clown hard time swimming,not eating

Got him today lfs said my tank water is good to go . let him float for about 30mins filled his bag with my water every 5mins then scooped him out. soon as i let him in he was hiding in the live rock . then about 2 mins later he came out and was swimming near the top ( like above my tank boarder) tried feeding him some blood worms and it he wont take them. now its 5am and he's slowly swimming above my powerheads and heater, seems he wont venture down into the liverock anymore any ideas?

 

Initial reefer

sounds pretty normal to me, they can take a couple of days to get over the initial fear of being in a new enviroment

is this the 1st fish in the tank? as often the 1st fish takes the longest to settle, having no other fish about to give them the all clear signal
How big is the tank?
when was it set up?

Steve

 

this is my 1st fish, tank is a week old used bio spya and fulled cycled rock.

 

its 55 gallon

 

I agree with Steve. Could take a few days to settle in. One suggestion, would be to get your own test kits and test your water yourself. One, it is just a real good habit to get into and two, sometimes LFS' will tell us "your water is good" just to sell something. Clownfish are usually pretty hardy.

 

Wise investment would definitely be your own test kit. Can get a decent one from online for less than 30 bucks. Reason being, with the tank only a week old, there's really no telling what's going on with the chemistry. While I agree clowns are normally pretty hardy, I'm kinda surprised your LFS suggested adding one this early in your tanks life.

Keep an eye on him, be careful not to overfeed just because you're worried, and be patient. One of the most important things(maybe the most important) in having a successful reef tank is patience.

Let us know how it goes.

 

i have a test kit ,but i just wanted a second opinion. I think he ate today got him some first flake . He still wont swim near the rocks tho, think its the oxygen levels ? my tank is a 55g tall

 

mine spend a lot of time near the surface, especially when they're tired. Mine sleeps at the surface next to the filter part that sucks the water in. The suction from the pump holds him against the filter so he doesnt have to swin at all - lazy bugger! hes done that for nearly a year now

 

he is now a happy clown fish, he now swims in the rocks and eats fine.

Mika- funny you say that he was doing the same thing sitting on top of the powerhead and not swimming then he was near the overflow he would let his tale get sucked in and just hang there. I would poke the water and he would move so i guess he's just lazy also.

another thing i had a question on was i got a coral shrimp and he died within a couple hours guess my salt was too high? i floated him for about an hour.

cool think is tho i retured him and they are gonna give me 50% off my next fish