I'm new to this site and to this hobby as well. I have a 36-gallon tank with caribsea arag-alive bahamas oolite aquarium sand, one lighting marron and two clarkki, I notice the lighting marron kicking up sand to the point where the glass at the bottom is showing. My question is why do they do that and how to stop that because I'm having to move the sand back whenever that happens.
clownfish and sand substrate
- Thread starter kofi
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Actually, I'd be more concerned about how that maroon is going to tolerate the clarkki clownfish when it gets bigger. You may have a blood bath on your hands. Maroons don't tolerate other clowns in their tanks well when they get big. Of course, there are exceptions, but it's not the norm in my understanding.
Still, I remember feeling similarly when I set up my first saltwater tank! I was so careful placing the rock and decorations in my tank to make them look perfect to my liking, and when any fish dared to disrupt my arrangements, I had to fix their mischief right away. I came to understand overtime that fish getting comfortable in their surroundings WILL rearrange. In the same way that I move my couch, TV, and table and chairs in my rooms to best suite my needs, your fish will rearrange to best suite their needs. IMO, the behavior is a sign of a happy fish. It's just doing what comes naturally...cleaning and setting up house. LOL
With that said, you have several options.
You can let your fish enjoy its new digs by arranging things the way he/she wants to and live with the changes
You can keep putting the sand back every day and probably tick off the clown enough that it moves from that preferred hosting site to another site in the tank with less interference from its human caretaker.
You can add more sand to the tank (at least in that area) and see if that solves the issue
You can rearrange the tank a bit and move something large to that area and force the clown to pic a new hosting site.
Good luck with the new fish and its housekeeping activities.
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This is normal behavior. It's most likely a nesting / pre-spawning type behavior (even if it's a single individual). And it's also partly the clown doing house keeping. In addition to the sand sweeping, my maroon clown likes to push a rather large rock that sits on top of another away all the time. We are having a battle of wills...I place the rock where I want it, and she knocks it off and pushes it away from her area. I replace and the cycle continues. She flipped another rock I had near her area today, which was a different rock and farther away, so she seems to be getting more rambunctious!
Anemones are cool. I've been thinking about getting another one. I haven't owned one in several years. Keep in mind that there is always the chance your clown will not host the anemone. I've had that happen several times before. If you do go that route, make sure you have sufficient lighting and protection from any circulation pumps. Also note that the anemone is going to move around the tank too - and it may pick a spot to settle that you're not completely happy with. Mel from Mel's Reef has a cool video that encouraged his clown fish to host an anemone if you're interested:
