Clownfish Anemone Tank! Nemo Found!

[emerald525]

Well after talking to my local clownfish breeder. I decided to convert my sps tank into a clown anemone tank. I have always loved anemones but had to remove them from my display tank because they would move and sting some of my corals and just stress me out too much.

I have a 150 gallon tru vu tank and sold most of the sps out of it and replaced it with 2 Long tentacle anemones , 4 rose bubble tip anemones, 1 green bubble tip, and several maxi minis.

Two weeks ago I went to the local breeder and hand picked 4 black and white 4 orange and white 2 picassos and 2 platinum clownfish. These are all tank raised and have never seen an anemone.

Here's the progress so far:

They pretty much schooled in a ball like this the entire first day which worked as none of the other tank inhabitants picked on them. I was worried about the melanarus wrasse but he left them all alone..

 

[emerald525]

clownfish anemone project day one!

I love watching clownfish school together!:bigsmile:

 

[MarvinsReef]

very nice Kim. looking forward to seeing the tank progress. 1smile1

approx how old are the clowns?

 

[emerald525]

very nice Kim. looking forward to seeing the tank progress. 1smile1

approx how old are the clowns?

Thanks:bigsmile:. I can't remember the exact age of them now but it is always fun to visit the clownhouse and see them in all different stages of development. I have some more pictures coming up.

 

[clowns101]

Amazing color on those RBTA's! Ima send you a PM man!

 

[emerald525]

Clown Anemone Tank Day 2

By the next morning 3 of the clowns found an anemone and started to use it. I was amazed at how quickly they took to it since they were tank raised and never grew up with an anemone. Dave my local breeder told me that they will frequently show copycat behavior and if one hosts a clown the others will quickly follow but will all go for the same anemone

 

[MarvinsReef]

glad they found the nems right away. it'll be cool to watch them hosting the nems.

 

[emerald525]

Week 1

Clownfish are funny, by the mid part of the week most of them were trying to cram into one anemone. After some jostling over territory some of them moved into a different anemone

As you can see this anemone was starting to get a little crowded too!

 

[MarvinsReef]

awesome looking RBTA's. how long have you had them? do you feed them at all? if so, what and how often?

 

[Cubbies]

That looks awesome! Hopefully they can all cooperate and not fight! I love it though! looks insane!

 

[nicodim55]

That is just awesome!! I too love clowns and have multiple pairs in my 150g. They are all tanked raised as well and I have 10 gbta's and my clowns don't host any them:cry:. I'm hoping they will learn to host them soon. I love seeing yours school like that:bigsmile:.

 

[skinz78]

Looking great Kim, did you get rid of all your Chalice's?

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Beautiful clowns and anemones! I love your entire tank. Its so funny how all the clowns will host the same anemone. I wonder if after some time there still will be certain anemones that are favored. Can't wait to find out!

I wish you good luck with them Thanks for sharing and please keep updating!

 

[emerald525]

awesome looking RBTA's. how long have you had them? do you feed them at all? if so, what and how often?

Thanks! The RBTAs in the center I had in a biocube for about a year. The one at the top I recently bought from a fellow reefer. I do feed them directly but at least once or twice a week I feed a mixture of brine, mysis, oyster feast, and cyclopeeze and they get some of it.

That looks awesome! Hopefully they can all cooperate and not fight! I love it though! looks insane!

Yeah I wish they would just figure out there is plenty of room. I'm going to get some more rbtas from a fellow reefer so hopefully they will have more room.

That is just awesome!! I too love clowns and have multiple pairs in my 150g. They are all tanked raised as well and I have 10 gbta's and my clowns don't host any them:cry:. I'm hoping they will learn to host them soon. I love seeing yours school like that:bigsmile:.

Yeah watching them school was fun! Do you have pictures of your clowns? Yeah I know I'm lucky that they hosted the anemone right away. It's so frustrating when they don't but I was pretty sure they would because everyone I have talked to that has bought from the same breeder said their clowns hosted the anemone right away.

Looking great Kim, did you get rid of all your Chalice's?

No Chris, I have 2 150 gallon tanks. The chalices are in the other one but I cut down quite a bit on the chalices in that one too. Trying to simplify life and not have so many tanks. LOL.

Beautiful clowns and anemones! I love your entire tank. Its so funny how all the clowns will host the same anemone. I wonder if after some time there still will be certain anemones that are favored. Can't wait to find out!

I wish you good luck with them Thanks for sharing and please keep updating!

Thanks it's been fun watching their behavior. For some reason they took to the top anemone first and that does seem to be the favorite one. The platinum clown is a little bigger than the other ones and seems to try to "evict" other clowns out of that one.

 

[nicodim55]

Yeah watching them school was fun! Do you have pictures of your clowns? Yeah I know I'm lucky that they hosted the anemone right away. It's so frustrating when they don't but I was pretty sure they would because everyone I have talked to that has bought from the same breeder said their clowns hosted the anemone right away.

I took this from my phone so the pic is not nearly as nice as yours:bigsmile:. This is what they do, they hang out on top and not in the nems. It's so frustrating they would swim by it, look at it but never go in:cry:. To make matter even stranger some of them like to host my hammers and frogspawns. Anyway, enough of my ranting very nice accomplishment Kim:smile:

 

[emerald525]

Great picture nicodim. My very first pair of clownfish was like that. They would swim right by the anemone and never get it. It was so frustrating.

 

[nicodim55]

Great picture nicodim. My very first pair of clownfish was like that. They would swim right by the anemone and never get it. It was so frustrating.

Thx Kim wish me luck that they learn to host it Happy New Year!!

 

[emerald525]

Week 2

I took this picture a few days ago. A few are starting to go go to the other anemone as they get "pushed" out of the other one.

The Picassos and Platinums paired off right and pretty much stay with the first anemone. This anemone keeps moving and there is less territorial behavior from the platinums when it is further away from the other two anemones

If you look closely you can see a little bit of white on the lip of the one clownfish from nipping

So far all are doing well and are healthy feeding well with just some minor jostling over territory. It's very fun watching them. :bigsmile:

Next weekend I"m going to get a few more RBTAs and see if that helps. I hope they will eventually spread out more. I think that will be the case just as some of the less dominant ones get pushed out of the other anemones.

 

[MarvinsReef]

awesome! did you find that the Platinums are much more aggressive than the other clowns? my trio would gang up on other the Picasso's to drive them away of an anemone or a spot in the tank.

 

[emerald525]

awesome! did you find that the Platinums are much more aggressive than the other clowns? my trio would gang up on other the Picasso's to drive them away of an anemone or a spot in the tank.

Yes that's interesting, the platinums definitely seem to be the most aggressive. I just chalked it up to them being a little bigger than the other clownfish. They seem to be tolerating the Picassos so far.