Clownfish laying together, hiding

I have a Nanocube HQI 28 gal tank, running almost a year. This is my first tank and I have not had a problem like this so far. I have 2 ocellaris clown fish (1 orange, 1 black), a royal gramma, a diamond goby and various hermit crabs and snails. The last fish we added was the gramma a few months ago and everyone was doing fine. All 4 fish would swim together at feeding time and all had a healthy appetite. I came home yesterday from work and noticed my clowns especially acting strange. They usually "greet and follow" us when ever we are near the tank, but instead they would hover in the back of the tank under some rocks. Our goby was also laying near them with his mouth open the whole time. When I tried to feed them last night, none of them came out to eat when before they gobble the food up. I checked my water last night and ammonia and nitrite were 0, pH 7.8 (low I know), nitrates 60 and spec gravity 1.025 temp stable around 79F. I had completed a water change 3 days before. I went ahead a did 8 gal water change last night and now the pH is back to normal and nitrates at 30. Today my clowns are laying right next eachother under the same rock in the sand. The black clown did eat a little bit of the food that came to him and my orange one did not eat. This is just very odd behavior coming from usually very "social" fish. Also, if this information helps, I've noticed our clowns trying to host our frogspawn over the past week or so and our gramma has been displaying "aggressive" behavior toward them (opening his mouth very wide) when they are hosting. Do you have any idea what could be going on? Could they be mating? Could the frogspawn have stung them?

Here's a link of the video, they are behind my curious royal gramma.

clowns - YouTube

PARAMETERS (Now)
Temperature: 79
PH: 8.3 (now)
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:30
Spec Gravity: 1.025
Test Kit: API (Liquid)
Are they Expired?: No
Tank size? 28
Reef, fish only or, freshwater? Reef

Current inhabitants? What and how many? 4 fish,1 orange and 1 black ocellaris clowns, royal gramma and diamond goby
Clean up crew? snails and crabs

How long has your tank been set-up? approx 1 year

Substrate.
Type? Live sand
Depth? approx 2 inches

Live rock? yes
How much? approx 25 lbs
Did you recently add some? No

Filtration.
Type? Whatever came with my nanocube
Protein skimmer? No

Lighting.
Lighting type? metal hallide
Age of bulbs? approx 1 year

Feeding
What? flakes and Rod's
How much? size of quarter
How often? once daily for flakes and Rods a couple days a week (flakes not given these days)

Water change schedule.
How much? 5 gal
How often? every 2 weeks
Water source? premixed saltwater from LFS

Additives/supplements used? pH Buffer

 

Welcome to 3reef.

I viewed the video and that does seem like odd behavior and the Royal Gramma does look to be showing aggression.

For now or as soon as possible I would remove or re-home the Royal Gramma. If you see an improvement than you know that was the issue.

I have your brand of tank with those types of clowns and at one time a Royal Gramma with them. Most Royal Grammas are somewhat passive and I personally never had an issue. In small tanks the rules change everyone needs a comfortable territory and sometimes it just does not work out.

That does not look like typical pre-spawning behavior to me. Typically the female needs to be around two years of age. You will see a lot of activity and cleaning around one area, rock, anemone.... of the tank.

 

Is it normal for all of the fish to get along fine for months and then all of a sudden literally overnight hide from eachother? Normally they would all be up swimming around together and now it looks like we have no fish in our tank!

 

My clowns would retreat sometimes to the back and corner of the tank for weeks on end but they always ate unless something was drastically wrong.

As clowns mature they do change considerably in their behaviors.

It's the not eating part that bothers me and the bravado the Royal Gramma showed in the video as well as your description.

 

I finally got them to eat some flakes but they just acted very skittish, I'm going to keep an eye on them and see how it goes. Thanks for the info!

 

With just that short video, I could only see one clown but it looked healthy, just a little frightened.....that is strange that they would be scared that quickly though....perhaps the gramma just went insane and became aggressive......it did look pretty aggressive in that sort vid.....I'm obviously kidding about the insane part but perhaps there was some sort of territorial fight that happened that caused the clowns to be skiddish and changed the dynamics of the trio....

 

I looked more closely at the area where they have been hiding and there is a white mass down on the sand under a rock ledge. Is it possible they spawned? I know their eggs are normally orange though...

 

I think the eggs are usually orange as well....could they be getting ready to spawn though? how old are they - do you have any idea?

 

They are about a year old, we bought them as babies. They've been coming out a lot more but keep retreating to the same spot when the lights come on. Even when they eat they wont come over very far from their spot.

 

I don't think that is old enough to spawn but I'm not sure....I know from what I've read that clowns will stay near an area and "prep" it to lay a hatch....It sounds like they are eating now though? I think it could be preparing for a hatch (although not likely based on age but could be wrong) or that they are fearful of your gramma......can you remove the gramma and see what happens with the clowns?