Anemone Lighting
- Thread starter 40g Nano
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When you put the fish in, you'll be increasing your bio load. I pretty much put all mine in at once. The clownfish a few days before the nem.
7 clownfish is a bit more load, but I still think I would try them all at the same time. Make sure you add some bacteria whenever you do it.
But there are some other concerns.
First, make sure you have a backup place. When I bought my nem, I informed the LFS I bought it from what I was doing. So that in case things didn't go well, I would have a place to keep it and let my tank mature more. He agreed he would keep it as long as I needed. Fortunately, I never needed to do it.
Also, how big is the nem? If you put 7 clownfish in with a tiny 2 inch nem, they will most likely kill the nem and each other. Likewise, if you put 7 clownfish in there and you don't have enough anemones for them, they will likely fight over and it and kill them all.
Cover your powerheads. I used panty hose. After the nem found it's place, I took them off again. But you don't want it getting shredded, so cover them.
Do not force it to go where you want it. It will go where it wants to go. You can maybe change some flow around, but it will find a spot it wants.
You don't have to feed them. But if you do feed them, given them small bites. Don't stick an entire silverside in there, it won't go well.
j.falk
Valuable Member
What are you talking about? The discussion has nothing to do with anemones. It's the clownfish harem that the tank is TOO SMALL for.
It would only be a matter of bioload. My 2 clownfish won't even move 3 inches away from the nem they are hosted by for food, with 1 exception. The rest of the tank goes unused.
The 1 exception is if I put my arm in the tank. Then they attack me.
What are you talking about? The discussion has nothing to do with anemones. It's the clownfish harem that the tank is TOO SMALL for.
A 24" cube is about 44 gallons right?
I have clownfish hosted by anemones and they NEVER leave the anemone. The main concern would be bioload, not swimming space.
j.falk
Valuable Member
It would only be a matter of bioload. My 2 clownfish won't even move 3 inches away from the nem they are hosted by for food, with 1 exception. The rest of the tank goes unused.
The 1 exception is if I put my arm in the tank. Then they attack me.
Yes I got that. You have a PAIR of clownfish...not a HAREM.
Yeah, you have to make sure there is anemone room for all of them. Make sure you get them young, and you'll have to maintain bioload.
Have you seen the BRS video of their tank? I recommend watching it if not.
j.falk
Valuable Member
You are missing the point, a paired up set of clownfish will kill off the rest of the other clownfish in a tank if there is not enough room. Go drop another clownfish in with your pair and see what happens first hand.
If I was going to try for more than 2 clownfish in there, I would add them all at the same time. It's a matter of planning.
It wouldn't matter what size my tank was if I tried to add more clownfish after the others were established. Hell, I wouldn't add ANY fish to my tank, even though the clownfish never leave the anemone. Might try a goby at best, but no plans for that.
So what you propose would be an issue, but not for the reason you say. You need to introduce a bunch of juveniles and you need to add them together. It would be a problem due to poor planning. This guy is trying to get help properly planning things.
Getting a bunch of babies before any of them sex seems to be what the more successful people do. That's what I did with my pair also. When they were younger there were some pecking order being established. They will shake a lot towards each other and things like that. But now it's clear which one is the female and which one is the male, so none of that goes on anymore.
Fish are usually much less aggressive when they are young.
