Blue Green Chromis Darting from Tank Wall

[T2o]

I have a 10-gallon nano tank in the office with a Sicce Adv 400 internal filter, 100W heater, some dry volcanic rock, and Red Sea live reef base (sand). I've cycled the tank in 25 days since setting it up. 7 days ago, I bought my 2 inhabitants, a 1.125"-long ocellaris clownfish and a 2"-long blue green reef chromis. I know the clownfish may possibly be a bully, so I had to keep him small.

 

After acclimatizing the fishes, I couldn't find a way to net the fishes out of the small bag of LFS water, and ended up pouring a small amount into my fish tank. (I later realized I could've poured all the contents out with the net picking the fish up and letting the dirty water drop in the sink.) After some initial struggling to get used to the tank, they settled down with the chromis swimming all over the tank, and the clownfish chillin' at the front. I keep the white LED tank light hood on from 9:45am to 5pm and I usually turn on the room lights from 9:15am to 5:30pm to serve as an artificial dawn/dusk effect. I don't have actinic LED.

 

Since the day before yesterday, however, the chromis had been hiding behind the heater after I directed the filter water outflow to the heater. After I readjusted the flow away from the heater to the center of the tank yesterday, the chromis swam back in the tank center. Today, however, the chromis is back at the heater and worse, is occasionally darting from the tank wall. The clownfish is acting as usual during all this time. I'm not sure if the chromis is sick or if the clownfish is bullying him when the lights go out.

 

Should I put one of the fishes into a 5-gallon bucket, to rule out the possibility of bullying behavior? Or is the chromis sick? I've shone my flashlight from the top of the chromis with all the room and tank lights out and couldn't really see fine gold rust on his scales.

[RIP Sebastian]

Yo really shouldn't have bought two fish at the same time.

[T2o]

I also forgot to mention that they're not eating my Hikari Marine S pellets yet. They're tasting and spitting it out so far, but I'll continue this feeding regiment and they should give in soon.

[Clown79]

What else is in the tank? I see a white and blue item in the pic.

 

Adding the water from the bag is not good. There could be anything in there.

 

Adding 2 fish to a newly cycled tank is hard on the system.

 

A chromis and clown in a 10g is too much bioload.

 

Have you tested ammonia since adding the fish?

[T2o]

What else is in the tank? I see a white and blue item in the pic.

 

Adding the water from the bag is not good. There could be anything in there.

 

Adding 2 fish to a newly cycled tank is hard on the system.

 

A chromis and clown in a 10g is too much bioload.

 

Have you tested ammonia since adding the fish?

 

The white/blue item is a ceramic "shoe" ornament, which I originally hoped they'd use as a hiding spot. Next to it are some piles of volcanic rock.

 

I originally wanted to add 1 fish, either firefish goby, chromis, ocellaris, or royal gramma. But then I figured it'd be a bit lonely by itself.

 

I test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, salinity, and temperature every 3-5 days. Since adding these 2 fishes, both ammonia and nitrite went up to 0.15, and nitrate to 10. pH is 8.4, salinity is 1.025, and temperature is 80.6. (Just realized this is higher than the 78 recommendation. Will fix it when I get back.)

 

I've temporarily separated the two fishes with a custom purple acrylic divider with small holes for water distribution. I've added an air pump (without air stone) to the clownfish side (without adequate filtration).

[lkoechle]

you need to do water changes asap and maybe add an ammonia binder. Your ammonia and nitrite should NEVER be detectable

[T2o]

you need to do water changes asap and maybe add an ammonia binder. Your ammonia and nitrite should NEVER be detectable

 

How many percent of the water should I change? I usually change 20% every week with a Red Sea Salt/distilled water mix.

[Clown79]

Your tank can't handle the bioload thats why ammonia and nitrite are present. You need to buy some seachem prime to bind the ammonia.

 

Keeping the fish seperate won't really help, it doesn't appear to be aggression issues but rather ammonia.

 

I'm not sure how well volcanic rock works for SW on a biological filteration standpoint. Liverock/reef rock is the main biological filter in the tank. Usually requiring 1lb per gallon.

