Building the perfect Clown/Anemone setup

BroncosZOA · Dec 31, 2012

Clownfish/ Anemone Tank

This is how i do anemone clown tanks for my customers.

1. Decide which Anemonefish youd like to keep in your tank. (At first i would plan for a pair and not multiples) If you plan on going the multiples route you need to disregard step one and go directly to Step two. More then two clowns and not enough anemones is asking for fighting.

2. Decide your anemone. They all have different requirements in regards to flow, lighting, and position on a reef. You need to make sure you can provide the substrate rock work lighting and flow to have the anemone thrive.

3. Decide if you like Soup - Chances are if you have ever had an anemone they have gone on a walk. Does your setup want to be a big soup mixer or an anemone haven? Vortechs and powerful open grid pumps are a disaster waiting to happen. If you set up has a sump use a more powerful return and use a wavebox. (go diving watch an anemone in the wild its doesnt get blown around.

Those three questions can save you alot of time and money and heartache.

If you dont go with bubbletips i get the anemone in the tank first so it can settle in before the clowns can host it.

Oberst Hajj · Dec 31, 2012

Thanks BroncosZOA. The plan right now is to go BTAs after the tank has been setup for at least 6 months. Adding them slowly over a couple of months to make sure everything is going well. Then I'd add in multiples from the same clutch. I've actually started talking to a local breeder on this part. I will have a smump and I'll look into the wavebox. Any recommendation no the wavebox? What about the Oceans Motions 4-Way Wavemaker?

BroncosZOA · Dec 31, 2012

I recommend all my clients go with Tunze Wavebox. Its a superior product.

Theclutziestspazzofaninja · Dec 31, 2012

Something that might help calm all the fish down is to keep everyone well fed. Mine are much more angry if I happen to miss a feeding LOLTake a look at the blue throat triggers they are said to be the most "reef safe" and peaceful out of all the triggers. I've never kept one as of now, but from all I've read they seem to feed on plankton (or something very similar...can't quite remember :p ), so inverts have a lower possibiliy of being chewed to bits. I don't think I've heard of an angel eating nems, but butterflies WILL eat them, so I'd steer clear. IDK if you're into to tangs at all, but your tank should be big enough to keep a clowntang. There was a young one at my lfs not too long ago and it was an absolutely gorgeous fish! your plan of keeping the same anemones and getting the clowns from the same clutch seems like the best bet :) Oh, and another cool thing about the BTA nems is that they will split frequently in aquariums! :D

Oberst Hajj · Dec 31, 2012

BroncosZOA said:
I recommend all my clients go with Tunze Wavebox. Its a superior product.

Thanks, I'll research that one as well.

Theclutziestspazzofaninja said:
Something that might help calm all the fish down is to keep everyone well fed. Mine are much more angry if I happen to miss a feeding LOLTake a look at the blue throat triggers they are said to be the most "reef safe" and peaceful out of all the triggers. I've never kept one as of now, but from all I've read they seem to feed on plankton (or something very similar...can't quite remember :p ), so inverts have a lower possibiliy of being chewed to bits. I don't think I've heard of an angel eating nems, but butterflies WILL eat them, so I'd steer clear. IDK if you're into to tangs at all, but your tank should be big enough to keep a clowntang. There was a young one at my lfs not too long ago and it was an absolutely gorgeous fish! your plan of keeping the same anemones and getting the clowns from the same clutch seems like the best bet :) Oh, and another cool thing about the BTA nems is that they will split frequently in aquariums! :D

Yes, frequent and quality feeding seem to be a major factor in the peacefulness of them. If you think of the reasons that any animal would be aggressive, food and territory are the two to constant factors. If you reduce the need to compete for those, aggression should go down. The natural Alpha and Beta roles will always be there as well as any breeding issues that may/will arise.

The family does like tangs, so those are always a possibility. So when a fish is labeled as not reef safe or "caution", would that apply to nems as well? Are they considered "reefs" in this respect?

