24 Gallon Coffee table Clowns + Anenome

[FishBoy05]

:beer:It's been a while since I kept an anenome with a clown. Actually the 2nd fish I ever bought back in June of 2005 was a gold stripe maroon. She is now 5-6 inches, has survived prob 5-6 tank moves, and 2 pretty bad power outage tank crashes. I had a huge 16 inch Heteractis Magnifica with her for a good while. We take her for granted now but she's a rally cool fish that gets overseen alot.

Ok Long story short: For the last 2 years I've had a 24 gallon coffee table tank with some damsels and inverts. It's 24"x24"x16"

I'm Looking to do a couple of False Percs with an anenome to host.

?'s
1. How big of an anenome (is a 8-10 incher too big? tank is shallow and it would take up a lot of real estate)
2. 2 clowns ok?
3. Lighting for the anenome, this is my biggest concern. I want to be able to keep the light on top of the table glass, It can't be huge and I have no idea what par/spextrum to use.
4. Feeding the anenome. This is actually why I decided to try this out. It used to be a pain to spot feed silversides or krill because I had monster eaters in my 240 before.

Any help is welcomed. I usually troll the F.O. and aggressives because I keep big tanks and a shark pond, but I'm just a fish nerd posting on a Sat night during vaca!

 

[joshky]

1. I would go with a BTA, probably 5" max. They grow fast.

2. 2 percs/ocellaris clowns will be fine, I wouldn't put any of the bigger species in it personally.

3. I would go with a kessil and mount it on the coffee table, probably your best bet on having a light fixture that isn't too intrusive.

4. I wouldn't feed an anemone in a nano tank, it will be fine with photosynthesis. Feeding it will just make it outgrow your tank faster. If you do feed, don't use silversides, ever, they can kill your anemone.

 

[FishBoy05]

Thanks for your input. Researched the kessils a good bit and compared to some others. Thinking the ocean blue @ 15000k would work best for what we want to achieve. I pulled the trigger and ordered a big Hat Magnifica with 2 ocellaris clowns. It won't be shipped until next Thurs after we get back from our dive trip.

The tank now has 3 blue damsels, 2 yellow, and 1 sgt Major, and a few crabs. So the new anenome will dominate the tank and hopefully the clowns wil help it acclimate.

I'll do some more research on feeding the anenome, I keep the water in pristine condition and want to keep it that way.

 

[justinky]

Pulling the trigger on a H. Mag with an overstocked 24g is probably a mistake. You may have gotten away with a BTA but H. Mags require pristine water quality or they'll move and in a 24g that's probably a death sentence. Have you ever cared for an H. Mag? Do you have a treatment tank ready as it will more then likely need to be treated when it arrives.

Replace two fish with the percs/ocellaris so that your levels stay pristine, any fluctuation in water quality could cause movement at night.

 

[OrionN]

They require a lot of flow also. Given your tank is a coffee table, I am not sure how you manage it. For that size tank, you really need a tiny Magnifica (4-6 inches fully expanded which is very difficult to find) if you want to have a chance at keeping him alive short term. If he get chew up by one of the pump, he will wipe out all your fish except the resident clowns.