 

From what i have read, volcanic rock leaches heavy metal into the water. It may not be present right away but may occur in time. As for the ceramic shoe, if its not reef safe decor, i would remove it.

[T2o]

Your tank can't handle the bioload thats why ammonia and nitrite are present. You need to buy some seachem prime to bind the ammonia.

 

Keeping the fish seperate won't really help, it doesn't appear to be aggression issues but rather ammonia.

 

I'm not sure how well volcanic rock works for SW on a biological filteration standpoint. Liverock/reef rock is the main biological filter in the tank. Usually requiring 1lb per gallon.

 

From what i have read, volcanic rock leaches heavy metal into the water. It may not be present right away but may occur in time. As for the ceramic shoe, if its not reef safe decor, i would remove it.

 

Does API Stress Coat+ bind the ammonia too? I have a bottle of it. I've wanted to buy Pukani dry live rock all along, but my city only sells "pre-cured" reef saver that's soaked in what appears to be dirt water. (I really don't want mantis shrimp in my tank.) Bulk Reef Supply doesn't ship to my city because I live in Hong Kong. And if I use myUS.com, and have them transship from Florida, it'll cost me a fortune. But I guess I'll remove the volcanic rock and ceramic shoe in the meantime, to be safe.

[Clown79]

I don't know if the stress coat does.

 

I wouldn't remove the rock at this point. I would look around for dry reef rock or liverock in your area.

[lkoechle]

No, stress coat most likely doesnt bind. you need a binder like prime or zeo carb or something similar. the description will clearly tell you if it binds ammonia. you can find an ammonia binder at anystore that sells fish.

[T2o]

Thanks for the advice Clown and lkoe. I did a 40% water change today, and during that process I found black leachate under my largest volcanic rock and above my live sand. I removed the large rock, half of my small rocks, ceramic shoes, and siphoned out that area of live sand carefully. I think I'll get the ammonia binder and pre-cured live rock tomorrow or the day after. I think I'll put the live rock into 1.040 hypersalinity water for 1 minute to hopefully flood out the mantis shrimps. (It's going to be an ugly sight.) And then I'll cure it again until all ammonia and nitrites drop to 0. I've attached my water parameters below:

 

[Clown79]

If its precured rock, why cure it again?

 

You so realize that not all liverock has mantis shrimp in it?

[MrsPeet15]

I'm no expert at all but thought this might also be worth a mention but aren't chromis shoaling fish too? I think my LFS will only sell them in groups, could the lack of company be causing any stress?

[T2o]

On 2/15/2017 at 0:29 AM, Clown79 said:

If its precured rock, why cure it again?

 

You so realize that not all liverock has mantis shrimp in it?

Sorry for the late reply. I just wanted to quarantine the rocks before officially introducing them into my display tank. After 4 days of quarantine and good water parameters, I put them in and my fishes are loving it.

 

[T2o]

On 2/15/2017 at 1:27 AM, MrsPeet15 said:

I'm no expert at all but thought this might also be worth a mention but aren't chromis shoaling fish too? I think my LFS will only sell them in groups, could the lack of company be causing any stress?

Yes, green chromis are shoaling fish and it's recommended to keep 6 or more of them together. Unfortunately that'll exceed the bioload of my 10 gallon. Actually, it's quite hard to keep Any saltwater fish in a 10 gallon. If I could start over, I'll probably have 2 red firefish goby. But now, my chromis and ocellaris seem to be getting along. They dance with each other sometimes.

[MrsPeet15]

On 24/02/2017 at 11:49 AM, T2o said:

Yes, green chromis are shoaling fish and it's recommended to keep 6 or more of them together. Unfortunately that'll exceed the bioload of my 10 gallon. Actually, it's quite hard to keep Any saltwater fish in a 10 gallon. If I could start over, I'll probably have 2 red firefish goby. But now, my chromis and ocellaris seem to be getting along. They dance with each other sometimes.

Glad to hear they are getting along