Clownfish in QT, not a morning fish! Normal behavior?

[Doob]

I have had a pair of clowns in QT for just over 3 weeks. They are very healthy and active. Aggressive eaters. The larger of the 2 is very inactive in the morning, as in laying on the bottom of the tank or the pvc pipe, motionless. There have been 3 times that I thought she was a goner, only to come home from work to see her begging for food. I'm thinking it is normal, a friend of mine had a similar experience. It's disconcerting to see though.

Thoughts?

 

[michellejy]

I had a complete freak out about my clown doing the same thing and made a giant post about it. It turned out that turning on the light in the room frightened him, and he would "play dead." Now that he is fully settled in the display tank, he has finally stopped, but it went on for a couple of months!

 

[Rob Lion]

watch out your water flow isn't too strong, Clowns get tired easy. at night, make sure your flow is reduced so that they can find a light flow corner and head down or head up into it with minimal effort to stay there.

 

[michellejy]

I wanted to add the other things my clowns did in quarantine to make me think they were dying/dead. I went in the room once or twice at night, and they were floating on their sides in the top corner.

My ocellaris never did either of the playing dead behaviors but the perculas wanted to make me have a nervous breakdown!

 

[Doob]

I wanted to add the other things my clowns did in quarantine to make me think they were dying/dead. I went in the room once or twice at night, and they were floating on their sides in the top corner.

My ocellaris never did either of the playing dead behaviors but the perculas wanted to make me have a nervous breakdown!

Thanks for sharing! Tricky buggers...

 

[michellejy]

Hopefully once they get in your display, they will act normally--well normally for clowns

 

[Catchemall]

They sleep differently than any fish I've ever saw mine did that in qt and still sleep funny in my display tank that's been up for 8 months. They'll get up into low flow and snuggle on the top corner and just snuggle around there. Sometimes on they're side. They're just clowns being clowns. I worried myself to death and finally one day I said they're not gonna die as long as I'm treating for the right thing and keeping everything right for them.