365 Day Challenge: First Coral- Pulsing Xenia

[debbeach13]

I have those tiny white flat worms in my pico. They are supposed to be harmless. I don’t want them to over run the tank. So every couple of days I press one at a time against the glass with my finger pull it up past the water line and rinse it off my finger, because the pico is on the kitchen counter or wipe on a napkin. PITA

[Ratvan]

22 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I have those tiny white flat worms in my pico. They are supposed to be harmless. I don’t want them to over run the tank. So every couple of days I press one at a time against the glass with my finger pull it up past the water line and rinse it off my finger, because the pico is on the kitchen counter or wipe on a napkin. PITA

Thats why i'm considering ignoring what everything tells me and get another Damsel

[debbeach13]

I love damsels but I would not keep one in 5 gallons. When I have a YWG and who knows maybe the shark nose is in the rock still. Plus I am home and bored so manual  removal is ok for now. I just hate putting my hand in the tank so much.

[Chadicus Meridius]

Clownfish problems: one clown seems to be more aggressive than the other . And the less aggressive one keeps doing that weird submissive motion, when the other clown comes at him, what’s weird is they both did the submissive motion yesterday what does that mean?

 

they are still fighting , they just don’t “live near each other” 

[banasophia]

Clownfish do all kinds of weird stuff... if you’re worried I would try to get some video to post that we can take a look at. 

[MainelyReefer]

4 hours ago, Seea said:

 

they are still fighting , they just don’t “live near each other” 

They are likely pairing if you bought properly small ones to start.  My breeding pair of 5 years don’t stick next to each other 24/7.  I just looked over as I was writing and they are on polar opposite corners just chilling.  I find the male(smaller fish) sticks by where they lay eggs/sleep and the female is more adventurous.  The male will occasionally dart to the location of the female and swim side by side then return to his post.  And both my clowns do the inverted wiggle dance of submission to each other.  

[Chadicus Meridius]

@banasophia

 

this is the aggressors den

[Chadicus Meridius]

55 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

They are likely pairing if you bought properly small ones to start.  My breeding pair of 5 years don’t stick next to each other 24/7.  I just looked over as I was writing and they are on polar opposite corners just chilling.  I find the male(smaller fish) sticks by where they lay eggs/sleep and the female is more adventurous.  The male will occasionally dart to the location of the female and swim side by side then return to his post.  And both my clowns do the inverted wiggle dance of submission to each other.  

There’s my mistake they both were the same size when I got them. 10 days ago. 

[Chadicus Meridius]

Not only does that happen regularly, but the aggressive clown is starting to latch onto the less aggressive clown more, should I put the aggressive clown in the breeder?

[debbeach13]

Yes they are probably too close to the same size. I would think putting the aggressive one in the breeder box is a very good idea.

[Chadicus Meridius]

Just a warning on the video, I chose the music and I realized it’s too loud, I had some background noise and I didn’t know how to mute it. Sorry

[MainelyReefer]

Return or trade off one of the fish and go buy a significantly smaller one if your still concerned, they are pretty similar in size but it is hard to tell if they are both small enough that it doesn’t matter(neither has transitioned to female).  To some extent the behavior you are seeing is going to take place to establish pecking order

[Chadicus Meridius]

So the clown @GraniteReefer that is aggressive has caused fin damage to the non aggressive. I caught it and put it in the breeder, but a snail is on my net an I can’t get him off 😂. 
 

 

ShouldI still return the more aggressive one?

[Chadicus Meridius]

The thing about returning the fish is that I do not have a bag to bag the fish , and I don’t know how too or if I can use a ziplock bag?

[banasophia]

20 minutes ago, Seea said:

The thing about returning the fish is that I do not have a bag to bag the fish , and I don’t know how too or if I can use a ziplock bag?

I usually put it in a big glass bowl with plastic wrap, take to the LFS and they dump into their container and give my bowl back. With the pandemic, when I recently returned a fish, I took an extra plastic grocery bag with me and had them place the emptied bowl into the bag as I held the bag, so I wouldn’t touch it or contaminate my car. Maybe a ziplock would work though if you have a large one like a gallon size. 
 

[Chadicus Meridius]

Should I even attempt letting the aggressive clown out of the breeder?

[banasophia]

Up to you... if it was me, I would not separate them for the level of aggression you showed in that video, I would just give the fish time to sort out who’s the boss. 

[Chadicus Meridius]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Up to you... if it was me, I would not separate them for the level of aggression you showed in that video, I would just give the fish time to sort out who’s the boss. 

It looks like aggression has slowed between the clowns, but the damsel is more aggressive 

 

 

edit: clowns are back at being aggressive 10 minutes after I released the clown.
 

second edit: clowns have calmed down 

[debbeach13]

Figures

[Chadicus Meridius]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Figures

And now they look good , more like a pair, I just don’t know . 😂 

[Chadicus Meridius]

Phosphate: .1-.25

nitrate <5 ppm 

pH 8.2-8.3

[debbeach13]

Maybe the damsel showed them it is better if they stick together.

[Chadicus Meridius]

Documentation day 1:

 

the 20 gallon innovative marine peninsula is the biggest and first saltwater tank I have ever had , being a beginner I decided to go with some aggressive fish, two percula clowns that are a bad couple, a damsel who keeps the clowns in check. I’m finally seeing a bigger diatom outbreak, well not that big, it’s because I added 2 fish at once so nitrates and phosphates rise. Can’t forget about the bois (snails) a Mexican turbo, that recently found a way to flip himself over twice in a week, who’s work ethic is like mine pretty bad, next snail the asteria that keeps the glass clean and their work ethic is amazing. The last snail is a nassarius snail I have not seen in a week, but he is there somewhere. The latest inhabitants are the hydroid jellyfishes. 
 

test results are above

 

 

clownfish aggression/ pairing : the two clowns are really weird because one day the aggressive clown started latching on to the other clown, so I put him in fish jail for a day and the clowns aggression reduced and they both did that weird submissive motion and less aggression occurred.

 

This is for personal preference so I can read it in the future, you can read if you want. It’s really for me trying to document my tank so I can learn and retain what I have learned 🙂 

[Chadicus Meridius]

One of my clownfish has an intestinal parasite or worm I read it’s not that bad as long as the clown is eating, which he is, guess what, it’s the aggressive one. I also read dipping the food in metroplex is also a good option. He also has lost color

 

im trying to get a picture but it looks like this

 

 

im hoping I can get a medication from the store and mix it with the fish food, I don’t know if it’s a worm or parasite 

[Chadicus Meridius]

Mini update: good news and some bad/goo news

 

GOOD NEWS

1) clowns really only fight during feeding time which makes sense because one wants to become female

 

Good/bad

2) the aggressive clown has come down with a internal worm or parasite, the good news is I will be able to treat it on Wednesday -Thursday