AboutPaul Expertise technical and non technical questions about marine tank set up, with a few radical hardware ideas. the compatibility of livestock. i am not much of a coral buff but i know about the more common types.
if you are asking a question please add in your tank spec, including type of filtration, amount of live rock, type of skimmer etc. it helps in the acurate answering of questions.
thanks
Experience i have kept fish for over 8 years
Education/Credentials none in the marine world, only experiance.
I have a 180L with £250 of live rock. The tank has been cycling for a month with crabs and turbo snails. Everything has been going well. On Sunday of this weekend, I went to my fish store, got my water tested, and was told I was ready for my first fish.
As luck would have it, earlier on in the day, another customer was in the process of closing down their tank and had sold back a couple of Clown Fish, they weren't infants, they were slightly older, a touch bigger. I was told this was a great place to start, and everything seemed great, they were feeding well and seemed to settle and adapt well. Until this lunchtime.
The male, obviously the smaller of the two, was very inquisitive always zooming round and looking in nooks and crannies, where as the female was much more dosile. I got home at lunchtime today, and to my absolute horror found that the poor little guy had got lodged sideways on the lip of the reverse of the motor.
I don't know how long he could of been there for, and to be honest with you, I don't even know how he got in there, I had to physically take the motor off the side of the tank and hit it quite hard to dislodge him. I'm obviously mortified. I've spent a very long time getting things in the tank right, not rushing things, getting the water right, not overstocking, then the first fish I add, this happens. It never occured to me that something like this could happen with a dedicated motor for a fish tank.
A few questions really. First, is there a way of preventing this happening again? The female clown is too big to get in there, but when I come to adding more fish, I will be very mindful of this. Second, what of the poor remaing clown? This may sounds silly, but do they go through a period of mourning? Can I add another? Should I look to add another slightly older that infant one to try and get a better match?
Many thanks for any help or advise you can give. At the moment, I feel terrible.
Regards,
Steve
Answer sorry to hear that steve, this hobby can be a real gut wrencher sometimes. if i have ever had problems with clown fish its always been the male, mine tend to do a dissapearing act never to show their face again. its fine to get another clown, the younger the better really as it will deffinatly be male then, always a chance that buying an older clown it will already be dominant.
unfortunatly without knowing what pump you were using i can't really sudgest any mods to stop it happening again. if its any consolation, it sounds like you have started right, dont let this put you off as the rewards far out weigh the losses. keep up the good work!
