New Ocellaris Clown not Thriving

[TexasDefender]

I have a 29 gallon salt tank with 50 lb. live sand, 50 lb. aged deadhead coral, and the following critters, who are all very healthy: a 2" green chromis, a 2" engineer goby, a 2" lawnmower blenny, 2 peppermint shrimp and 2 turbo snails. I have an undergravel filter and a sump filter, and my water is crystal clear, 8.2 ph, almost 80 degrees, 1.021 salinity (specific gravity). Nitrates/Nitrites/Ammonia are at near zero. I have power compact lighting (Nova Extreme 2x24 T5HO).

Last night I bought a vibrant little 2.5" ocellaris clown from a local dealer, brought him home, turned off the tank light, floated him a half hour, and released him. He swam around and appeared fine. This morning, he was in a corner of my tank and not moving a lot. I turned on the light and fed my tank, but he wasn't interested in marine flake or krill pellets. Then I went to work. My wife called me about 3 PM to let me know that he is frequently lying on his side and not doing much. I do not want to lose my first clown, and I would have a heartbroken daughter to boot.

ANYBODY OUT THERE: Why would a clown fail to thrive in a new tank where the water is clean and there are no predators? Any extreme measures I can take to perk him up before I lose him? (attached is a photo my wife took on her phone and just sent me -- he is moving, and is still breathing.) Thanks for your advice!

[mharmon]

If I had to guess, I would say that he's probably in shock due to an acclimation issue. It would seem that you took care of temperature, but there may have been too large a shift in salinity. You might call the LFS you purchased from and ask them what salinity/SG they maintained the tank you purchased from. That might help you identify the problem. Many LFS keep their tanks somewhere closer to 1.023 - 1.024 SG.

I don't know if there's anything that can be done at this late stage. It might be just as harmful to try to reacclimate your clown to another tank. Do you have any idea how long your LFS had your clown in stock before you made your purchase? If he had been recently shipped, he may have still been weak and the double acclimation may have been too much.

I wish you the best of luck and maybe he'll pull through. Perhaps someone here will have a great idea?...

Mark

[Texreefer]

I'm afraid mark is right on the money.. need to drip acclimate clowns and all fish for that matter.. clowns are hardy fish but cannot take large swings in salinity. if he does any twitching that does not look like swimming he likely suffered the affects of osmotic shock,, if this is the case, not really much you can do at this point

[Goofball310]

gl.... i know it's not the best advice but you really look like you could need it right now.

[TexasDefender]

At about 3:45, in response to mharmon's kind reply, I called my wife and had her add salt. By this evening, our clown was swimming high and low. Then as the evening wore on, he gravitated into a corner of the aquarium and became lethargic (while all our other critters seem fine). At this point, I don't see any gill movement, but I will leave him in the tank tonight and check him in the morning. Maybe just a hiccup on a downward spiral. If I have lost him/her, I will be very sad, and either way, I am getting more educated on acclimation issues, because this really sucks! :-(

[Goofball310]

adding salt is really the last thing you should've done to your main tank. quickly raising your salinity could endanger all the critters in your tank.

[Bill S]

OK, a couple more thoughts...

An undergravel filter? Last one of those I saw was in a museum. Just kidding, but I'm not sure you will find many/any UG filters among current reefers. How much substrate do you have?

When you said "at or near zero" for nitrates/nitrites/ammonia. "Near" is just fine for nitrate. But only ZERO is acceptable for nitrites and ammonia.

A few days ago, someone here posted on how to buy a clownfish. It was great advice:

1) choose tank-bred if you can - even if it's twice the price

2) in a tank full of clowns, choose the one acting like a "puppy dog". Not one that appears shy or hangs back.

3) in acclimation, temperature IS very important. But so is drip acclimation. Unfortunately, mistakes in this hobby are waaaay too easy to make, and are expensive.

[mharmon]

I apologize in advance for this chastising:

You should never directly add salt to a tank! Furthermore, if you caused the salinity in your tank to rise too rapidly, you could be faced with a tankful of dead critters, not just one! Any rapid change in salinity is bad, bad, bad.... :(

Again, sorry. I know you're feeling desperate, but sometimes it's better to just chalk one up to experience.

I would suggest that you not make any further changes to your tank at this point as you may see further unfortunate results. In the long run (over the next few weeks), you would probably benefit from gradually increasing your salinity to the same as your LFS. Even then, it's probably a good idea to carefully acclimate anything you put into your tank.

Here's a great link on how to acclimate:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=19

I hope your clown recovers. In any event, I feel your pain. Let us know how it goes.


Mark

[snfkotara]

I am really new but my clowns really perked up when they got the sabea anemone

[Texreefer]

an anemone can contribute to their overall well being but are not necessary for them to live a healthy life

[msmith619]

I agree with the above. You must not only acclimate the temperature but, also the water parameters. The drip system works best and can take a couple of hours to acclimate new critters, fish AND inverts. Many invertebrates are even more sensative than fish. Unlike freshwatre, there is more than temperature to equalize in marine tanks.
Never directly add salt to the tank. Get some RO water and mix the salt in there. Get the salinity right and add slowly to the tank. Better yet, let the water "age" a few days before adding.
The clawn is probably not going to survive and now look for ich. many times when a fish gets so stress, there can be an ich outbreak......another emergeny article by itself.
Undergravel filters were the way to go 20-30 years ago and are OK for freshwater but, can cause a severe nightmare in a marine tank if you ever lose power. Put a battery back-up on the pump for the filter like you would buy for your computer. If your power goes out, the filter bed, which is aerobic, will quickly die and go anaerobic. This can kill the entire tank in 24 hours. If you never lose power, the filter will NOT hurt your tank if it has a separate power supply. Most marine tanks rely on the live rock and live sand as the main filtration media. We then add protein skimmers, refugia or wet/dry filters and sometimes hang on the back filters for added water filtration.
Mike