Am I being paranoid or is my fish dying??

[1255fish]

Hey guys! I’m new to the fishing hobby and I set up my first salt water tank! I did a bunch of research and looked into all the chemistry behind keeping up a tank. I set up a bio cube 32 with the standard lighting. I added 20lbs or live sand and rock and filled up the tank with salt water with a salinity of 1.024. I have checked my pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and nitrate throughout the 7 weeks that I let the tank cycle and added beneficial bacteria twice for 7 days tow separate times during the cycling. Yesterday when we checked the water parameters the pH was 8.2, Ammonia was near 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate was also low so we decided to add fish to the tank.
 

We acclimate the fish by floating them in the bags for about an hour before we add them to the tank. We got two clowns and a domino damsel. The damsel seems fine and is exploring the tank slowly as well as the larger clown fish but the smaller clown seems to be swimming a lot around the tank. It will circle the tank by the glass and go up and down the glass at times. He does occasionally stop in the middle of the tank and swim through the live rock. As far as I could tell he ate both yesterday and this morning. I read online that this means that they could be stressed so we turned the lights and waver-maker off but it only seemed to slow him down a little bit. 

 

His breathing seems fine but honestly I can’t really get a good look at him. Everyone else in the tank looks fine. I just really don’t want to kill him. I just really need some help I don’t know if I’m being paranoid or a bad fish handler! 

[FISHnChix]

Yep your paranoid. 😂😊😎😋 Clownfish are crazy.  They do all kinds of funny stuff. This behavior is normal. Keep an eye on ammonia like you are doing and you will be fine.

 

Has the fish eaten yet? If it is that's a good sign. Although some fish can take a few days to start eating.

 

Welcome to NR! Happy reefing!

[Tired]

You should probably remove the damsel. Dominoes get a good 5+ inches, and are fairly aggressive. Bad nano fish as they mature, cute as they are when they're babies.

 

Clowns act weird. Make sure he has plenty of hiding places, and isn't being bullied. What sizes are the clowns? 

[j.falk]

^ Agreed...remove the Domino before it becomes a problem.

 

 

 

 

[1255fish]

Thanks for the input! He is eating and has calmed down a bit. He still likes to swim a lot but he calms down at night once the lights are off and sleeps. 
 

also both of the clownfish sleep right by the power head at the top of the tank. Should I be concerned? 
 

the damsel is pretty small right now, I haven’t noticed that it’s been aggressive with the other fish. The second clown is about the same size as him. I will definitely have to get rid of him if he starts making trouble. 

[j.falk]

The aggression will come as they grow.  They will fight for space to survive/territories.

[Tired]

The damsel WILL start causing trouble, when he gets older. Said trouble will likely come on suddenly and be violent. You should get rid of him now, before he becomes a problem, because you'll know he's become a problem when he starts damaging your other fish.

 

Clowns like to sleep by powerheads, for some reason. They're odd.

[1255fish]

Thank you all for the information. We ended up getting rid of the Domino Damsel. It wasn’t causing problems now but I definitely don’t want to deal with any future problems! 
 

We ended up getting a fire shrimp, 2 emerald crabs and a coral beauty angel fish to add to the tank. The angel seems to be doing okay to me. It hides between the rocks and will come out to swim. It does pace at the very front of the class on occasion. I’m not sure if I should be worried or not? It doesn’t seem to eat much when I put food in. It kind of catches pieces that float in front of it or it will nip at the live rock. Is this normal behavior? I’ve tried feeding it both TDI Chroma boost pebble food and brine shrimp. 

[mcarroll]

For what it's worth, not all Damselfish are like that.  That group tends to be particularly nasty.

 

That said, even the nicest of that group (arguably the Clownfishes) can be nasty little assassins.