My female Ocellaris Clown Fish is laying on her side--why??

Discussion in 'ASAP' started by sarahg, Dec 28, 2011.

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  1. sarahg

    sarahg Plankton

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    I purchased two small ocellaris clown fishes about two months ago from my LFS in Denver, and they've been just peachy up until a few days ago. Within the past week, the female (bigger of the two) has started hanging out at the bottom of the tank, and leaning against the glass for periods of time then getting up and swimming around only to return back to leaning against the tank.

    Two days ago, I discovered that my royal gramma (was in the tank maybe 2 1/2 weeks) died for "no apparent reason" meaning there was no visible trauma, and it had been eating fine. Meanwhile, the clown fish had been hanging around the bottom of the tank for awhile, but not leaning on its side like it is currently. The smaller of the two (which I'm assuming is male) sticks very close to the female at all times, and appears to nudge her when she lays on her side.

    I have a 50 gal tall cube tank with maybe 15 lbs of live rock, 20 lbs base rock, and a mix of live sand and aquarium sand. I have a HOB filter which I use for charcoal filtration, and a protein skimmer. We have recently started developing some purple and brown algae on our live rocks but not a lot of it. SG is 1.025, ammonia is 0, nitrites 0, ph 8.2, nitrates were 20 ppm when I checked yesterday. Before the gramma keeled over, nitrates were holding at 10 ppm with everything else the same. I feed them a moderate amount (meaning I cut that square in fourths and feed 1/4 at a time) of frozen mysis shrimp and marine flake 2 times a day.

    Any ideas? I am going to try and post a link to a video tomorrow to better explain. Here is a photo of the tank. We have since gotten rid of the lyre-tail mollies in the back that we used to cycle the tank. There is a scooter dragonet and midas blenny in the tank with the clown fish now along with 4 hermit crabs and 4 snails. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100493958829500&l=d38541ecf3
     
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  3. sarahg

    sarahg Plankton

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  4. sticksmith23

    sticksmith23 Giant Squid

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    I would try a large water change and run extra carbon. I a problem like this and I had to move my fish out of the tank to save them after two of them dying on me. I still have idea what the problem was. i left the fish out for about a week or two before putting them back in. Now everything is fine.
     
  5. sarahg

    sarahg Plankton

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    Thanks for responding! Yup, the water change is definitely happening. I've got some marine snow happening from all the crap we blew around trying to find that gramma. I'm just trying to get my nitrates back down (but unsure how, really, aside from a water change) because I know clownies are sensitive to nitrates. They are doing better since I turned my power head off, but still hanging out at the bottom.
     
  6. phil_n_fish

    phil_n_fish Astrea Snail

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    how old is your tank? Your water looked alittle cloudy. Did you rinse your sand before putting it into the tank? and what kind of test kit are you using? I always the API tests which its the liquid kind where you put drops of solution into a test tube.

    For the Nitrates, water changes have to be big for it to make a dent to your nitrate levels. Just be proactive by reducing the feeding and dont overstock past your biological limits.

    I would recommend aquascaping your LR by forming them to where water can flow around each piece. This will reduce the amount of detritus and this will help you bring your nitrates down. Plus it will keep dead spots from forming on your live rock ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2011
  7. sticksmith23

    sticksmith23 Giant Squid

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    Seachem makes a product called Purigen. It controls ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. You can regenerate it fairly easily.
     
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  9. sarahg

    sarahg Plankton

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    Thanks, guys! My tank has been up and running for about three months. I use the API test kit that you're speaking about. I've been thinking about getting some more live rock, but I'm not sure if it would really help that much with stabilizing the nitrate levels in the tank. Right now it IS a bit cloudy because I disturbed a good bit of detritus when I was looking for my royal gramma who liked to hide in the rocks. Unfortunately, it was dead, like I mentioned before but I did a 30% water change today, and I'm hoping that will help out the cloudiness and all that.

    By the way--no, we didn't rinse our sand when we first put it in. It has been clear, so I think our cloudiness is primarily from disturbing it looking for that gramma.
     
  10. sticksmith23

    sticksmith23 Giant Squid

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    If you water wasn't cloudy prior, then I would say that where you cloudiness came from (disturbing the sandbed that is).
     
  11. brunoboarder244

    brunoboarder244 Torch Coral

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    id check for some stray voltage or if that is an airstone in there ive heard they can do more harm then help since they stress the fish out, you would be better off with a powerhead facing the surface of the tank for air exchange
     
  12. Hawaii777

    Hawaii777 Astrea Snail

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    You might want to check your water parameters, because most Clownfish and damsels are hardy to poor water conditions unlike other saltwater fish. I would probably do big water change. Hope it all turns out good!