my clown?

[drummerman2003]

well hes been in there for about 4 months now. and just yesterday his fin got nipped... well i guess it spooked him pretty bad. im not sure which one did it, but he was just laying there breathing extremely heavy last night. every once in a while he would get off the sand and swim for a second, but would lay back down. im hoping hes alive today, but i wont be able to do anything with him until tonight (tank is at the girlfriends. i had one other smaller clown die about 4 days ago, but i dont know why he died. he just stopped swimming as fast and then 2 days later was dead. what should i do with the one that got nipped?

[thedogofwar]

what else is in the tank?

[Kayo]

Jmg,

I lost a clown about 2 months ago. One day he's fine, the next hes gone. The other clown was depressed. He hid inside this one cave structure of the rocks. About a month ago I picked up a new clown. Both clowns are healthy and happy and appear to be best friends. I bet he's depressed.

[schiller2300]

I suspect that if he was being harrassed that the nipped fin was the least of his problems. I would start with making sure that their is nothing chemically whackey going on in the tank. (i.e. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ect. ). Since you had another clown die their is definitly a problem, somewhere. If you feel that another fish is harrassing him to death - I have used egg crate to block off a section of the aquarium when adding new fish to an already established community. I am currently acclimating a Sailfin this way into a communtity of 2 other tang, flame angel and clown. I have successfully housed tangs together by acclimating them to one another this way. When I have placed them directly into the tank I get alot of territorial disputes. One other note - I would be sure that you are purchasing tank raised clownfish. They are much hardier and environmentally friendly as well. Good luck!

[drummerman2003]

well we lost her this morning. the only signs i find was her fin was nipped. i had 3 clowns (2 very small that were going to be moved to my other fish tank soon), and this 1 that has been there forever. the other 2 fish in the tank are flame hawkfish, and blue damsel thats been there the longest. the first small new clown was the one that didnt pair up, and it sat in the corner and barely swam, and i found him the next day being eaten by the crabs. then 2 days later, this guy has a chunk out of his fin and is laying on the ground breathin heavy. the next day, dead... the others looks good, but im keepin an eye on them. im going to recheck all the levels again tomorrow, and see if i can figure something out.

[thedogofwar]

My $ is on oxygen

[drummerman2003]

what do you mean? not enough airflow?

[thedogofwar]

yes, lack of oxygen in the water. Do you run a skimmer or any other source of oxygen?

[drummerman2003]

yea i run a dual wheeled filter...

[schiller2300]

I wanted to warn you that damsels (especially the blue ones - yellow tails, blue devils, ect) are direct decendents of Saten himself. I love the color and activity of damsels and have three in my SPS tank 9 (alone), but they cause extensive problems with territorial disputes with new fish. Their small size is very decieving. When I started years ago I finnaly had to break my tank down to remove several that were preventing me from adding new fish. Good luck - Chris

[drummerman2003]

i must have gotten lucky with mine. they havent bothered any other fish yet. and my yellow tailed has great coloration