kaytelacey

i have set up my 40-45 gallon saltwater fish tank 2 weeks ago. ihe have live rocks scattered in there. all my levels are reading normal and my temperature is fine. i have a heater and a good filter. i only have one other fish in there and its a blue damsel that has been in there for about a week.

i just bought this fish today and it was fine in the pet store and on the way home. i put the bag with the fish still in it in my aquarium so he would get used to the water temperature. i let him loose and he went right over to the damsel and they didnt bite or attack one another. after about 45 minutes in the tank he started to struggle swimming up! and he keeps going up as high as he can then sink back down and lay on his side. it seems like he has a weight attatched to his body and you can see it is tiring him out to struggle swimming up. what is going on?


(this has happened yesterday with a different damsel i had in the tank for about a week and it ended up dieing.)

harpua2002

Welcome to Fishlore.

It would be helpful if you could post actual readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. Stocking with fish 2 weeks in seems awfully fast to me (I didn't add my first fish for over 2 months after my tank cycled). What temp do you keep your tank at? What kind of filter are you using? How much live rock do you have, approximately? What is your salinity/specific gravity, and do you test it with a hydrometer or refractometer? How did you acclimate the clownfish exactly? Did you just equalize the temp and drop it in? Are you using tap water or RO/DI to mix your salt water? Did you get the other fish that died at the same pet store where you got your clown?

Sorry for all the questions, but the more info we have, the better chance we can help you figure out what is going on.

Hypnox

I'm interested in the acclimation process that was used as this sounds like a classic case of PH/Salinity shock.