View Full Version : Anemone research help quickly
racerX
01-19-2004, 2:26 PM
I'm about to go to the LFS and i want to get two clowns and an anemone to host in. I would like to know of a hardy anemone that will be a good beginner anemone and will also not eat my other fish. Or which fish i can't put in with an anemone. A quick response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Shane
mogurnda
01-19-2004, 3:55 PM
Don't get the anemone. Please. The clowns don't need a host. If you want to try later, after you have more experience, then they will figure it out. Too many anemones die because people think they need one for their clowns and put it into a tank that's not ready. I would have done the same, years ago, and I am so glad I didn't.
harrypotter41
01-19-2004, 4:48 PM
I am also a newbie and did what the previous poster said not to do. I bought a Haitian Condy anemone when I bought my 2 clowns. It's been about a month, and I think I have been "lucky." One of the clowns is hosting in the anenome which wasn't likely to happen with this type of anenome by all accounts. That's my 2 cents, maybe only a penny.
racerX
01-19-2004, 11:20 PM
went to the lfs and didn't get anything.
they have some clown pairs there that are already hosting.
about ten to fifteen happy little trios. I went ahead and had them tell me all about them and what they needed and i have a few books to read. I have been reading on here and on the net for about 5 months now and an anemone is where i want to end up with the current tank. My roomate is a chemistry major so we have had everything absolutely perfect in the tank since about two weeks after the initial set up. I bought a tank from some friends that is 10gl and its a nano that has been up for about three years so i know i would have a good home for it now for the three to four weeks while i quarintine all three house mates. I mean yeah I could wait and let the tank run for a year and keep reading and researching and still not be ready. I know that marine depot has a compainion chart for clowns and their host but i would rather trust the experience of this board. So i will wait but i would still like to know which is my better choice. I want just regular false percs. And I asked so that when i do decide to get one I don't get a delicate anemone and not be experiened enough to give it exactly what it needs and I do end up being souly responsible for its death. I know clowns don't need a host but from most of what i read the host does better with the clowns. I did have an ich outbreak due to the patio door being left open and the cold air blowing across the tank but I followed the exact directions that were given to me in my post on that. my tank has now been running without fish in it for three weeks, the first of which i continued to medicate while i medicated the surviving fish in the QT. And the second week the carbon filtration was back in place to remove the meds. so according to this board the cycle should be broken for the parasite. I have upgraded my lighting and will be installing them long before the introduction of these three. I'm not trying to go on a fit trip but experience comes from doing, not reading and i have more then research things. I just really trust alot of you on this board and your advice is very important to me. so once again i will wait, but seriously how long do you think i should wait? Sorry if i come off sounding like I'm mad, im really not, i just wanted to know what a hardy specimen was to start gaining experience with. for instance I have found that Entacmaea quadricolor or bulb is possibly the best choice so far. does anyone out there disagree.
Well at least you're researching up front. Just know your responsibilities.
HarryPotter - you won'y know how your anemone is doing for at least some more months - it take a while for them to effectively starve to death under poor conditions
The only people that have ever really been successful that I have come across keeping anemones are the ones whose tanks have been running for years and are large tanks with massive lights. The reason the older reef tanks work best is due to the fact that they are so well established and have lots of life diversity in them. It is something that just can't happen in a 5 month old tank, no matter how good you are with tank upkeep.
There just isn't enough knowledge of these guys yet to successfully keep them in aquariums. Most die in months, some live years, but in the wild they live hundreds of years and are very slow breeders. Pretty much all aneomes sold are wild caught and are slowly disapeaering from the oceans.
How big is your tank anway? And how much live rock and live sand is in your tank?
Just noticed your Topic heading. If you put the word "quickly" in an anemone heading then chances are you are not ready to handle one yet.
mogurnda
01-20-2004, 10:16 AM
experience comes from doing, not reading I agree. Run a reef tank with some "easy" corals for several months at least, then you will know the routine. You don't need to "do" an anemone to get hands-in experience.
As far as your roommate being a chem major, that helps a bit, but a reef tank is where chemistry intersects with biology. I have a degree in physiology as well as a PhD, in addition to having taught chemistry and biochemistry at the college level, and still had a steep learning curve when I started keeping marine invertebrates.
Anyway, it looks like you're trying to do your homework, so keep it up. There are tank-raised clones of E. quadricolor available, and I would push for one of those when you go for the anemone. False percs don't use them as a host in the wild, but the natural hosts of ocellaris clowns have dismal survival records. Clowns will often take unnatural hosts in the aquarium.
I hope what you're hearing here doesn't just sound like a lot of negativism, but many of us have gone through posts about dying anemones too many times.
wastememphis
01-20-2004, 11:37 AM
I jumped into an anemone... might not have been a good idea, but the maroon clown I bought was already with the long tenticle, it was also the nicest looking one I have seen in the year prior to starting my tank. It's a 29gallon with two maroon clowns (soon to be a mated pair!?!?!) and a handfull of snails. I'm not getting anything else for the tank and I paid alot of money to get great lights and a few books to keep the anemone. I post things about it almost everyday to see if its ok (sorry haha) and Im always at my lfs to see what they're anemones are doing. It's gets to your nerves when you jump into something, expecially if you care about it and wan't it to live in your tank. If I went back in time I'd wait... but now that my fighting maroons aren't fighting and they are playing in the anemone, I can't really say I'd want to go back? Hope it helps... you will probably worry about your anemone if you put it in your tank (did you say it was a 10gallon?!). But hey, I don't know alot.
harrypotter41
01-20-2004, 12:12 PM
wayne-he is actually eating a lot of frozen shrimp. So far so good there, too.
