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View Full Version : Clownfish pair... separate to QT?


Sonicblast12
09/28/2011, 11:47 PM
I had a situation come up that I hadn't really considered before, and I'm not really sure which forum it belongs in.

Anyway...here's the situation. Have a pair of false percs in one of my tanks, with a pair of flame angels. All are fairly new additions and were added to the display, I was prepared to hypo the display after I was done adding fish expecting one of the fish to come in with some spots.

Predictably...saw a few specs here and there, but nothing to be too concerned about. Got all of the fish eating well, so I decided to get rid of any chance of an ich breakout and pulled it down to 1.009.

One of the clowns has not reacted well, while the other is still doing fine. The clown that is struggling is vibrating and swimming in the same spot of the tank, almost acts as if it can't see. It was there for three days before I pulled it to a QT tank and started working on bringing up the salinity very slowly. The fish does look better today...a lot less panicked, but now the clowns are separated from each other.

Bad idea? Should I have put both clowns in the QT? Hate to add unnecessary stress to the struggling clown that hasn't eaten in a couple of days by separating it from it's buddy.

nonstopfishies
09/29/2011, 12:32 AM
Clowns generally struggle with hypo, they also struggle with copper, so it is kind of a tough situation.

Are both the clowns staying near each other? How big are they?

When clowns are introduced to a tank, I have noticed that they tend to stay in one spot, or pretty close. Also, depending on how far along these are, males vibrate in front of females(or becoming female) to show that the female is dominant. I am not sure if this is the type of vibrating you are seeing. What other signs of stress are you seeing?

My main concern with splitting them up is not keeping them happy by having a buddy, but keeping them separated long term and ending up with 2 clowns both changing female. I would probably keep the clowns together one way or another.

Sonicblast12
09/29/2011, 01:13 AM
They are both pretty good size as far as these fish go, maybe 2.5-3 inches. They do stay near each other and explore the tank together, haven't really picked out their "spot" yet.

At least until about three days ago when one of them started panicking and swimming frantically in one spot, not eating and not following the other clown anymore.

That clown is up to 1.014 in QT and is much calmer. Even appeared to eat a bit tonight, so I'm thinking it must have been a bad reaction to 1.009.

Not sure which direction to go, if I should pull the other clown to QT or put the clown in QT back in the display and end hypo. I am running UV on the DT...which helps.

I think the latter might be the way to go since the clown likely wouldn't survive the hypo, and if it has ich it would just put it back in the DT anyway.

elegance coral
09/29/2011, 06:06 AM
Are you sure this is a bonded pair, and not two females? Is it the smaller of the two that seems to be having problems?

Sonicblast12
09/29/2011, 11:44 AM
They are the same size, actually. I have no idea if they are a pair or not, they were a trade in to the lfs. They told me they grew up together, and they don't fight or anything.

elegance coral
09/30/2011, 05:04 AM
Sounds to me like you have two females.

Sonicblast12
09/30/2011, 10:06 PM
Probably, they are among the largest ocellaris I've ever seen. Certainly don't look the parts for a male/female combo.

The only way to tell them apart is by color, one is a dark burnt orange and the other is a light yellow orange.