darkening clowns and flipping in inlaws!

hey people,

ive got a couple of quick questions here.

ive just come back from visiting "THE INLAWS" who have had a mini reef setup for about "3 weeks now.

the first question is that they bought a feather duster after just 1 WEEK of having the tank set up.(even though i said it wouldnt be wise) and after just 48 hours it had stuck one end of itself to the live rock then after another 24 hours left its shell altogether and is currently crawling/wiggling around the substrate!! what should i do to help them out? take it out and put it in my 2year old tank perhaps?im guessing its because the tank is no where near cycled etc yet?

the other issue they have is that they bought 2 common clownfish after just 2 WEEKS of having the tank set up. one of them in particular has gone very dark in colour(they where both apparently beautiful orange,hence they bought them i think).. i cant seem to find much on why they would darken,. all i will say though is that they are both eating etc fine, and otherwise seem happy. what would you guys suggest?

any help please as they dont seem to listen to me!!!lol. blinking in laws!!;D

 

I would efinatley take the feather duster out as for the clowns see what happens cause both of mine got dark and my tank was cycled best wishes

 

I agree, take the feather dusters out.

As for the clowns having them in there during the cycle is definitely not the best, but they are close to as tough as damsels and should pull through. Clowns are born male. It sounds like they got two males which have the bright orange coloration. When there are no females present in the system one will change to compensate. As females mature they tend to darken in color and get some more black markings on them.

 

ok i shall be heading over there later so i will take the duster out. as for the clowns i did suggest/think that was the case regarding which one would be the boss!!lol. the darker one is definately the slightly bigger one!
as i say they both in good health and not slowing down/not eating etc so i shall leave them be....

many thanks for you help people, i shall let you know later what ive done etc.(its a bit weird though seeing the duster crawling around)lol;D

 

You mention them getting more black markings on them - would that equate to small black "dots" here and there? My "apparent female" has gotten larger in girth and now has two small black spots on her tail.

 

hi all,little update but not a good one. now i really do detest my inlaws!!! i suggested taking the feather duster worm out of the little 30litre tank and putting it into my tank.bad idea, the response i got??? WELL IF IT DIES WE CAN ALWAYS BUY ANOTHER ONE!! and i dont fancy moving it all around in there!!! wtf!
not sure where i go from here, i guess im just going to watch it die . also bearing in mind the tank is 3 weeks old, he bought 2 more soft coral yesterday morning!!!i told him 3 days ago that the coral he bought after the 2nd week is already going home, give it time before you get any more, but wtf do i know!!!

it makes me annoyed/upset that these type of people can buy this stuff/not care and generally give all of us aquarists a bad name in the long run, i thought aquariums were meant to be life in a tank,not some piece of furniture.ggrrrr

 

Have you referred them to the forum? We can be pretty blunt about people adding things to early on here, and maybe it would help for them to hear it from a bunch of strangers.

 

it burns me up when I go to my LFS and there are people there buying like 5 fish and 3 corals and stuff - I don't car how big the tank is you need to go slow - and the people there will try to talk them out of it and they just ignore them - I think you get alot of rich people in this hobby that keep killing fish and when their buddies come over need to restock the tank so it looks cool.

 

i think that is the problem....the lfs. they are a bunch of w@"*ers. they sold them a 30litre cube tank with a 12watt light,internal "sponge" filter(fit 4 goldfish)! and a small v2 80 skimmer?? the skimmer wasn"t doing anything(no bubbles),so did some research into it for them and they were sold an underpowered powerhead!!! but this is my point i keep saying to them,look into it before you buy it!!now the amount of money they have spent on this 30litre tank they could of bought a very good 2nd hand setup with everything or newer/better setup!!!!

believe it or not but i did actually say to them to join this site as its where ive gained alot of valuable knowledge/experiences etc..... obviously it went down like a ton of bricks, and sadly i think your right,its a look at me point in the house..

personally from now on, im not going to get involved with them regarding the tank and if anything show my discontent with them and there ways about it.

my only outlook on it now really is that the NOVELTY as it were will wear off in a month or two when the nitrates algae etc start building up and the real maintenance begins! just a shame what damage will be done before that point though!!

 

My clown and Regal tang, both got very dark in color after adding them to my tank, I never found out what caused it, but they seem fine.

A couple people told me that it was the diet, and putting lettuce in there would help, but They never seemed to take to the lettuce.