need help from the clown pros

IMM3DOORSDOWN · #1 09/27/2006, 07:45 PM

need help from the clown pros
want to start a 55 gal salt water tank with only clowns and anemones

how many clowns can i get ??

what are come good anemones for them to host???

can i mix anemones???

BFisher244 · #2 09/27/2006, 07:57 PM

depends on the type of clown. some can be mixed

different clowns will host with different anemones
http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...lownschart.htm

anemones can be mixed together

fishieness · #3 09/27/2006, 08:04 PM

to keep most anenomes for long term, i woudl strongly recomend halides.
and as far as clowns, id keep no more than 1 pair unless you are doing false percs. 1 pair of ocellarus will result and as many as 2-3 (as long as you purchase them as younge, asexual juviniles) will remain juviniles and not take a sex. They will jsut be far down on the pecking order and pushed around by the others. although they will let them exist.
NOTE: this is NOT standard to all species, only ocellaris.

Fcataudo · #4 09/27/2006, 10:24 PM

Hey clowns will also host in certain LPS. I have a pair hosting in a Torch Coral colony. It is great, non of the headaches associated with anemone care

ricordia nut · #5 09/27/2006, 11:27 PM

i have a pair of black onyx clowns hosting in my elagance

ShiftNation · #6 09/27/2006, 11:53 PM

In a 55 youll proabably only be able to keep a pair , possibly a trio . Any group will slowly pick off subdominates .

Thunderstruck · #7 09/28/2006, 04:02 AM

I have heard cons about Clowns taking to LPS. They might in fact damage torches and other LPS they take to. Not sure anyone else heard this as well...

Fcataudo · #8 09/28/2006, 07:02 AM

I have not heard this. My LPS has shown no signs of damage or stress. I have fragged it 2x in the past year.

Shark Bait100 · #9 09/28/2006, 07:22 AM

ocellarus will host in about anything, from LTA to leathers and frog spawn. Don't mix clowns though, the two ocellarus ganged up and beat on the maroon clown hosting on the other side of my tank. The maroon used to be the king of the tank. Had to remove the dethrown king to the frag tank.

km133688 · #10 09/28/2006, 07:58 AM

You may be able to keep multiple pairs, if you rock scape heavily and appropriatley. I have never kept multiple pairs of clowns so this is just conjecture based on my experience with one clown pair and other breeding fish pairs in the same tank. It goes like this:

I find my clown pair stays well close to their anemone. Within 3 inches most of the time. I have only observed my clowns moving outside a 1ft diameter in one situation and that is only the momma clown and only when she is feasting at feeding time on her mysis shrimp. Clownfish (and I presume most other fish pairs) want to have a home and once they take to an anemone they are highly "rooted" IME.

You can use thus "home zones" or territoriality to your advantage. I use rock to create seperate areas in my tank, and the fish I have placed in each area stay in their area. I have three zones, a seahorse zone, a clownfish zone, and a banggai cardinalfish zone (left, middle, right respectively). My fish don't roam and I think it has a lot to do with the rock scaping. There can roam if they want too, for example I have seen horses occassionally on each side of the tank, and the banggai floating at night within 1 ft of the clownfish egg nest, but these are rare happenings. They all have a safe haven to call home with plenty of food every day so why leave?. My tank is a 125 and 6 ft long.

I would bet you could keep two pair easy, on opposite sides of a 55g (I assume 4ft long), if you use rock to divide the tank in half. If you were aggressive you could even try thirds but I would not go any farther than that as after accounting for the space the rock takes, you would be reducing your fish zones to under 1ft diameter.

My clowns have been laying for 2 years straight and haven't missed a beat regardless of all tank changes and moves etc. so they are pretty happy fish when given a safe place to call their own with plenty of food.

Once thing to note, is that you may have trouble if you put other non-clowns that are roaming fish, in the tank (read Tangs et.al.). There fish cross boundaries and generally dont' respect other fish's "home zones", and thereby cause other fish to be nervous when they do. So if you are doing a multi-pair clown tank, and you put other fish in it, be careful what you choose.

Good luck, Kevin

Fcataudo · #11 09/28/2006, 08:10 AM

I have not heard this. My LPS has shown no signs of damage or stress. I have fragged it 2x in the past year.

fishieness · #12 09/28/2006, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fcataudo
I have not heard this. My LPS has shown no signs of damage or stress. I have fragged it 2x in the past year.

it depends on the actual LPS itself. some will take clowns fine, and others will not like it at all. it even depends on how gentle the clowns are. gonioporas are known to be pummeled to death.... but there have been many other success stories with clowns and gonis, as well as jsut about all other LPS.
i have a moroon in a 29 that is jsut hosting a corner. whenever someone comes by he will just push them away.
and in my 40 reef, i ahve a pair of false percs that first stared off hosting my open brain. (it didnt bother it at all by the way). then when some macro grew in that area, they hosted in that, and followed it until it had reached a large mass of anthillia. they had hosted there for a long time and then over the summer i got a temp spike and the anthillia died. now they host half a flowerpot that i had put next to the anthillia in case they bred. but i supose it all worked out, because now i have them right where i want them when they do start the breed.

MimicTang · #13 09/28/2006, 09:58 PM

In a 55 you can get a simple divider and make 3 small sections. Then able to keep 3 pairs of the small species at the most.