SE7ƎN
Community Member
Hello All,
I am brand new to this, and would appreciate any advice you can offer...
I added 2x 4-5 month old Clown-Fish less than 48 hours ago. They are tiny (less than 1 inch). They came from a Clownfish Farm where there was not much flow. I acclimated them using a “modified“ drip method (Syringe adding a drop a second and then slowly increasing over a 90 min period). One thing I noticed right away was that the water flow in the tank was way way too much for them. I removed the wavemaker, but still seemed too much for them, even with ONLY the Return Pump (520 L/hour or 137 gal/hour). I removed the Duck-Bill Valve to reduce the centralized water pressure from the Return Pump Nozzle, and it helped out a lot, but it still seems a bit too much though and they need to work light to moderate to keep from getting tossed around.
In the last few hours, I decided to turn off the Return Pump, and stick an Air Stone with an Pump inside the tank at the top for Oxygen. They seem to be doing much better, but obviously, this can’t be a long term solution as there is no water flow/filtering. Is this OK? They seem much better as they are exploring and venturing around the tank now, but I have no idea what is normal and what isn’t. They also seem to be opening/closing their mouths quickly, but I’m guessing for a little toddler, this might be normal as opposed to a grown adult. They ate very well last night (24 hours after introducing them in), and a little this morning (36 hours after). One likes to explore and seems to be adjusting much better than the other. The other one just stays in one place never moving, but appearing to be swimming hard (even though it’s not the case because the other is right next to him and swims calmly). Is he super stressed?
Question/Advice
1) Is turning off the pump and sticking an Air-Stone inside a good idea until they get used to their new environment?
2) How long can I do this for, or should do this for? I plan on keeping it off for 5 hours or so, and then turning on the Pump for another 5 and cycling like this for a while until they get used to the tank and a bit stronger.
3) How long does it take for Clown Fish to acclimate to their new environment (no stress)?
4) The Hermit Crabs are tiny and afraid of the fish. Before the fish came, they thought they owned the place and were hilarious to watch. So much personality. The tiny snail is always hiding except when the food comes. The Fire-Shrimp, is the biggest thing in this tank measuring almost 2 inches (body only). He is not afraid of anything and even comes to me when I stick my hand in the tank to clean or adjust things. He sometimes tries to go after the 2x Clown-Fish (Curiosity/Main Course/????), but they just swim away when he gets close. I don’t think he is aggressive, but he’s so much bigger than everything else in the tank that he might think they are food? Should I be concerned?
5) Micro-Hermit Crabs all pretty much stay hidden and barely move since the 2x Clown-Fish came. Is this normal and expected, or are they stressed too? This is complete contrast to how they were before, strutting around the tank and fighting for shells.
6) Any other advice or suggestions to help these little guy’s get acclimated and happy quicker?
Edit Added: I also added Seachem Prime to help with the increased bio-load of the addition of the 2x Clown Fish as an extra safety measure. The NO2 raised and NO3 raised yesterday (12 hours after adding them), so I did a 23% Water Change and added the Seachem Prime to bond with the increased Nitirites until everything stabilizes again. My tank is still new and maybe not fully established, but I monitored the Nitrogen Cycle and saw the NH3/4 and NO2 spike up then go back down to 0 again before introducing everyone. Before adding the fish, I did a 14% Water-Change and scrubbed everything, which in retrospect, I probably messed with the bacteria, which probably caused the return spike in NO2 and NO3.
Thanks again.
Stats: 63L (16.6 gal) Nano, 1 month old cycled FOWLR, 0 NH3/4, 0 NO2, 12.5 NO3, PH 8.15, and Salinity 34/1.025.
Children: 7x Micro Hermit-Crabs and 1x Micro Nasarius Snail (Ocean caught), 1x Fire-Shrimp, and 2x 4-5 mo old Clown-Fish.
I am brand new to this, and would appreciate any advice you can offer...
I added 2x 4-5 month old Clown-Fish less than 48 hours ago. They are tiny (less than 1 inch). They came from a Clownfish Farm where there was not much flow. I acclimated them using a “modified“ drip method (Syringe adding a drop a second and then slowly increasing over a 90 min period). One thing I noticed right away was that the water flow in the tank was way way too much for them. I removed the wavemaker, but still seemed too much for them, even with ONLY the Return Pump (520 L/hour or 137 gal/hour). I removed the Duck-Bill Valve to reduce the centralized water pressure from the Return Pump Nozzle, and it helped out a lot, but it still seems a bit too much though and they need to work light to moderate to keep from getting tossed around.
In the last few hours, I decided to turn off the Return Pump, and stick an Air Stone with an Pump inside the tank at the top for Oxygen. They seem to be doing much better, but obviously, this can’t be a long term solution as there is no water flow/filtering. Is this OK? They seem much better as they are exploring and venturing around the tank now, but I have no idea what is normal and what isn’t. They also seem to be opening/closing their mouths quickly, but I’m guessing for a little toddler, this might be normal as opposed to a grown adult. They ate very well last night (24 hours after introducing them in), and a little this morning (36 hours after). One likes to explore and seems to be adjusting much better than the other. The other one just stays in one place never moving, but appearing to be swimming hard (even though it’s not the case because the other is right next to him and swims calmly). Is he super stressed?
Question/Advice
1) Is turning off the pump and sticking an Air-Stone inside a good idea until they get used to their new environment?
2) How long can I do this for, or should do this for? I plan on keeping it off for 5 hours or so, and then turning on the Pump for another 5 and cycling like this for a while until they get used to the tank and a bit stronger.
3) How long does it take for Clown Fish to acclimate to their new environment (no stress)?
4) The Hermit Crabs are tiny and afraid of the fish. Before the fish came, they thought they owned the place and were hilarious to watch. So much personality. The tiny snail is always hiding except when the food comes. The Fire-Shrimp, is the biggest thing in this tank measuring almost 2 inches (body only). He is not afraid of anything and even comes to me when I stick my hand in the tank to clean or adjust things. He sometimes tries to go after the 2x Clown-Fish (Curiosity/Main Course/????), but they just swim away when he gets close. I don’t think he is aggressive, but he’s so much bigger than everything else in the tank that he might think they are food? Should I be concerned?
5) Micro-Hermit Crabs all pretty much stay hidden and barely move since the 2x Clown-Fish came. Is this normal and expected, or are they stressed too? This is complete contrast to how they were before, strutting around the tank and fighting for shells.
6) Any other advice or suggestions to help these little guy’s get acclimated and happy quicker?
Edit Added: I also added Seachem Prime to help with the increased bio-load of the addition of the 2x Clown Fish as an extra safety measure. The NO2 raised and NO3 raised yesterday (12 hours after adding them), so I did a 23% Water Change and added the Seachem Prime to bond with the increased Nitirites until everything stabilizes again. My tank is still new and maybe not fully established, but I monitored the Nitrogen Cycle and saw the NH3/4 and NO2 spike up then go back down to 0 again before introducing everyone. Before adding the fish, I did a 14% Water-Change and scrubbed everything, which in retrospect, I probably messed with the bacteria, which probably caused the return spike in NO2 and NO3.
Thanks again.
Stats: 63L (16.6 gal) Nano, 1 month old cycled FOWLR, 0 NH3/4, 0 NO2, 12.5 NO3, PH 8.15, and Salinity 34/1.025.
Children: 7x Micro Hermit-Crabs and 1x Micro Nasarius Snail (Ocean caught), 1x Fire-Shrimp, and 2x 4-5 mo old Clown-Fish.
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