Ive added two clowns to my 14 gal. bio cube. My zenia and duncan have not been the same since. What have I done and how do I fix it? Im freakn out!!
Your going to have to remove either the clowns or the coral. You will need to get an anemone for the clowns and remove the coral until the clowns make the anemone there home. Then you may be able to put the coral back in and there is a good chance the clowns won't mess with the coral any more. But the problem is 14 gallons of room is really not alot of room for the anemone. You may entertain taking the clowns back until you can get a bigger tank. I have had clowns kill long tentacle plate corals before and I took the clowns back and got an anemone and the only problem I've got now is to many anemones.
I see your from Benton. It just soes happens that I purchased tha clowns 2 day's ago from paradise pets, dyou think they will take them back?
I don't see why not, Kevin will work with you on it. I don't know if he will give you your money back or store credit. If not I could hold the coral or the clowns for you until you are ready for them. Just let me know if you need any help.
gill - when you say "Ive added two clowns to my 14 gal. bio cube. My zenia and duncan have not been the same since" exactly what do you mean... by not the same since... My 1st thought... is the problem could be more related to bio-load... but that just my guess... adding two clowns to a 14 gal tank is a huge increase in bio-load... are you testing? Can you post your tanks test numbers? How often are you changing water & what amounts? Are you running any carbon? If so how old is it? Are the two clownfish the only fish in the tank? How old is your tank? Anemone require a well established tank 9-12 months old & also have high light requirements... Could be a zenia and duncan are just reacting to the new bio-load... anyway that would be my 1st guess. Hope this helps...
Nano has a point, and he has nano cubes and I have never, but having said that since this happened in 2 days I doubt bioload is the culprit. It sounds like your saying what Sam has said,that the clowns are trying to home in the corals and are keeping them from polyping out. I would do as Sam said and see if you can't return them and go with something that won't try to nest in them. Don't freak out though you have plenty of time.
I would not suspect that bioload is the problem, more that the clowns are looking to host and upsetting the corals. Clowns can even do in an anemone if it is new to a tank with clowns already present. I think that it was Melov's Reef where I read his account of adding an anemone that his maroon clown attacked for a host. He tried over the corse of several months to cordon off the anemone alone with other solutions ultimately with no success and the anemone perished.
