Which should I add first, the anemone or the clownfish? I mean, if I added the clownfish first, will it ever host the anemone if it will be added few months later? plus, my tank is 2 month old, can I add an anemone?
anemone first? or clownfish first?
- Thread starter Tony13
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saltyphish
Certified Sand Groomer
In all honesty I don't think it will matter. But I would add the nem first just in case I am wrong. Wife swears it happens all the time. Either way still no guarantees. My clowns have never even looked at my nem it seems. My plan to fix that is to get rid of everything they are hosting and just add more nems. Maybe they will get the idea then.
Not a good idea to add a nem anytime soon. You need to wait until the tank is around 6 Months old and showing good coralline algae growth. There's no guarantee the nem will ever host a clown, but it's likely.
saltyphish
Certified Sand Groomer
Agreed, didn't see the 2 mth part sorry.
ryarnall3772
Community Member
Me and my tank are kinda new..at about 3 months my wife and I impulse purchased a rbta and clown that were already paired. .unfortunately the clown for some unknown reason died a week later..a month or so later I purchased a tank setup from someone. .it just happened to have a m/f pair of fire clowns in the tank. .added them to my dt..it took a couple weeks but my rbta and female are together and doing great. .not sure if this is normal or not..just my experience
You can add the anemone just watch it I have three tanks set up less then 4 months and I have 9 anemones in a tank set up for three days as long as you watch them and take care of the tank and them then they will live.
robert
Valuable Member
When I set up my current tank, I added 13 tiny BTAs just as soon as the water was mixed and the tank was filled.
In a new tank you don't have a base of nitrifying bacteria but BTAs (and clams) love ammonia. They will take considerable ammonia out of the water to feed their zoox directly, thats the benefit that nems get by hosting a clown. Nems pretty much only take up ammonia but not nitrate. Clams will use ammonia first - and if there is none will fall back to consuming nitrate.
Even if you don't have a clown, the anemone will use the ammonia produced by the other inhabitants of the tank. This can help you in stocking young tanks which haven't fully cycled or have just recently cycled but lack nitrifying capacity.
I'm not sure why others insist that tanks must be a "certain age" before you include your first BTA, I've not found this to be true. Its actualy easier if you add them early as they will help with nutrients and will inhibit algae growth in their general vacinity through allelopathic mechanisms.
Add the anenome first - or the clown and anenome together - or several anenomes and a few fish. BTAs are good first inhabitants as long as you don't feed them.
In a new tank you don't have a base of nitrifying bacteria but BTAs (and clams) love ammonia. They will take considerable ammonia out of the water to feed their zoox directly, thats the benefit that nems get by hosting a clown. Nems pretty much only take up ammonia but not nitrate. Clams will use ammonia first - and if there is none will fall back to consuming nitrate.
Even if you don't have a clown, the anemone will use the ammonia produced by the other inhabitants of the tank. This can help you in stocking young tanks which haven't fully cycled or have just recently cycled but lack nitrifying capacity.
I'm not sure why others insist that tanks must be a "certain age" before you include your first BTA, I've not found this to be true. Its actualy easier if you add them early as they will help with nutrients and will inhibit algae growth in their general vacinity through allelopathic mechanisms.
Add the anenome first - or the clown and anenome together - or several anenomes and a few fish. BTAs are good first inhabitants as long as you don't feed them.
ryarnall3772
Community Member
Robert- why not feed them?
robert
Valuable Member
Photosynthetic anenomies are like corals - not one creature, but two. The animal portion - if unfed will absorb nutrients from the water in the form of ammonia and some phosphate to feed its guest zooxanthellae who in return will produce the carbon compoounds the anenomie needs to grow.
If you directly feed the nem it will use the ingested food and will itself produce more waste products than its zoox need - the excess will be released into the water column. So they help you only if you keep them reliant on their guest algae for their carbon requirements.
Also when we do feed anenomies, we tend to overfeed and what they can't use they usually just spit back out and this tends to foul the system.
So unfed nems are a nutrient sink - which helps a young tank. Anenomies should get enough nutrients in the form of ammonia - scraps - and other fish wastes.
They'll take the extra food if given - but they don't need it and neither does the tank.
Somewhere I found the figures for how many grams of anenome it takes to absorb the ammonia produced by N of grams of clown fish. I can probably dig it up if your interested - but it only works for unfed nems.
If you directly feed the nem it will use the ingested food and will itself produce more waste products than its zoox need - the excess will be released into the water column. So they help you only if you keep them reliant on their guest algae for their carbon requirements.
Also when we do feed anenomies, we tend to overfeed and what they can't use they usually just spit back out and this tends to foul the system.
So unfed nems are a nutrient sink - which helps a young tank. Anenomies should get enough nutrients in the form of ammonia - scraps - and other fish wastes.
They'll take the extra food if given - but they don't need it and neither does the tank.
Somewhere I found the figures for how many grams of anenome it takes to absorb the ammonia produced by N of grams of clown fish. I can probably dig it up if your interested - but it only works for unfed nems.
MT. Reefer
Mt.Reefer
Tank raised clowns will not automatically host a nem. It took my Snowflake 4 months to figure it out and now it lives in there with her smaller mate.
My Maroon took about 8 weeks and now only darts in and out to get food. Personally, I would put the nem in first but I'm really not sure if it makes a difference. Remember that BTA's like light. A lot of light.
My Maroon took about 8 weeks and now only darts in and out to get food. Personally, I would put the nem in first but I'm really not sure if it makes a difference. Remember that BTA's like light. A lot of light.
