Help: adopting two clowns that are in 1.010 salinity

[Lisa166]

Hi all, 

This story may be long, please bare with me. I really need some help here!

 

As the title reads: I will be adopting two clowns. They will come in my 16g, which has been succesfully running for about 7 months now. It has one red dotted dwarf goby, and multiple (easy to keep) corals. 

 

However, I have no idea how to care for these clowns. The problem is that the owners tank crashed completely. He purchased premixed water from a store. Water turned out to not be premixed and his whole tank crashed. Two clowns are still alive and he offered them to me so he can restart his tank.  He knew I have always wanted clowns, but I have no idea how to keep them alive at this point:

 

His tanks salinity is 1.010 due to the stores fault, my tank is at 1.023. How do I get them used to this pretty much normal salinity level after they spend 5 days in a 1.010? 

I do not have a quarantine tank, I do have a bucket I can use and I have an extra heater and flowpump I could put in there to let them acclimate. Should I put a piece of rock in there as well (id have to take that from my 16g)? But how long should I take to get them from 1.010 to 1.023? Will they be ok in a bucket for that time? I can't lower my salinity in my tank because it has inhabitants, but I also seriously don't have money for a quarantine tank.  

And after that, can I just put them in my tank with the goby? 

 

T(h)ank you for reading and helping!

 

 

 

 

[Horsey_Cat]

Since nobody replied yet, Ill try to give my best answer. Although in all honesty I would wait for other people to chime in before making any decisions.

 

If I were in the situation I would use the bucket you have to house the clowns temporarily until you get the salinity corrected. I personally wouldn't worry about putting live rock in the bucket, but that being said there will be no filtration and ammonia will spike if the clown are left in there long enough. You would have to do water changes (Id say somewhere around 25 - 50%) for the bucket at least every other day with water mixed to the salinity of the bucket. In the mean time with the clown in the bucket I would add about 1 cup of water from your tank to the bucket every 2 - 4 hours or so. 

 

That shouldn't stress the clowns too much and give them plenty of time to acclimate to the correct salinity. Clowns are fairly hardy ( as you can tell from them surviving in 1.010 salinity) so doing what I mentioned above should work for you.

[OldManSea]

Back in the 1960s people experimented with trying to acclimate damsels, including clowns, to fresh water.  Interestingly, some made it but that is not a reasonable thing to try as the fish will not survive long term.  That being said, these are very hardy fish which is why they survived the water change.  I suggest to put them in a bucket and make 50% of the water your tank water.   In 24 hours replace half the water in the bucket with your tank water and 24 hours after that drop them into your tank, they will be fine (just as they survived being placed in lightly brackish water.  Don't feed them in the bucket but make sure you aerate and keep the temperature the same as your tank.  If you are in a hurry you could do the changes 4 hours apart and they will still be fine, perhaps better than with the slower recovery.

 

 

[Lula_Mae]

Your poor friend!  Sadly, an excellent demonstration of why one should ALWAYS test LFS water before using.

[Lisa166]

Thank you all! 

 

You guys think putting them in a bucket overnight and then upping the salinity within a day or two is okay? 

 

I have to get them after school, so they will arrive late. 

[Clown79]

Keeping them in a good size bucket is fine but I would put a small piece of liverock in there for filtration, plus an air stone/powerhead, and heater.

If you have an hob, add that. Use some of your media from your tank in the hob because there will be some existing bacteria on it.

 

Slowly increase the salinity over days. If they are used to 1.010 you can't raise it to 1.023 in 2 days.

[Lisa166]

3 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Keeping them in a good size bucket is fine but I would put a small piece of liverock in there for filtration, plus an air stone/powerhead, and heater.

If you have an hob, add that. Use some of your media from your tank in the hob because there will be some existing bacteria on it.

 

Slowly increase the salinity over days. If they are used to 1.010 you can't raise it to 1.023 in 2 days.

Thank you very much. 

I do not have a HOB filter, I put a heater and flowpump in the bucket. I made water with a salinity matched to the one they are in now. 

How long do you suggest I take to get them back to normal salinity? I also dont want to stress them out by being in a bucket that long (it holds about 2g). 

 

Btw, my main tank only has live rock as filtration, with a flowpump and heater. The liverock contains loads of macros though, so PO4 and NO3 have been 0. 

 

Edit: wouldn't the low salinity kill the macros/bacteria on the LR? 

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

Thank you very much. 

I do not have a HOB filter, I put a heater and flowpump in the bucket. I made water with a salinity matched to the one they are in now. 

How long do you suggest I take to get them back to normal salinity? I also dont want to stress them out by being in a bucket that long (it holds about 2g). 

 

Btw, my main tank only has live rock as filtration, with a flowpump and heater. The liverock contains loads of macros though, so PO4 and NO3 have been 0. 

 

Edit: wouldn't the low salinity kill the macros/bacteria on the LR? 

I think you can get away without the live rock as long as you do water changes every day or so. I would research hyposalinity treatment and read how people bring their fish out of that, because that is basically what the clowns are in right now, unintentionally. I know for corals, they can handle salinity drops quickly better than they can handle salinity increases quickly, I am not sure if that is true for fish.

