New clownfish horde!

[Vincerama2]

The frag swap was awesome! I actually went to meet up with Fingerwrinkles to buy a small horde of ocellaris, since one of my original pair ("Big Clownfish") jumped out the back of my tank. So "Little Clownfish" got promoted, and I got 6 nice little clowns from Robin.

Although I have 2 qt tanks, I decided to just put them in the main tank, since they came from a trusted source. (yes, I know, I know..)

At first they swarmed near the surface, but I guess Little Clownfish, once he (soon to be she?) called them over, they all started hosting in the anemone! (or I should say, one of the 6 RBTAs in my tank).

I am amazed they took to the anemone so quickly! I guess Little Clownfish showed them the way?

I'm very happy with the horde!

V

[nasotang]

very nice.. Do you have any photos of the little horde hosting?

[bookfish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10539809#post10539809 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vincerama2
The frag swap was awesome! I actually went to meet up with Fingerwrinkles to buy a small horde of ocellaris, since one of my original pair ("Big Clownfish") jumped out the back of my tank. So "Little Clownfish" got promoted, and I got 6 nice little clowns from Robin.

Although I have 2 qt tanks, I decided to just put them in the main tank, since they came from a trusted source. (yes, I know, I know..)

At first they swarmed near the surface, but I guess Little Clownfish, once he (soon to be she?) called them over, they all started hosting in the anemone! (or I should say, one of the 6 RBTAs in my tank).

I am amazed they took to the anemone so quickly! I guess Little Clownfish showed them the way?

I'm very happy with the horde!

V
I wouldn't bother QT'ing Robins fish either. They've always been totally clean in the past.

[Mr. Ugly]

I got some of Robin's Solomon Island dark percs last(?) year. I didn't bother quarantining them either.

[happyface888]

That sounds pretty neat, I'd like to see a pic aswell.

[jellygeee]

Vincerama2: Hey, I think I saw you when you picked up your 6 Ocellaris. =)
I bought 6 Ocellaris from Robin as well. I picked them up close to 1pm. Did you come along with your friend (IIRC, he bought a pair)?

[Kinetic]

that's so interesting, I didn't think you could keep a horde of clownfish in our tanks. pictures please!

[fingerwrinkles]

Hey Vince, glad to hear these worked out well for you, and also that they jumped into the anemone so quickly. I've had one or two instances recently where they didn't dive right in, so it's good to know you had such quick results. Hopefully Vlad's are doing well also.

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on the fish and their general state of healthfulness. Even though these appear disease free (and the history of the breeding setup has been exceptional), I still encourage the practice of quarantining new fish if possible. This gives you a chance to get them feeding in their new digs plus transition them over to your water chemistry without the stress of meeting new tankmates.

One other interesting observation on the concept of a "horde" ... Mona was really the first to try this out with one of my old perc clutches, and I think it's really neat to see several folks now trying the approach of clown family groups rather than just one or two fish. With freshwater, the size of the fish make it really easy to have schools of tetras, barbs, or livebearers but with saltwater the size of the fish makes this difficult unless you have a huge tank. One of the reasons I chose percs / ocellaris to work with is the small space they require (unlike tangs / angels / butterflies), plus you can recreate their natural family groups within the normal tanks most of us have (which would be difficult with maroons or the tomato and clarkii complexes given their size).

In any case ... good to see these went to happy homes and everyone is pleased with the new additions!

[-=Zepplock=-]

yeah a pair I've got are fine and swimming around.
They eat flake food. I'll get some more "meaty" Rod's food for them though. If Vincerama gets in a good mood I may get one of his RBTAs ;-)

Vince I can give you my Nikon for couple of days if you want to take pics.

[-=Zepplock=-]

p.s. the frag swap was great. I counted 19 frags total.
Including nice blue zoa (about 10 polyps) that was mislabeled, closed and looked totally brown on the table.

[Vincerama2]

I'm trying to figure out how to get you one of the RBTAs, they are all sitting on huge rocks in my tank. I think I can get one out and put the rock in a qt tank until it moves off the rock.

jellygeee, yeah, that was me at around 1pm, and the other guy is Vlad (Zepplock).

I took two pics, one was with flash (didn't work out) the other was before I cleaned off the tank glass. I was going to take another pic, but the horde were not all in the same anemone (there are 6, maybe 7 (can't tell if one or two near the back) at the time so the pic wasn't so amazing. I'll post the original dirty-glass pic later tonight.

They are all eating flake and/or cyclopeeze.

I think maybe Little Clownfish encouraged them into the anemone. I'm really happy to see that they are co-existing with Little Clownfish without any apparent aggression. They just all swarm arounnd the RBTA happily.

Oh and these 7 clowns share the 58g with a single Bangaii Cardinal (Little Jimmy) and a green mandarin (Mr Fancy Pants the Third). So my fish load isn't that bad (for now!). I have a 100g tank that may house them later, but is waiting for me to buff out about 10 years of scratches.

V

[jellygeee]

Glad to hear your fish are doing well.

I put my 6 Ocellaris in my 55 gl tank. I already have 2 Ocellaris (with one is close to 2.5 inches and the other one is 1.5 inces). The moment I put mine in the tank, the 2 bigger clowns approched them, then kind of swimming around them. After that, they are all swimming together. One funny thing I noticed was that they sleep in different places at night =)

I don't have any anemone so I don't know if they will all stay together at one place.
Vincerama2, if you want to sell one of your extra RBTA, please let me know =D

[Vincerama2]

If I can trick some of them off these rocks, I can sell you one. I'll keep you posted.

V

[Kinetic]

OMG we're nearing page two and still no pictures!

[-=Zepplock=-]

Actually I know Vince for several years now and i keep hearing he "has" a nice tank at home but nobody have ever seen it or any pictures of it. So good luck on pics from him ;-)

[Vincerama2]

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V

[-=Zepplock=-]

Nice try Vince ;-)

[Vincerama2]

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff314/Vincerama2/CIMG0420.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff314/Vincerama2/CIMG0419.jpg

Hope that works!

[Vincerama2]

I'll try to get some actual hosting pics in there. Here they just came up to the glass in the hopes of getting some yummy flake food!

V

PS. Yes yes, aiptasia and valonia farm...

[Nuuze]

That is so cool! :)

[happyface888]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10563365#post10563365 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nuuze
That is so cool! :)

Yeah that is pretty cool looks like only one female?

[jellygeee]

Cool, thanks Vince.

Nice pics by the way =D


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10561418#post10561418 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vincerama2
If I can trick some of them off these rocks, I can sell you one. I'll keep you posted.

V

[mobert]

Nice pictures! The group approach is really fascinating. My Percs from Robin are approaching their two year old birthdays. Everyone is doing great.

[Vincerama2]

The large clown "Little Clown" was the smaller of a pair that I bought from a fellow reefer a year ago. "Big Clownfish" jumped to her death. It think Little Clownfish stayed male when he was in the tank by himself. Whether or not he "goes under the knife" because of all the youngsters nearby will be interesting. Well, I have no idea if he transforms or not. How can you tell? (I mean for fish, I can't see anything except size difference and he started off older and larger, but male).

V

PS. Vlad, the ASCII pic was better before all the leading spaces were somehow removed!

[fingerwrinkles]

Vince, if you see "LC" taking a special friend out of the new crew and starting to fatten up, then you can be pretty sure LC has switched teams. I've read references to the fact that this process ("the change") can take only a couple weeks (need to work fast in nature) but I'd guess within 2 months you can be pretty sure LC has transformed.