Theclutziestspazzofaninja · Dec 31, 2012

I wouldn't say they are completely considered to be a "reef" but the "with caution" can apply to them so I'd look into it whenever you're interested in a "with caution" fish. The only two fish I can think of off the top of my head that will eat anemones are butterflies and filefish though. Xanthichthys triggers are considered the most "reef safe" and have better temperments than most others...just thought I'd through that in there since you're into them. :)

Oberst Hajj · Dec 31, 2012

Well the Picasso trigger is my personal favorite, so I'll have to do some research on him. I also like the bengali cardinalfish, and I seen them in several nem tanks.

It also looks like I've found my local breeder for this project. When it's closer to time, I'll check out his setup more. So far quite a few of the local reefers recommend him and he has offered me a really good price on a batch of black ice.

MarvinsReef · Dec 31, 2012

Oberst Hajj said:
Well the Picasso trigger is my personal favorite, so I'll have to do some research on him. I also like the bengali cardinalfish, and I seen them in several nem tanks.

It also looks like I've found my local breeder for this project. When it's closer to time, I'll check out his setup more. So far quite a few of the local reefers recommend him and he has offered me a really good price on a batch of black ice.

Awesome about the local breeder. I wish I had someone local that have multiple kinds of clowns to check out. I'm really happy with my Picasso's/Platinums though. That's probably one of the most important factors in keeping a clown tank. As for nems, try to have 1 nice size nem to 2-3 baby clowns, so approximately 4"+. My current BTA count is 20 since the GBTA split today. :)

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Oberst Hajj · Dec 31, 2012

Yeah, it seems I'm pretty lucky. The local breeder has mated pairs of black and white ocellaris, snowflakes, black ice snowflakes, onyx perc/picassos, and percularis. He currently does not have them breeding, but will start them up when I'm ready.

MarvinsReef · Dec 31, 2012

Oberst Hajj said:
Yeah, it seems I'm pretty lucky. The local breeder has mated pairs of black and white ocellaris, snowflakes, black ice snowflakes, onyx perc/picassos, and percularis. He currently does not have them breeding, but will start them up when I'm ready.

Awesome! :)

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Theclutziestspazzofaninja · Jan 1, 2013

Oberst Hajj said:
Well the Picasso trigger is my personal favorite, so I'll have to do some research on him.

I saw many of these while snorkeling in Hawaii and they are certainly beautiful fish! They wouldn't bother the nems so much as any inverts you decided to keep or harassing the clowns. Honestly though, I don't think they'd do much damage (it really is a fish-to-fish basis) if he/she was the biggest fish in the tank and didn't see anyone else as "competition." The ones I saw (this was in the wild) seemed pretty chilled swimming through the rock ruble and bits of reef. :)

Oberst Hajj · Jan 1, 2013

Marvin, what kind of water turn over rate do you have in your tank? I'm also wondering where you have your flow pointing it relation to the nems?

MarvinsReef · Jan 1, 2013

Oberst Hajj said:
Marvin, what kind of water turn over rate do you have in your tank? I'm also wondering where you have your flow pointing it relation to the nems?

I'll try to take a vid from the side so you can see where the return and the MP40 are located. :)

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RandysReef · Jan 1, 2013

Very interesting thread!

Oberst Hajj · Jan 2, 2013

Thanks Marvin. I'm trying to give some thought to a CL system. I'd really like to have everything enter and exit the bottom of the tank, but I'm concerned about being able to get the flow where the nems really want it. If I have to run a lot of in-tank plumbing to do that, it defeats one of the main reasons I want to go CL (a super clean looking tank).

Trevdawg · Jan 2, 2013

Boom

SNAKEMANVET · Jan 2, 2013

awesome tank Trevdawg.

MarvinsReef · Jan 2, 2013

Trevdawg said:
Boom

Very nice. Can you share some more info about the tank? Thanks. :)

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Oberst Hajj · Jan 2, 2013

Wow, boom is right! That is just gorgeous! Please do share some info about your setup!

Trevdawg · Jan 2, 2013

If any of you guys are in the Chicago land area ad want one. Pm me.

It is my girlfriends dads tank. He has been busy and slacking on water changes, maybe once every 3 mths. He has a 6 o 8 bulb t5. Doesn't add chemicals or run any tests. It just seems to be in a good balance.
As for fish, he has a tomato clown, yellow tang, 3 spot damsel, and a lawn mower blemy.

He saw a small one growing on a rock years ago and we saw it progressively grow and it was neat. Then it split, and that grew and then split. Now it is all over.