Clown colonies

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

Looking for advice on how to do this and be successful.

I have an 8 foot tank and want to add about 20 clown fish to it.

I'd like to have some variety of clowns if possible and if any pair I will move them out and sell them off.

Zack K · Apr 10, 2017

@randyBRS and the BRS team put together a clown fish Anemone Tank in their office. They have 30 clownfish with numerous anemones.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBaMLrfToJyxQ2ssQRPnmwFOJ2Qp8NBHi

Untamedrose · Apr 10, 2017

its ok if you get a pair. In the wild they live like that, whole bunch of beta males, one full male and one female. There will be some fighting as they figure out who is the top two...if you remove them everytime they figure that out. Its just never going to work.

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

Zack Klabunde said:
@randyBRS and the BRS team put together a clown fish Anemone Tank in their office. They have 30 clownfish with numerous anemones.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBaMLrfToJyxQ2ssQRPnmwFOJ2Qp8NBHi

Thanks for the link it was educational. Might not get the variety I want but still will look cool. I may up my numbers to 40 with the size of my tank compared to there tank

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

Untamedrose said:
its ok if you get a pair. In the wild they live like that, whole bunch of beta males, one full male and one female. There will be some fighting as they figure out who is the top two...if you remove them everytime they figure that out. Its just never going to work.

Ok will have to watch as long as the pair is not killing t the other ones in fine worth or staying in the tank.

wkscott · Apr 10, 2017

Not to mention that trying to catch and remove 38 clowns would be a real PITA.

davocean · Apr 10, 2017

The way BRS did it, basically the same as Moberts 27 clown tank, all from the same clutch is best.
If you want variety you could do a bunch of picasso's or snowflakes or something so while they are all the same species from same clutch, at least they will all have different patterns and markings

davocean · Apr 10, 2017

Here's a FB page I follow, lots of breeders on here, I'd see if you can buy a group of them from someone on here so they are all young and from same clutch.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClownfishMarketplace/

bairdimusprime · Apr 10, 2017

that many clowns will require MULTIPLE anemones, they will need areas to retreat to once they mature and develop their hierarchy

davocean · Apr 10, 2017

Or a gynormous one!
I just saw a guy post a mertensi on another site that was 3' in diameter, probably enough nem for all, Mobert had multiple BTA's.
It would be nice to have a natural host match for whatever species of clown you decide on if you can.

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

bairdimusprime said:
that many clowns will require MULTIPLE anemones, they will need areas to retreat to once they mature and develop their hierarchy

I plan to have about 15 bta I hope that as they split I can sell the ones I don't see being hosted

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

davocean said:
Or a gynormous one!
I just saw a guy post a mertensi on another site that was 3' in diameter, probably enough nem for all, Mobert had multiple BTA's.
It would be nice to have a natural host match for whatever species of clown you decide on if you can.

I will have multiple type of nems as the main source of taking up space in the tank along with s few soft corals.

jamie callard · Apr 10, 2017

I also plan to have the tank set on a feeder 4 times a day for pellet and will also target feed my nems and corals twice s week. I may even do some frozen food everyone day for the fish. I'd rather over feed to keep agresion down and let my sump and cleanup crew do it's job.

Solracju · Apr 11, 2017

This is a 200 gallon tank I maintain for a client. He has about 30+ clownfish and when they were juveniles they hung out together. Then they got to be about 2 - 2.5"

randyBRS · Apr 11, 2017

jamie callard said:
Looking for advice on how to do this and be successful.
I have an 8 foot tank and want to add about 20 clown fish to it.
I'd like to have some variety of clowns if possible and if any pair I will move them out and sell them off.

Hey there!

Lots of sound advice here! I think the shear amount of BTanemones we have in our harem tank is the major saving grace from aggression. There have been a few anemone splits that we've shared around the office, but that wasn't until there was an established one in nearly every nook and cranny.

Good luck and please keep us posted with a build thread!!

-Randy

davocean · Apr 11, 2017

jamie callard said:
I also plan to have the tank set on a feeder 4 times a day for pellet and will also target feed my nems and corals twice s week. I may even do some frozen food everyone day for the fish. I'd rather over feed to keep agresion down and let my sump and cleanup crew do it's job.

Just be aware excessive or overfeeding BTA's specifically can and most likely will induce splitting, that may be a good thing at first but there may come a time when you are wall to wall nem and may want to curb that some, really w/ good lighting spot feeding is not a must.
I also advise small easily digestable foods like mysis as probably best and least stressful.
I rarely spot feed, but I do feed my fish heavy, and my nems will pick up some, and maybe once a month or every other month I may feed a small piece of scallop, or if I want a nem to grow faster I may do that once a week maybe, but that is mainly for nems other than BTA as most others do not split naturally or out of stress.

davocean · Apr 11, 2017

randyBRS said:
Hey there!

Lots of sound advice here! I think the shear amount of BTanemones we have in our harem tank is the major saving grace from aggression. There have been a few anemone splits that we've shared around the office, but that wasn't until there was an established one in nearly every nook and cranny.

Good luck and please keep us posted with a build thread!!

-Randy

BRS has become absolutely my favorite source for both products and informative vids, they really raise the bar as customer service goes, thanks guys!

jamie callard · Apr 11, 2017

davocean said:
Just be aware excessive or overfeeding BTA's specifically can and most likely will induce splitting, that may be a good thing at first but there may come a time when you are wall to wall nem and may want to curb that some, really w/ good lighting spot feeding is not a must.
I also advise small easily digestable foods like mysis as probably best and least stressful.
I rarely spot feed, but I do feed my fish heavy, and my nems will pick up some, and maybe once a month or every other month I may feed a small piece of scallop, or if I want a nem to grow faster I may do that once a week maybe, but that is mainly for nems other than BTA as most others do not split naturally or out of stress.

My goal is to have the nems split and eventually sell once there are more nems then fish