Gealcath
01-20-2004, 7:25 PM
The best Anemone for a 5 month old aquarium are Glass Anemones (Aiptasia), but dont get them unless you REALLY want them, and even then dont get them.
wastememphis
01-20-2004, 10:15 PM
hahaha
racerX
01-31-2004, 11:52 AM
so i got some clarkii's and a torch coral. same look. same affect. and my friends all think its an anenome. so problem solved. and a good solution too.
Shane
llebcire
02-01-2004, 1:32 PM
Good Anemone reading... (http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf)
Dale W.
02-01-2004, 4:20 PM
Wastememphis,
What kind of lighting do you have on the 29g. One of my projects was a 29g tank that had a long tentacle in it. It thrived in the tank and I had it for over 5 years until we moved to the Islands in which I had to give it to someone else. I had a 250 MH with 2 75watt VHO actinics over my 29g. This was about 6 years ago when I broke it down.
wastememphis
02-01-2004, 4:34 PM
Coraline Power Compacts, I believe its 130watts... my anemone has been acting weird, i doubt its because of the lighting, probably just the age of my tank. :(
(A metal halide light didn't seem reasonable for the clowns and other things in my tank, anemone is going to be the only thing which would need such intense lights.)
How is your clown doing? Is the torch coral not minding? My clarkii is hosted in a large colt coral measures 15 inches all directions. The colt does not seem to mind at all and the clown can swim circles inside.
racerX
02-01-2004, 4:43 PM
well the coral is about the size of a softball half and its been in about a week and a half and i really don't see any signs of wear on it so far. The clowns are a pair and seem pretty content to just sit in it and do the nemo thing. Out and back In, and Out and back In, and if you want to do it one more time thats fine. LoL. but if i see any signs of problems I'll try to remember to say something on here pretty quickly. We should all be able to learn from one another. and i think we do a pretty good job of it.
Shane
wastememphis
02-01-2004, 5:02 PM
**correction they aren't great lights, they'll do.**
Well my anemone wasn't taking food about 5days ago, that went on for 2days... I came home from school, after an accident and I found my anemone losing a fight to the filter intake. I shut it off, removed the tube and put the anemone in the QT and left him in there for a day. Since I couldn't medicate it and it didn't look good I thought the worse, but the that night it was inflating its stem and moving to the other sides of the tank and it's tenticles were beat up but it was moving around. I tryed to feed it again, it would hold on to it for like a min, but would end up letting go. I put him back in the other tank since the lights were there. He has been moving a little but the tenticles are damaged. Right now he is under a rock over hang but he looks like he is holding on to the rock. My clowns are still crazy over him. I don't know whats wrong with the anemone, I have been busy so I couldn't post anything about it either. But while I'm posting, no reason to start two posts. My clown fish are doing AMAZING, infact I have a question... what does it mean when a clown fish goes to the bottom and then waves his tail... ALOT and moves the sand around, he's been doing it for about a week... more and more, it's really weird. I'm posting pics of my xeina polyps and toadstool leather, also two of the clowns with the anemone... i can't get a pic of the anemone without the clowns around him. Also I have the end part of my clown (damien) flinging sand around. The tank's water levels are fine, and theres 10 snails, two scooter blennys and I put in iodine for the polyps and zooplex for the toadstool. Thanks to any response, hopefully I'm not doing things too wrong.
wastememphis
02-01-2004, 5:05 PM
pic
wastememphis
02-01-2004, 5:12 PM
pic
wastememphis
02-01-2004, 5:18 PM
sand pic
wastememphis
02-02-2004, 12:11 PM
Heres my lights, they are the 2x65watt (http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/power_aqualight.html)
mogurnda
02-02-2004, 12:15 PM
My clowns kick sand around at their spawning site. Sounds like courtship to me.
wastememphis
02-02-2004, 4:32 PM
do i have to do anything special if they have babies... I have a hospital tank, which I'm about to buy a "baby safe" foam filter for anyway... I also heard that since maroon clown fish are so agressive they would protect their offspring untill they were "born" i guess? I havn't read anything about them spawning, I didn't think it would happen... :rolleyes: ... not ready?
mogurnda
02-02-2004, 4:42 PM
Unless you're willing to put serious effort into growing rotifers for them, then you may never be ready. The larvae are planktonic, and will float away on the night of hatching. Sadly, they will become food for the tank.
I keep promising myself that I'll raise a clutch at some point, but haven't made the effort so far. In general, clowns will spawn every few weeks for many years.
A couple of good books on the subject:
Wilkerson (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1890087041/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-9770772-2411058#reader-link)
Hoff (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/096629601X/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-9770772-2411058#reader-link)