Clown Fish - Not Eating - Very Worried...

[MiB1986]

heya,

Brought two common clown fish, seen them eating in the shop before taking them home so know they do, had them at home 4 full days nearly 5 and they have not eaten once?

Now i am beginning to worry they may die from starving.

I have tried Nutrifin Marine food, they totally ignored, so went to the shop and asked what they were feeding and brought some brine shrimp with garlic, this is what their fed in the shop, again just put some of that in and totally ignored it.

They may have took one or so bites, but they did not eat how they did in the shop (ate as much as they could). they swim all over the tank and are very active very colorful more orangery than in the shop.

really concerned about them, please help

Parameters as 10 minutes ago (using API Test Kits)

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5
PH = 7.9-8.0 - in between
SG = 1.020

There is also 3 x Cleaner Shrimps and various crabs in the tank who are eating loads mainly the left overs.

I've never tested or owned a Phosphate test kit, and was told by the shop its not important for a F.O.W.L.R system. (the shop have never tested phosphate either but at the last test got the same as mine above).

Is there something else i should test for?

Tank has a Hydor Korilia 2 in, the tank is a Rekord 60 so lots of flow for a small tank.

Have read sticky... before posting forgot to say it.

Please help...

[reefhead728]

How did you acclimate them?

[MiB1986]

i followed instructions from LFS which was:

floated them for about 30 minutes,
undo bag let some water in, let it float for about 10 minutes,
let some more water in, let it float for another 10 minutes,
let them swim out of the bag when their ready and took the bag out about 30 minutes later.

although ive read some places since you should use drip methods and things, did i do the right thing?

[reefhead728]

Did you put them in a QT?

[MiB1986]

nope, i dont have a QT tank and they are the only marine fish i have, so put them in the main(only) tank, i have no other fish though.

[reefhead728]

Alright the only thing i can think of is the acclimating them was done wrong, Ive always done the drip method and never had this problem. did you check the temp in your tank?

[MiB1986]

my current temp is 26.5 Celsius, but i have turned down my heater one notch (juwel) and this should drop to 25. which i have been told is perfect.

should i have used the drip method?

thanks for your help by the way

[reefhead728]

I prefer the drip mithod Ive always had better outcomes, the drip method would have takin like 3 hours but its worked for me.

Oh by the way WELCOME TO REEFLAND

[MiB1986]

ok thanks for the heads up,

thankyou, this is my first post

going to bed now, speak tomorrow ill give an update and will get water tested at shop as well.

thanks

[berkdog]

how long ago did you first bring them home? it might take them a day or so to want to eat since they are still adjusting to the new territory.

is the tank 60 liters or gallons? or some other size? (referring to: the tank is a Rekord 60).

[MiB1986]

60 litres and they have been in 5 days today.

thanks

[berkdog]

I see that you already wrote 4/5 days in your original post. Sorry for not reading clearly.

Can I ask about your shrimp/crabs? Have they had any problems? And do the fish appear healthy otherwise? Are they swimming together? Separate? Breathing fine? I'm just trying to help brainstorm and think here... I'm no expert, but these things are usually asked.

Also, it may be best not to keep too much food around in the tank. If you read lots of Leebca's helpful entries, some talk about how to help fish start eating. One thing you may want to do is reduce stress on the environment. Keep lighting and traffic in the area low.

Also, it is sort of a tight fit for 2 clownfish to be in a 60 liter tank. Are they both the same size? How large?

[leebca]

MiB,

From your first post, I'd say there isn't a chance of starvation. If the fish were eating, then I'm assuming they were properly fed. If this assumption is correct, the fish can live without eating for a few weeks.

However why did they stop eating? The most obvious is because there is one or more stressors on the fish. When stressed, fish often just stop eating. The stress can be disease, parasite or pathogen in origin, but for new fish it can also be water quality and/or environment.

You've tested the water, that is good. However putting two fish into that sized aquarium is a stress -- on the bacteria. They in turn may be having trouble adjusting to the large new bio-load. Test your water two or three times each day for ammonia and nitrites. Use a test kit, not test strips.

Yes, it can also be a bad acclimation process. Drip method of acclimation is NOT good for marine fishes (too slow). However the procedure you followed would be shocking to the fish. Much too fast. The acclimation procedure is given here: It Was Acclimation, I know. . .

There is nothing to do now about the acclimation. If that is the only contributing stress factor, the fish will either come out of it -- or not.

But another worry is how old is the tank? When did it cycle? A new tank couldn't for sure handle the sudden bio-load increase.

Regarding water quality (other than what was already mentioned) -- Your pH and sp. gr. are a bit lower than I would like to see. I would like you to read this post on water quality so you can see that there is much more to it than just the tests you're currently performing: What is Water Quality

For now, just wait and see what developes. Check ammonia and nitrites multiple times during the day as suggested and keep trying to feed. Remove uneaten food and make sure nothing in the tank is dead or decaying. You have done some good things in trying to get them to eat, like obtaining food they were used to eating. That was very smart.