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Help-long lost clown reappears

E

ERaquarists

This is incredible and I don't know what to do. I came home today and as I always do I go over to the tank and check on the boys & girls (fish inhabitants). To my surprise I noticed that one of my pair of clowns was hiding underneath one of the rocks so i immediately thought that there must be something wrong with my water parameters (reason being that two days earlier I stopped seeing my Dottyback). Then out of the corner of my right eye I saw my pair of clowns swimming together, to which I then let out a "HOLLY $HIT!!, WTF!!, OMG!!".
Now let me give you a little history. Last summer during the heat wave of July the tank temperature rose to 83 during the day. I did everything to cool it down but I noticed that one of my clowns was in distress. That night we heard thrashing in the tank after the lights were off. The next morning the clown was gone and never to be seen again..UNTIL NOW!!! The funny thing is that my dotty back is back along with the missing clown. Where were they? Did the dottyback go looking for the clown because it's been missing it all these months? Was the clown in the overflow and just flowed out? The poor fish is now cowaring under a rock fearing for its life. Will the clown pair murder it? I shudder to think that.

During the time I lost that clown I got another clown to maintain the pair. This new pair didn't get along at first but are now lovey dovey. Is three a crowd? What can I do to protect my long lost clown? Keep in mind that it looks healthy and unharmed.

Can this clown survive in the refugium? I don't have a quarantine tank. Any suggestions? Has anyone had this experience before?
 
adesimone1

adesimone1

Congrats on finding your fish. I would just watch them they might get along. I have 2 pair of clowns in my 93 and they all hang out together
 
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Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
I will also check with the wife in case she wanted to surprise ya! Any B'day or anniversary that you might have forgotten ?
LOL - Just Kidding.

Congrats on finding the clown. It could have been in the overflow..
 
E

ERaquarists

monroereef said:
I will also check with the wife in case she wanted to surprise ya! Any B'day or anniversary that you might have forgotten ?
LOL - Just Kidding.

Congrats on finding the clown. It could have been in the overflow..
Click to expand...

LOLOLOL-I actually did just have a birthday (20th) but my wife said "no way, with acclimation, getting in the tank?"
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

We have a goby that LOVES the back chambers of our 12g. It got so bad, we moved him to a different tank. We have had 3 gobies and two pistol shrimp relocate themselves to the back chambers of our 12g, and just last week, our linkia relocated itself into the overflow in our 45g. My vote is the overflow. Glad he has reappeared for you!
 
E

ERaquarists

NikkiT said:
We have a goby that LOVES the back chambers of our 12g. It got so bad, we moved him to a different tank. We have had 3 gobies and two pistol shrimp relocate themselves to the back chambers of our 12g, and just last week, our linkia relocated itself into the overflow in our 45g. My vote is the overflow. Glad he has reappeared for you!
Click to expand...

Thanks Nikkit, that is very funy...its just amazing that this clown lived in the overflow for 7 months..i would have thought the stress would have killed him.
I'm thinking of now adding another clown so that it can pair up with this one. But should i wait till it re-acclinates itself to being back in the main tank?
 
F

Flare1185

I would check in the next few days to see if the current pair show any aggression against the reappeared clown. I have a trio myself and I introduced the last clown a few months after my clowns has paired up. The dominate couple are even spawning like clockworks. Do you have anything the clowns are hosting? I have a few btas that they jump back and forth.
 
E

ERaquarists

Flare1185 said:
I would check in the next few days to see if the current pair show any aggression against the reappeared clown. I have a trio myself and I introduced the last clown a few months after my clowns has paired up. The dominate couple are even spawning like clockworks. Do you have anything the clowns are hosting? I have a few btas that they jump back and forth.
Click to expand...


This is great news!!....I dont have any anemones in the tank but i have been thinking of adding one now for a while.
Maybe this should be my buy.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

i have 3 clowns...albeit one is the actual child of the female. I got lazy towards the end about selling my captive-bred guys and just tried to see if it would be ok in the display tank. The male (no relation) is the one that chases it every so often, but it's too busy tending to eggs to be bothered. The juvi just does the submission dance and all seems ok. Are they all the same species? Every tank will be different - some say it's WWIII and others say it's do-able. Good luck!
 
E

ERaquarists

Hawkeye said:
i have 3 clowns...albeit one is the actual child of the female. I got lazy towards the end about selling my captive-bred guys and just tried to see if it would be ok in the display tank. The male (no relation) is the one that chases it every so often, but it's too busy tending to eggs to be bothered. The juvi just does the submission dance and all seems ok. Are they all the same species? Every tank will be different - some say it's WWIII and others say it's do-able. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Hi Phil,
Actually the re-appeared clown and one of the mated i got from you. But they are all OCP's.
 
E

ERaquarists

Well one of the things that i hoped would not happen has happened...the mated clown pair and the Yellow Tail damsel all ganged up on the re-emerged clown..it was like they said "who is this intruder in our tank?".
She was lucky i was home and caught this attack before they shredded her to pieces, I caught her and i know have her in the refugium temporarily. Today my wife told the story to a friend and they recommended building a partition in the tank..its a good idea but for how long as this is not a permanent solution.
My thoughts are now to get her into another tank (10G) and make her healthy and strong and then either sell or give away.
 
fatoldsun

fatoldsun

NJRC Member
I have a clown that someone gave me when I bought a wrasse from him - I had a LARGE GSMC (maybe you remember when you saw the tank) the new guy was in about 24 hours before the GSMC made him her biaaa-tch. If you listened with your ear to the glass you could hear her tell him to call her ‘Daddy’. :) Anyway, I quickly moved him to the refugium and he couldn't be happier down there - My kids are happy to visit because they are too little to see into the DT without me picking them up. I also added a biopellet reactor so I may be losing the chaeto freeing up more space in the fuge. All I need is a better light and it may become a small frag tank too - I can't seem to keep any zoas in y DT - I guess the angel picks at them too much - I think if I had good lighting, some zoas, a small rbta and the clown would all be pretty happy down there long term. If I was allowed to add a nano in the house somewhere that would work too but so far I've been told no repeatedly

Point is, he’s in my nano and seems just fine down there – i did make an eggcreate top to keep him in the water
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

ERaquarists said:
Well one of the things that i hoped would not happen has happened...the mated clown pair and the Yellow Tail damsel all ganged up on the re-emerged clown..it was like they said "who is this intruder in our tank?".
She was lucky i was home and caught this attack before they shredded her to pieces, I caught her and i know have her in the refugium temporarily. Today my wife told the story to a friend and they recommended building a partition in the tank..its a good idea but for how long as this is not a permanent solution.
My thoughts are now to get her into another tank (10G) and make her healthy and strong and then either sell or give away.
Click to expand...

A 10g should work fine, sounds like you have a good plan to me.
 
E

ERaquarists

Thanks guys ( fatoldsum & NikkiT), I do remember the GSMC it was beautiful. Well i advised my wife of my plans for the clown and she gave me an emphatic "No WAY!! are you getting rid of her, she's been to hell and back and to hell again", "i love her"...so it looks like I'll be getting rid of some cheato to make more room for her to swim in....I appreciate the support guys, the shock of seeing a fish come back after 7 months is something I’ll never forget and it looks like this is a First time for everyone out there as well.
 
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