Clown fish and anemones

[Striike]

So I hear about this cool little pairing of clown fish and anemones. They benefit each other, ect. But I also here that anemones are difficult to keep, and a lot of 'tank bred' clownfish will ignore them. Longer term I want a clownfish, or 2, and I want them to live in an anemone. I'd be interested in some insight on how to make sure they pair up. And while you're at it, will a pair of clowns live in one together?

 

[Urchinsmurchin]

The only real advice I can give you is do A LOT of research. Are you interested in a carpet or a bubble tip? Carpets are alot harder to keep and have much higher light requirements. Also anemones like to commit suicide. They go for strolls around the tank in an effort to find a happy spot to anchor down and some how they inevitable stroll smack dab into a power head which makes anemone soup. NOT PRETTY!!! I have 2 false perculas and I have bought 2 anemones. I started with a beautiful blue carpet before I knew any better. He lived approximately 1 week (didn't ship well) and I felt horrible. My second was a good size rose bubble tip anemone and he was so awesome. I really got attached :cry: but one night while I was sleeping he made anemone soup and is no more :sad:. Needless to say after spending all that money and having nothing to show for it the only anemone I will ahve now is if someone feels sorry for me and gives me a clone. lol. Oh and my false perculas nevr really hosted. They were interested in the carpet but he was sick from the day I put him in the tank so nothing ever came of it.

I know different clowns like different types of anemones and there is a chart online somewhere that lists which ones. I think it is hit and miss on whether tank bred will host or not. I have seen some people say theirs do and others say thiers don't. Good Luck! Anemones are beautiful but make sure to cover your power heads.

 

[jam3s]

good time for me to vent and for you to maybe learn something. =)

I have a purple gigantea with one Thiellei clownfish (used to be paired with a Leuc). So last night I got home from work, and the whole carpet was wrapped around my Koralia 3. The Kor 3 is probably a good 12 inches from the sand, so the carpet CLIMBED up the tank wall and did the mambo with the Kor 3. It happens very quickly..in a matter of a hour or two. I was lucky that I caught it on time, and lucky that the Kor 3 is well made in that the vents are not big enough for the bulk of the carpet to get through. But the tank water was somewhat white because of the carpet flesh that was getting trimmed by the propeller. If I got home 2-3 hours later I might have lost some corals/fish in my tank.

Lesson here is...you need ample space in your tank for an anemone. If it's not happy it will move around a lot until it finds a good place to settle. I got my gigantea more than a year ago when it was small (7-8 inches). It now has doubled and expands to 12-14 inches and does not like the corner of my tank anymore.

I love the interaction between carpet and clownfish. So imo it is worth it to purchase a nice anemone and pair of clown as hosts. But like Urchin said make sure you research before you purchase them. Good luck!

 

[Urchinsmurchin]

Jam,


You were lucky!!!!! I was devastated when my RBTA got eaten and the weird thing in my case is that my RBTA was about 6 to 8 inches fully extended and it got chewed to less than the size of a quarter by a Koralia 2. It completely ATE him. Only thing left were a few tentacles. Luckily for me even though it must have happened right after I went to bed so a good couple of hours with the toxins possibly in my tank it didn't nuke my tank. I am still not sure how or why. I did not do a water change or add carbon or anything and I didn't lose any fish or corals but I am sure this is extremely rare. BTW!! I wasn't intentionally playing with fire here. The reason for not doing a water change is due to hubby going out of town and not leaving me any real way to do a water change since we had moved from a 75 to a 120 and everything was still pretty much in shambles not to mention our new RO/DI unit was in transit.

 

[blueray]

First of all, welcome to the hobby Striike.

Now right to the subject, You better wait a few months to get any anemone in the tank. Anemone need very stable tank. Your tank need to be 6 months old minimum to give a surviving chance to anemone.

This is a really good website for beginner for anemone.

Caring for Rose Anemones the right way - INTRODUCTION

Most people will keep GBTA (Green bubble tip) or RBTA (Rose Bubble tip). They need lower light (mean at least T5 HO) than other species. What kind of light do you have?

Some anemone require strong light like metal halide or Multiple T5 HO (like Carpet anemone or Maginifica).

 

[Striike]

Guys, sorry for the slow response...again. The forum didn't flag this post, so I literally skipped right over this at least 50 times. Woops.

This said, thank you all for the insights so far.

I am on board with waiting, I saw the term patience used so many times that I remember how to spell it now while researching this hobby. My wife wants one yesterday, but I made it very clear it will be quite a while before we try it out. On that, I have no intention of letting her help me pick it out, since the easiest one to care for is probably not the prettiest also, lol.

I see you guys mentioning it not being happy, so any insight on what they are happy with? LOL, kind of loaded question, I know. I have 2 Koraline 3's in my tank, both are towards the top angled down. The light I have is fluorescent, I'm at work so can't remember type, but its a fixture with 2 actinic and 2 regular, 12k I think.
Thank you for the link.
Anyone have some pictures?

