My clown has gone insane!!!!

[testhead1313]

AAAARGH... My A. polymnus that I've had for over two years has lost his marbles. He has been kept with a pair of false percs and a maroon clown for nearly a year and a half. About 4-5 months ago, the agression became to great, and he got his own "time out" tank. I drilled a 6 gallon Eclipse and have it gravity fed into the main tank. It is acting as a refugium as well, with several types of caulerpa. He has been fine, eating great, looking happy with his new pad, but now he's nuts! He is diving into the caulerpa and burying himself half in the sand. This is not a hosting behavior, that's for sure. It looks like he's trying to commit suicide! When he dives in, he just sits there for a long long time until I tap on the tank, then he goes spactic and runs into all of the corners of the tank and jumps out of the water (thankfully the lid is on). What the heck is going on??? I just did a water change over the weekend. This tank has been problem free (except agression, but that was solved months ago.) in fact, the tank and all of it's inhabitants have been moved from Wisconsin to here a little less than two years ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm off to check params, but the main tank looks great... is he just lonely???

 

[testhead1313]

Okay,
salinity at 1.024
pH at 7.8 (always low)
ammonia 0
nitrates less than 0.3

What else could be wrong??

 

[pantinor]

sounds like some beahvoiur I read about in the clownfishes book (joyce ??). Maybe it has a sickness or parasite, or else feeling some pain somewhere.

 

[testhead1313]

I see no external parasites, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have one (possibly internal as well). I am beginning to think that he just has some of these hissy fits. I will come home some days to find grains of sand imbedded in his forehead(they stay there for weeks). And a year ago I found him stuck with his head inside my BTA's mouth. I had to physically pull him out of the anemone. He was stung/stratched/digested pretty bad, but he made a full recovery. Has anyone else had experience with A. polymnus? Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[NateHanson]

Could it be that he's stressed out by the small size of the tank?

 

[testhead1313]

That's possible, he is roughly 2.75" long, so he's a full size adult. I am a few weeks away from getting my 58 running, so his situation should improve soon. It seems like he has calmed down now (I'm not sure I have yet, though), I will give you an update in the morning. Thanks
Chris

 

[testhead1313]

Well, he made it through the night just fine, so I will just keep an eye on him for the next couple of days and see what happens.

 

[~Flighty~]

Well, animals are not like people, Mrs. Simpson. Some of them act badly because they've had a hard life, or have been mistreated...but, like people, some of them are just jerks. Stop that, Mr. Simpson. [Homer butts the warden repeatedly]

Just kidding. I have no idea, but it is interesting. It does sound a little like hosting behaviour, or he's really itchy for some reason. Could you put a cleaner shrimp or neon goby in with him for a masage

 

[scavdog]

How about stray voltage?

 

[testhead1313]

All are very good possibilities. I posted this on the Clown forum on RC and two people mentioned that their experiences with A.polymnus show that they are nervous fish and definately need more space than what he (she) has. I've had cabin fever before, but I've never smashed my head into a wall (although I was close with the weather we've been having... I got a whallop of endorphins today though ). The new tank should be up and running within the month, so we'll see how he (she) does with that. I never mentioned that "his" name is Tard, did I? We knew from the start he was something special .