fighting chance too.

Thanks for the advice all.

[gweston]

Hopefully the critters/fish all pull through! Very good sign that they are eating. Sounds like the tank is in good hands.

Maybe the fish are having nicotine withdrawals? :) LOL

[deangelr]

Clownfish often swim very strangely, especially in a new tank

as long as your clown is eating I wouldnt worry too much.. like gweston said, watch amonia closely. products like prime or amquel can greatly help with ammonia problems in a new tank.

[Playerdrm]

With the tank move and the rock sitting in the rubbermaid container it might of had some die off and now you are probably experincing a mini cycle. I would get the fish in a QT tank and keep testing your water.