[Lisa166]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

I think you can get away without the live rock as long as you do water changes every day or so. I would research hyposalinity treatment and read how people bring their fish out of that, because that is basically what the clowns are in right now, unintentionally. I know for corals, they can handle salinity drops quickly better than they can handle salinity increases quickly, I am not sure if that is true for fish.

Thank you Lula_mae, I have been researching that for a few days now as well. However, everybody says something different.. 

[Tamberav]

I have acclimated clowns up from very low salinity before. I did it over several days using water changes and topping off with salt water. I did .03 a day.

 

I just used a small powerhead and dosed prime for possible ammonia. Since I was changing the water often to raise the salinity, I had no problems with water quality. I also fed pellets before a water change every 3rd day... made them a little hungry but I did not want to take the risk of dirtying up the water.

[OldManSea]

The longer they are in hypotonic medium the more stressed they will be.  Get them back in your main tank quickly.  That is the least stressful option.  Going from nor too icy to hypotonic medium destroys many of the epithelial cells in their gills - they survived that - so far.  Going the opposite way does not destroy the epithelium.  They should already be in your main tank.

[Tamberav]

My understanding is is raising too fast can dehydrate fish as well as cause cause issues with oxygen.

 

I have seen many fish do fine in hypo with compromised gills from parasites. I would be very leary of just dumping them in the tank. 

[Lisa166]

Thank you all! 

As I said about my research about hyposalinity... everybody seems to have a different opinion... that seems to be the case here as well!

 

I guess I will at least keep them in the bucket overnight. And then see tomorrow how they do with each increasement of salinity and go from there. 

[Lisa166]

Update: both clowns seem happy and healthy. He already managed to up his salinity to 1.014, and I slowly acclimated them to about 1.017. 

 

They both swim around the bucket actively, and colors are looking good. 

 

 

[Boggers]

Very nice to see. I would have just set up a drip of full strength SW and let it increase from that.

[Lisa166]

10 hours ago, Boggers said:

Very nice to see. I would have just set up a drip of full strength SW and let it increase from that.

Thank you for the advice! 

 

Update: 

They both made it through the night okay! Salinity is now about 1.018, and they seem fine. Yesterday evening I noticed them trying to grab any debris that floated through the QT, so'despite your advices to not feed, I ended up feeding them a few pellets. They attacked like crazy! They ate them all, so nothing is left to cause more debris. 

 

When I get home from uni tonight I will see how they are and decide to either up the salinity some more or keep it like this overnight. I hope to release them in the 16g tomorrow or Thursday evening. 

 

 

[Tamberav]

Looks like you are in the right track! They are cute 

[Lisa166]

1 hour ago, Tamberav said:

Looks like you are in the right track! They are cute 

Thank you! We are at 1.20 right now. I really want them to.go into the DT tomorrow. Because I dont want to keep them in a bucket any longer. 

 

I just hope they wont die before reaching the DT. But they are still super active, and they attacked the food like crazy! 

So hopefully going to 1.23 tonight

 

This okay or should.I put them in the DT tonight already? 

[Tamberav]

You can probably go to 1.023 by tonight, its early in the day yet here  

[Lisa166]

8 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

You can probably go to 1.023 by tonight, its early in the day yet here  

I keep forgetting about time differences! I am in the Netherlands, its 8pm here. When I raised the water from 1.018 to 1.020 it was about 6.30 pm. 

 

They are still okay and active. But I do notice they are a little higher up in the bucket. So maybe I should keep it like this overnight and go to 1.023 before leaving for uni tomorrow. 

 

Last question though: 

You really think they are okay in a bucket  for another 24h?

It currently holds about 9g. Has a heater and flowpump and some rubble. I changed out 50% of the water today with my tankwater (nh3, no3 and po4 , all zero in my tank). 

[Lula_Mae]

14 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

I keep forgetting about time differences! I am in the Netherlands, its 8pm here. When I raised the water from 1.018 to 1.020 it was about 6.30 pm. 

 

They are still okay and active. But I do notice they are a little higher up in the bucket. So maybe I should keep it like this overnight and go to 1.023 before leaving for uni tomorrow. 

 

Last question though: 

You really think they are okay in a bucket  for another 24h?

It currently holds about 9g. Has a heater and flowpump and some rubble. I changed out 50% of the water today with my tankwater (nh3, no3 and po4 , all zero in my tank). 

In a 9 gallon bucket?  I expect they'd be fine, that's as large as many quarantine tanks.  Especially since the water was just changed.

[Lisa166]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

In a 9 gallon bucket?  I expect they'd be fine, that's as large as many quarantine tanks.  Especially since the water was just changed.

I think I (once again) made a fault in recalculating, it should be about 7g. They are still good though. 

[Lisa166]

They made it! I repeat, THEY MADE IT! 

They are in my tank and doing fine, still going mostly up and down along the glass. But I take it that will be okay after them settling down

[hinnenkm]

Was just going to chime in, but glad to see things are going well!