Clownfish Acting Weird

[meagan1823]

Okay guys I don't know what is up with my clownfish.

Saturday morning I got up and they were in their usual sleeping spot. I turned on the lights, let the dogs out, and came back to the tank. The fish were acting crazy weird. They were just kind of floating everywhere, running into the glass, laying on the sandbed, swimming sideways, got stuck to the overflow, really weird stuff. I ran some tests (I am using API, i know not the best but its what I have) and
PH is 8.2
Ammonia was reading .25 ppm but im not sure my ammonia test kit is correct. There has been differences between my test kit and the fish stores where as mine read .25 and the fish store 0.
Nitrate 20 ppm

Since there was ammonia I put some prime in the top off water and added some to the tank. I also turned the lights off, turned off one of the powerheads and added an air pump to the back of the tank in case maybe the oxygen level was low?

All the inverts and corals seem fine. I have a peppermint shrimp, emerald crab, uchin, zoas, duncan, plate, and 2 maxi/mini anemones.

When we came home Saturday night they were swimming fine again so I took off the air pump but still left the one powerhead off.

Sunday they were fine, everything was normal, they were eating and swimming fine.

Now this morning they are acting weird again. Just kind of floating around and bumping into stuff.

Anybody have any suggestions? are they just being silly or does something sound wrong?

 

[rtirado]

Does it look like either of them is doing a "shaking" or vibrating its full body to the other one?

 

[meagan1823]

The male does his breeding jog but this is not that. This is just like free floating and running into the glass. The male also briefly laid on his side on the sandbed and got stuff to the overflow.

 

[rdnelson]

What type of filtration do you have on the tank? If it is a canister filter and you have little or no aggitation of the waters surface it could be to little gas exchange. From what I know (not a lot mind you) Prime will not rid the ammonia but will enhance the bacteria to deal with ammonia. While that may be a good thing it isn't immediate relief. If it were me, I would run a sample to the nearest LFS as soon as they open and tell them you suspect you may have an am problem. If the test they run shows any, there are some products that are supposed to remove it. What is the temp on the tank?

 

[saltbubbles]

I am very new to this but I have two Clarkii and I've seen them acting like that two times. Mine, it's usually when they dislike something or stress? When I first added them to my tank and they we're scared of a Fire Clownfish that I sold days later. and when I placed them in a QT tank to allow my tank to go fallow. As soon as they were back in their tank they were swiming happy. You think they're being picked on? Or maybe they were startled by light?

 

[meagan1823]

It is a red sea max tank and the filtration I have on it is a skimmer and just a carbon filter pad in the back chamber. The return has two litte pumps and return nozzles and one is pointed towards the surface and one is down.

On the bottle Prime says it removes ammonia? and deotixifes nitrite and nitrate?

It's hard for me to get a sample to the LFS during the week since they don't open before I have to be at work and its a 45 min drive back home from work and then another 45 min to go back to the LFS.

Nothing new has been added to the tank in over 2 weeks. I don't have any other fish.

I was wondering if the light coming on could startle them but its the same routine they have been on for the last month and it has never bothered them before?

Edit: Temperature is between 77-80 throughout the day

 

[rdnelson]

Not sure it would be the cause of what you are seeing but, try to get your temp stable. While how hot it gets can be an issue the bigger issue is the swings. If you are going from 77 to 80 on a rgular basis that isn't good. My tank maintains 80 during the winter months and 81 durring the summer. Not optimum but it doesn't change at all throughout the day which is good.

 

[gnashty]

Could be the lights stunning them. But just in case I'd step up those water changes if you think your water quality is not on par.