I think my clown has PTSD from the LFS

Alex's Nano Reef · Feb 6, 2022

I am about 2 weeks-3weeks in having fish in the tank. got two clownfish the female is a frostbite bullethole and the male is a davinci. When i got the davinci he was missing a fin on his belly and had a red cut on the left side of his lower lip. over the past two weeks all that had healed up by itself. I am planning on adding some coral come this Tuesday and i was tinkering with my kessil. I threw it up on the gooseneck and turned it on just to see the tank with light for the first time. Immediately my davinci clown swam to the bottom and hid himself in a little crevice as soon as I saw this I freaked out a little. but as soon as the light turned off he swam back up into the current and was happy as a clam. my theory is the tank he was kept in had kessils on it aswell plus he was getting bullied in there pretty bad to be missing a fin and have a big gash on his lip. possibly PTSD? anyone encounter such behavior with clowns.

Mr_Knightley · Feb 6, 2022

Alex's Nano Reef said:
I am about 2 weeks-3weeks in having fish in the tank. got two clownfish the female is a frostbite bullethole and the male is a davinci. When i got the davinci he was missing a fin on his belly and had a red cut on the left side of his lower lip. over the past two weeks all that had healed up by itself. I am planning on adding some coral come this Tuesday and i was tinkering with my kessil. I threw it up on the gooseneck and turned it on just to see the tank with light for the first time. Immediately my davinci clown swam to the bottom and hid himself in a little crevice as soon as I saw this I freaked out a little. but as soon as the light turned off he swam back up into the current and was happy as a clam. my theory is the tank he was kept in had kessils on it aswell plus he was getting bullied in there pretty bad to be missing a fin and have a big gash on his lip. possibly PTSD? anyone encounter such behavior with clowns.

It was the sudden light appearing overhead that scared him, not some sort of PTSD. There's no way that a fish would recognize the exact spectrum of a Kessil, let alone even be able to tell LED from T5 or MH. My fish scatter when a light is suddenly turned on, it's shocking to just about everything in the tank. Just leave the light on and the clown will adjust pretty quick.