Hi all - brand new clownfish owner here (Ocellaris misbars) and feeling a bit of new owner jitters, hoping some kind folks would be willing to put my mind at ease/let me know if anything should be pinging my radar. They're my first fish, and I brought them home on the 24th; tank had been fully cycled for a month or two, and I acclimated them over a bit less than an hour before setting them loose into the tank (20 gal).
Parameters as of today are:
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
~10 Nitrate
1.025 Salinity
Using RODI water and Instant Ocean.
Overall, things seem to be going well; they swam around the tank sticking close together for the first day, then settled into one of the corners, where they spend most of their time now. They ate a little bit day two, and are on two feeds a day now (removing anything they don't eat in a few minutes ), a mixture of frozen and pellets.
My main concerns:
- How much is a reasonable amount of dominance establishing? One is a fair bit larger than the other and throws their weight around, but hasn't been overly aggressive that I can tell (smaller ones fins look fine, all I've seen is the larger one kind of shoving them aside/chasing them away). They tend to spend a lot of their time apart, though, with the smaller one hanging out in the back corner, and the larger one lounging around in the pipe/rockwork right next to the corner. If that's just how they vibe, that's fine, but I'm a bit worried it means I need to be more on the lookout for future aggression or bullying.
- They have a habit of going up to the surface. I know that if they're gulping at the surface, that's a sign that there's a problem with the oxygen levels, but I haven't seen any gulping/heavy breathing behaviour, just them going up to the surface, breaching the water a bit with their backs as they swim along (usually with the powerhead flow pushing them) and then swim back down. Clowns being clowns, or a sign I should be adjusting something?
- Lastly, how do I make sure the little one is getting enough to eat? I watch them while they eat, and he does manage to eat, but the bigger one is definitely very happy to chase him away to get the food.
Have resisted the urge to mess about with things and am just watching and testing, but would appreciate more experienced folks putting my mind at ease if it's warranted or holding me to the fire if I'm missing something
Parameters as of today are:
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
~10 Nitrate
1.025 Salinity
Using RODI water and Instant Ocean.
Overall, things seem to be going well; they swam around the tank sticking close together for the first day, then settled into one of the corners, where they spend most of their time now. They ate a little bit day two, and are on two feeds a day now (removing anything they don't eat in a few minutes ), a mixture of frozen and pellets.
My main concerns:
- How much is a reasonable amount of dominance establishing? One is a fair bit larger than the other and throws their weight around, but hasn't been overly aggressive that I can tell (smaller ones fins look fine, all I've seen is the larger one kind of shoving them aside/chasing them away). They tend to spend a lot of their time apart, though, with the smaller one hanging out in the back corner, and the larger one lounging around in the pipe/rockwork right next to the corner. If that's just how they vibe, that's fine, but I'm a bit worried it means I need to be more on the lookout for future aggression or bullying.
- They have a habit of going up to the surface. I know that if they're gulping at the surface, that's a sign that there's a problem with the oxygen levels, but I haven't seen any gulping/heavy breathing behaviour, just them going up to the surface, breaching the water a bit with their backs as they swim along (usually with the powerhead flow pushing them) and then swim back down. Clowns being clowns, or a sign I should be adjusting something?
- Lastly, how do I make sure the little one is getting enough to eat? I watch them while they eat, and he does manage to eat, but the bigger one is definitely very happy to chase him away to get the food.
Have resisted the urge to mess about with things and am just watching and testing, but would appreciate more experienced folks putting my mind at ease if it's warranted or holding me to the fire if I'm missing something