 

[Striike]

Had another question on this subject. I have seen mention of using a screen over a powerhead to prevent pets from getting sucked in. Does anyone have any experience with this? BTW I have the Kor 3's.

 

[110reef]

Another thing with anemones wandering is that they will also sting and kill your corals.

What makes an anemone happy is purely in the mind of the anemone, but water flow and lighting have a lot to do with it.

As far as clowns hosting, I once had a tomato clown, and I got an anemone for it. The clown completely ignored it for 3-4 months, so I went and got a pair of tank-raised ocellaris (that were hosting in a plastic(!) anemone in the store). I put them in my tank and were hosting in my anemone within a couple of hours. 3 more months go by, and suddenly, the tomato decides it wants the anemone and kicks the 2 ocellaris out, then kept them confined to an upper corner of the tank. So, who knows if and when the clownfish will host!

 

[wam67]

Love Clowns and Nems

I have 4 Nems in my 90. 1 green carpet, 1 yellow sebae, 1 green bubble, and 1 rose bubble. I have had the bubbles for 3-4 years, sebae 6 months and carpet 2 months. The green bubble hosts a pair of orange percula clowns and the sebae hosts a black sebae clown. Occasionally the sebae clown will get in the rose bubble and even in the carpet once or twice. I have been lucky with no wandering they seem happy where they are. I really enjoy having them and have them very easy to have in my tank.

 

[Striike]

Nice wam67. Any experienced feed back on keeping these? What are your biggest challenges with these?

 

[wam67]

I don't know if I have just been lucky but I have had excellent results with all my nems. I do weekly partial water changes (about 10-15%). I have had more problems with fish over the years than the nems. I have probably had 10 or so fish die over the last 5 years due to unknown causes. I have never lost a nem (knock on wood)

 

[jason.tammy]

My oppinion on this is past exsperience and current.In one tank we have a pair of GSM hosting a 14" sebea and have for over a year.In another tank an Occ. pair hosting fuzzy mushrooms and have several corals in the past but never the Nem in the tank.I also have a pair of captive breed blk mis bar perks hosting a carpet.I have found as you get your tank well esablished before you are coral heavy is the best time to add Nems.They get to move around untill happy then you add more corals around the Nem and its home.No tips on how to make them host but if they pick something thats what they are set on & wont leave it unless you remove what they pick.I have always enjoyed nems and will always have them rather they are hosted or not.They do alot better when hosted.Just thought I would share.
Jason

 

[Striike]

Thanks guys/gals.

 

[scouncil]

I have a rose nem and a pair of gold stripe maroon clowns. the clowns jumped into the nem right away even though they were a young tank raised pair. The nem had been happy in one spot for over a year and has decided recently to wander around. The lighting is probably a little bit better where it is now, but not much. I think if you put in some food that has larger pieces of shrimp (that the clowns grab and run back to the nem), it will stay happier longer in one spot. Feeding small food all the time sometimes doesn't feed the nem since the clowns can't seem to resist eating all the small stuff). I thought that the food might be the reason it decided to move (and they do really hurt the corals that are in the way). I'll start feeding mine better and it will eventually split and I'll sell it (for less than what the stores charge because I can't have 2 destructive things wandering around the tank). Last time it split and then split about a month later AGAIN (fortunately before the 2008 frag swap).
Susan

 

[Striike]

Ok, doing some research on anemones, and discovering all sorts of useful information. Does anyone have a recommendation on where a good place to buy one is? I'm looking for a Sebae. The one in Petcare shipped poorly, its almost white (it should be gold to brown colored), 5th day is only open on weekends now, and I'm real hesitant with online vendors.

 

[wam67]

Bought my sebae at Fishmania. Doing great

 

[Striike]

The one place I haven't been to yet, I'll check them out, thanks.

 

[Striike]

Picked up 2 perc's last week. I'm going to wait until I (hopefully) win this war with hair algae before trying an anemone.

 

[scouncil]

my rose nem split into 3 pieces. We are having a meeting at my house this Sunday if you are interested. It's a nice deep rose color and has been very hardy. Julie has a split from it that is doing well.

 

[ucantmakeme]

Im with Scouncil on this... i have a GSM Clown and waited to get my nem. i found and fell in love with a Lavender/Lime LTA. After i put the Nem in LITERALLY 5 minutes went by before my GSM was all over this thing trying to get it to open up so she could get in... it was funny because i remember thinking to myself that some people ussually have to wait hours, days, weeks for thier clowns to host. I guess i just got lucky.

I think i have some pictures of the day i got the nem....

Nem1

Nem2

Nem3

These are like 5 minutes after i put the nem in. The GSM is only about an inch in those pics for reference. If you look at the first pic the LTA now takes up the ENTIRE corner to where you see very little sand near the front glass. It eats whole raw shrimp.