180g ClownFish Harem Build (yes another.. lol)

Z

Zagzoo71

Member
Must be the theme all of a sudden, hahaha!

So, while I am waiting for my tank to recover from marine velvet. I decide as well to turn my 180g in the wall to a clownfish harem tank.

Tank has been fallow for 3 weeks.. I had 1 survivor that I couldn't catch for 2 months. Tank has been up and running now for 6 months.

For exporting nutrients I run a skimmer and a algae scrubber (11x10 screen)

The plan is for 40 clownfish from the same clutch, just trying to decide which species to go with.

Since i have till 11/1/17 before I can add fish.. started dropping BTA's in the tank. With 40 clown fish.. I am gonna start out with 20-24 BTA's. The plan is to get them in the tank and growing till them.

4/24 BTA's!!

The video shows 1 RBTA from the weekend, and today I trade some coral for 2 rbta and 1 bright green BTA. Gonna make my aquascape look like skittles!

https://youtu.be/V9hY5JBH7YQ

Here is a pic from the today's additions:
 

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BTA Update...

Well... 3/4 of the first BTA's stayed put for one week, getting ready to possibly add 10 - 12 more in the next few days. One of the 2 new rbta's is mia.. been missing for 8hrs.. so i guess 3/4 staying put were i placed them isnt bad to start.
 
9 GBTA's into the tank now.. grand total of 13 BTA's. 9 green, 1 bright neon green, and 3 RBTA's. Have some rainbows on reserve for next months frag meet.

And the gbta's have started their evening walk to see were they are happy!
 

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Have you decided on which species of clownfish?

I guess it's a little late to recommend not going with BTAs, but if you're planning to have ocellaris or percula, having either magnifica or gigantea anemones makes for a nice display. Once settled in, IME both mags and gigs don't wander much, unlike BTAs. They're both difficult to find and need to be QTed, but after that point, I consider them very hardy anemone despite what you may read.

One BTA in your MP40 could take out your whole tank. 20 of them is asking for trouble. I've gotten a large gig stuck in an MP40 and it actually stopped the wetside from spinning. The result was an injured nem (it eventually recovered) but my point is that it didn't nuke the entire tank because the nem wasn't turned into a puree.
 
I got foam covers on order for my power heads to keep them out. Still deciding on what species of clowns to go with.
 
Little update.. been about 1 week since I added 9 GBTA's (7 made it) and added 1 RBTA past thursday. Redid some rock work to get a few gbta to move into view.. everyone basically settled in and happy.. no one has moved it last 4 days.

Youtube Link:

ClownFish Harem.. 13 BTA's
 
Well... Little update... seems all the BTA's want to be on one side of the tank this week. The biggest gbta decided it will just shove itself in front of the others. Next weekend still gonna be picking up around 12 rainbow bta's.. then in 2 weeks 40 lightening clowns!!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZldnjENwmXg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Looks really great. It's kind of crazy how much your BTAs are moving. Do you ever wonder if conditions in the tank aren't right for them to settle down?

I have little experience with BTAs moving around (I've had a few in the past, but they attached and stay put pretty quickly). I always assumed that if they're happy, they'll stay put. If they're wandering so much, maybe they're looking for something they don't have.

Your flow looks pretty strong. What about lighting? Or do you think all the movement is totally normal?

My current rainbow BTA didn't move for 3 days, then wandered the entirety of the tank (even face planted on my mesh cover for my gyre pump, good thing that thing was on minimal flow) for about a week. It stayed put for a week, and now it moved 5 inches. So maybe they just keep walking forever?

Lightning maroons will be amazing. I like the cuteness of ocellaris, but the lightning maroons look incredible.
 
Kinetic said:
Looks really great. It's kind of crazy how much your BTAs are moving. Do you ever wonder if conditions in the tank aren't right for them to settle down?

I have little experience with BTAs moving around (I've had a few in the past, but they attached and stay put pretty quickly). I always assumed that if they're happy, they'll stay put. If they're wandering so much, maybe they're looking for something they don't have.

Your flow looks pretty strong. What about lighting? Or do you think all the movement is totally normal?

My current rainbow BTA didn't move for 3 days, then wandered the entirety of the tank (even face planted on my mesh cover for my gyre pump, good thing that thing was on minimal flow) for about a week. It stayed put for a week, and now it moved 5 inches. So maybe they just keep walking forever?

Lightning maroons will be amazing. I like the cuteness of ocellaris, but the lightning maroons look incredible.
Click to expand...

Well.. I been playing around with the flows.. trying to calm some of it down (probably why a few have moved... some have moved into the strong flow and stayed there.. some move to an area with hardly any flow.) I have the Jabeo 40 size power heads. THink I am gonna get the 25 size version. My current ones are on power setting 2 and on the pulse slowest setting. I have also redid my LED settings.. had too much whites were the bta's colors were off.
 
Zagzoo71 said:
Well... Little update... seems all the BTA's want to be on one side of the tank this week. The biggest gbta decided it will just shove itself in front of the others. Next weekend still gonna be picking up around 12 rainbow bta's.. then in 2 weeks 40 lightening clowns!!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZldnjENwmXg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...

I'm sure you've done your research, but I feel the need to reiterate that maroon clowns are extremely aggressive. Even juveniles are known to fight with each other, so much so that breeders are forced to separate them a lot earlier than with other species. Having lots of BTAs will hopefully ease the aggression, but I think you may end up with losses.
 
D-Nak said:
I'm sure you've done your research, but I feel the need to reiterate that maroon clowns are extremely aggressive. Even juveniles are known to fight with each other, so much so that breeders are forced to separate them a lot earlier than with other species. Having lots of BTAs will hopefully ease the aggression, but I think you may end up with losses.
Click to expand...

They were piscaso percula's type (sorry might have my spieces mixed up).. I know they were not maroon clowns.
 
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well it looks like I will not be adding 12 rainbow bta's this weekend. Vendor over sold at a swap meet last weekend. But, the good news is probably be getting 4-5 rainbows.. and 1 is the mother rainbow (were all the clones were coming from ) and she is 12" across!!

Soo.. little change of direction.. since all the bta's like the right half of my tank, ill keep putting them there. On the far left side of the tank putting a saddle carpet in tomorrow!!!
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GQXjmwO1fjE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Another update: Added 3 more rainbow BTA's, 2 in the 3-4" range, 1 around 8-10"

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rn8fLiJiA7E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I had a friend who's darwin clownfish started breeding so he tried raising them. After a couple tries he had probably 80 baby clownfish and nowhere to put them. I had a huge 4" darwin in my 85 gallon tank so I got rid of all my other fish and turned it into a harem tank by taking 50 of his. It was awesome with the one huge female and 50 babies swimming around.

Keep this up! It looks like it's coming around nicely. Good luck!
 
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