[cofstl411]

I just purchased a clownfish and I thought it would hide near my live rock but it has spent all day near the top of my tank either in the back corner or next to a powerhead. At one point it looked like he was on his side but he has righted himself. Will he end up near my rock or is this where they like to dwell? I also have 2 green chromis who spend most of their time hiding. I have had them about 4 days. One seems to be more adventurous than the other. I always look around my tank to see if one got out because they hide very well. The chromis don't swim exactly straight up and down either. They seem to have a slight list to them. Is that normal because they seem fine otherwise. I have a 125 gallon tank and I add the mysid shrimp it seems like they don't see it or maybe they eat it after I leave. Do they normally go right after it or do they wait for it to break up into tiny pieces. I see them darting around from a distance but am not sure they are eating or just getting exercise. My water params are PH-8.2, Ammonia-0, Nitrate-0, Nitrite-0, and S.G.-1.023. These are my first marine fish and just want to make sure they are acting ok.

[Reefland]

Howdy again my friend...

It is totally normal for the A. percula clownfish to hang out near the surface of the water; I'm guessing this is what you have. We have a pair of black A. ocellaris that stay pretty stationary in the bottom corner of the tank. Clownfish are not very active swimmers, they like to find a place and call it home. Yours will likely come from the back corner but don't expect a whole lot of swimming back and forth from it. It's going to stay pretty close to home. Did you just pick up one or did you get two to try and pair?

On the Chromis, I would not worry here either. These fish are extremely hardy, as long as you got some healthy ones to start I would expect that you'll have them for a long time. Our Chromis are very active eaters, feeding voraciously on mysis shrimp and Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef and Brine Shrimp Plus flakes. You might want to pick up a good quality flake food and include that in your fishes diet.

Your pH, NO2, NO3 look good. If your going with a reef tank and plan to add coral in the future, I would suggest slowly increasing your SG to 1.025. If your going with a Fish-Only aquarium then your ok. What are you keeping your temperature at?

[cofstl411]

My water temperature is at 77 degrees. I have some marine flakes from Omega One that I purchased at the pet store. Some of the flakes are still floating on top of the water from yesterday. I left them there because I thought maybe the they were too afraid to feed while I was near. I plan on getting corals but not for a while since my tank is pretty new and I want to be sure that I can handle the fish only first.

Would I be better off if I purchased another clownfish? I am guessing that you can't tell a male from a female and I can't remember if they are one of the fish that change sex or not.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by cofstl411

Would I be better off if I purchased another clownfish? I am guessing that you can't tell a male from a female and I can't remember if they are one of the fish that change sex or not.

I think it's a good idea to keep a pair of clownfish rather than just one. Assuming your present clownfish was captive-bred, it is probably only several months old and still a juvenile. Just get another one of the same species, preferably a little bit smaller, if possible. They will eventually become a mated pair.

All clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites. That means that all females are derived from males. Sexual determination in clownfish is by social aggression. Juveniles are neither male nor female. They progress from unsexed to male and finally to female. Once female, they cannot change back to male. Whether they progress or not depends on their interaction with conspecifics. If you have a single clownfish in your tank, it will eventually become a female. If you stick two juveniles in your tank, one will become male and the other will become female. The more aggressive one will end up as the female. If you stick three juveniles of the same species in your tank, you will end up with one female, one male and one fish that is sexually immature and neither male nor female. If the female dies, or is removed, the male will become female and the sexually immature fish will become male.

It is possible to have more than one mated pair of the same species in the same tank but only if you have a very large tank. Clownfish have a very limited territory because in the wild they live in host anemones. Sometimes you have as many as four or five clownfish of the same species living in the same anemone. Only one of them is a female and only one is a male. The others are sexually immature and could remain sexually immature their entire lives if a vacancy doesn't open up for promotion up the ladder.

[MarinePig]

We have 2 clownfish that while they are resting (sleeping) they stay near the top of the tank. However, we also have a Blue Tang (Dorie) that the clownfish seem to like and they swim around the tank quite a bit. But holy cow is the tang an ick magnet. I don't think it would survive without the two cleaner shrimp that take care of her. I mean it keeps them both busy.

We keep our tank at about 81-82 degrees per advise from reefland (and many others).