Clownfish acting funny

[Ian]

About 3 months ago, I added two two true percula clownfish (a mated pair), one purple tang, and 1 flame angelfish to my 55 gallon tank after the conditioning period.  When I bought the clowns, they would swim around the tank and were very interesting to watch, but after about a month, the male would just start to stay in the rear corner of the tank.  Now the female does too.  The male floats at the top of the tank usually head up, tail down or on his side.  The female stays in the same corner down towards the substrate, head down, tail up.  At night, they both now just float up at the surface in the same corner.  They don't do anything anymore except stay in about a 1.5" square in the back corner of the tank, usually at the surface.  Also, when I bought them, they had a nice dark black midsection on their backs.  Now it's starting to fade to a brownish color.  (The purple tang is also fading a bit but shows no other ill signs and the flame angel is unaffected).  I'm using undergravel filtration with a supplemental Fluval 204.  I feed them Formula Two twice a day with frozen Prime Reef about 1 or two times a week.  They eat, but only if food floats into that corner.  There is 0ppm NO2, <.25ppm NH3, <5ppm NO3, pH is 8.2, specific gravity is 1.025, and temp is 79.  I've also tested for O2 and the water is saturated.  I do 20% water changes twice a month and add a capful of Seachem Reef Complete nutrient suplement after water changes.  Does anyone know what could be causing this?  I'm really puzzled.

Also, does anyone know of any good resources for identifying fish diseases and ailments?  Particulary nutrient deficiencies.

Thanks

 

[colesea]

Marine referances are a bit harder to find than freshwater ones.  I've got -The complete Manual of Fish Heath- from Borders, it's an excellent book, but primarily deals with freshwater diseases. Since many freshwater diseases do have very similar sister diseases in saltwater tanks, the diagonsing is almost the same, and this book does make some useful saltwater comparisons.

From you water chemistries I can't really see anything too wrong. What are your tap water chemistries? What you might want to try to do is perhaps only a 10% water change once a week instead of doing 20% every other. Small volume water changes more frequently are healthier for fish than large volumes less frequent. It keeps the chemistries more stable, especially in SW tanks.

I've never personally had luck with Red Sea Purple Tangs (that's what I'm assuming you have, they're purple with a yellow tail). They always seem to get lateral line rot. This is believed to be caused by a lack of Vitamin C in their diets. Angel Formula, by Ocean Nutrition, contains the sponge part of the diet from which most reef fish get Vitamin C. Also try supplementing with some romane lettuc leaf.  Variety is the key, so buy and feed different formulas/brands as often as possible.

Someone in the tank could possibly be a bully, so watch the fish carefully and see if you can tell if anybody is being dominate and picking on the others.  If all else fails and it looks like your flame angel may succum too, start dropping your salinity (Specific Gravity) 2ppt every twenty four hours until you get it down to 1.015 (16ppt) or there abouts. Sometime lower salinities will get rid of infection or parasite without harming the fish provided you acclimate the fish properly.
~~Colesea

 

[Ian]

Hopefully I have found the problem.  I have the powerheads and filtration system arranged in a way that causes the water to flow in a circular motion from top to bottom of the tank.  I think the fish were getting pushed into the top corner by the currents in the tank and they made that their territory.  I pointed a powerhead into that corner to flush them out and they seem thoroughly pissed.  They keep trying to swim back into that corner but keep getting pushed out by the current.  Slowly, they have started to venture into other parts of the tank.  I think the color change might be the due to the black midsections starting to turn orange.  I havn't seen them in good light for quite a while.  I will continue to closely monitor them for the next few weeks.  Hopefully this is the problem and it's nothing serious.

 

[eseow]

Clowns don't like too much current. They will hang out at top of the surface somtimes behind the output flow from the pump. Especially at night, they will swim behind something to keep from being swept around, unless they have an anemone to sleep in at night.

 

[Volitan]

I had a strange occurance lastnight.. My clown and my Domino Damsel acted as if they were blind? the both of them were running into stuff.. and I could of reached in and pick them up if I wanted to.. for a test I stuck the net in there and put it infront of my damsel.. and he swam right into it.. (which should never be possible) I been treating them for ich for the last few days using KENT Rx-P supposed to be reef safe and contains no copper.. anyways I noticed this behavior in these two lastnight during a 50% water change.. the rest of the fish were all hiding in the rock and were not stumbling about like they were blind.. anyways.. now today when I feed them all the fish seem fine.. the domino and the clown seem as if they have vision again.. so what could of happened? I really hope this never occurs again..

 

[colesea]

Sometimes erratic behavior could be from the sudden turn on or off of their tank light. Their eyes need time to adjust to increase/decreases of light levels just as ours do.  Fish also need a consistant day/night cycle.  Consider putting your hood lamp on a timer that can turn your tank light on or off for a specific amount of time (in fish only tanks, probably 8hrs a day in the evening when you're home to view the tank is sufficent). Marine fish do sleep, usually in a crevice somewhere, and will act trance-like.  Startling them out of sleep with turning on the hood lamp all of a sudden can make them act "blind."
~~Colesea

 

[eseow]

I know light affects my clarkii and a percula i had. They swim like they're blind if you hit them with too much light at once. Just like if someone turns the lights on on you in the dark. I think though as long as they're eating and swimming normally, no to worry too much. But do watch the tank for bullies. You have to really watch the fishes behavior. Also observe any tail or fin damage. Separating fins or tails is usually from fighting or bullying. *crazysmiley*

 

[Ian]

I remember a tip from someone somewhere, that a good way to catch a pesky damsel, is to sneak up on him at night and shine a flashlight on him.  He will be stunned and can be easily netted.  So, I think the behavior is not out of the ordinary.