I got my first fish!!

[jess128]

Yesterday I got 2 Percula Clownfish from Aquarium Illusions! I put them in a clean bucket and did the slow drip acclimation process. It was quite a pain to get going, my siphon hose didn't work so well, I think I'll get a different one for my next fish. But the clowns seem to be doing really well. I acclimated for about 3 hours before putting them into the tank.

They've survived the night and look really good. They haven't eaten anything yet though. I bought the same flake food that they were being fed at AI, and then same flakes are still floating on the water surface from last night. I didn't really expect them to eat anything last night but I thought they would today. They also seem to have a lot of trouble swimming near the filter and powerheads. Right now the powerheads are turned off. Any advice on feeding them?

My Dad has my digital camera right now, but I'll take some pictures as soon as I get it back and post them here.

-Jess

[rodsboys]

I would leave the powerheads on.The clowns will learn where not to go.The will start eating soon too.They are little pigs.You should have them eating out of your hand in no time.Good luck.
Oh yeah don't leave old uneaten food in your tank if you can help it.

[Richer]

Yup, just give your clowns a couple of days to adjust, they'll be fine. My clowns didn't eat much for the first few days I got them... now I got them eating out of a spoon :mrgreen:
Try getting your clowns a variety of food. I currently have my clowns eatin krill, mysis shrimp, cyclopeeze, and the same flake food you probably bought. I'm not sure if the variety of food helped, but my clowns have grown quite noticably since I got them.. and they have turned a really nice red color compared to what color they were when I first got them.

My clowns had a problem swimming in my tank for the first bit as well, they got used to that very quickly.. although it did cause them problems at night when they tried to sleep. For the first couple of weeks, I would always find one of my clowns either stuck in my overflow, or sucked into my sump. I ended up putting one (out of two) of my powerheads on the same timer as my lights... ever since then, overflow/sump surfing issues have been reduced to once a month, rather than once every couple of days :mrgreen: .

Have fun with your clowns, and like rodsboys said, don't overfeed them, no matter how much they beg :razz:

-Richer

[jess128]

Thanks for the advice. I'll get some frozen foods and see how that goes. They seem to be exploring the tank more, this evening they discovered the left side! I'm not sure if one of the clowns is younger than the other, but the stripe closest to it's tail is not complete, it's just a little white mark on it's back. And whereas the other fish has black outlines and it's fins and stripes, this one doesn't. Will those come with time or is there something wrong!?

[jess128]

Thanks for the advice. I'll get some frozen foods and see how that goes. They seem to be exploring the tank more, this evening they discovered the left side! I'm not sure if one of the clowns is younger than the other, but the stripe closest to it's tail is not complete, it's just a little white mark on it's back. And whereas the other fish has black outlines and it's fins and stripes, this one doesn't. Will those come with time or is there something wrong!?

[Keen]

Thanks for the advice. I'll get some frozen foods and see how that goes. They seem to be exploring the tank more, this evening they discovered the left side! I'm not sure if one of the clowns is younger than the other, but the stripe closest to it's tail is not complete, it's just a little white mark on it's back. And whereas the other fish has black outlines and it's fins and stripes, this one doesn't. Will those come with time or is there something wrong!?

there is nothing wrong with the clown. i think it just a case of how the fish was born. kind of like humans, not all fish are born completely perfect. I would not worry about it, unless there are other things wrong with the fish, like sores or anything else out of the ordinary.

[jess128]

No, nothing else out of the ordonairy, just looks a little different from the majority. Thanks for the advice, and PS, they're still not eating.