9 months.... clowns still won't associate!!
- Thread starter Tmoriarty
- Start date
Nice looking mag. I'm glad you could find a healthy one. Once they're established, they are quite hardy, it's the shipping that does them in. From my experience, sg 1.026-1.027, temp around 80 to 82F and undetectable nitrates are what you're shooting for. The only time mine have moved at all is when the nitrates would rise into the detectable range, otherwise they very tightly clamp down on their rock.
I've said this before, but I think if anyone wants to have a clownfish hosted by an anemone, there is one almost certain way to have it, get a natural host. I'm glad your clowns found the anemone so swiftly.
I've said this before, but I think if anyone wants to have a clownfish hosted by an anemone, there is one almost certain way to have it, get a natural host. I'm glad your clowns found the anemone so swiftly.
Tmoriarty
New member
The shop I got them from goes to LA to get livestock instead of ordering directly from the wholesalers. Sometimes I pay a little more but at least I know that he will pick out the best/healthiest ones he can, on any animal im looking for. The True perc was hand picked by the same guy (He has been a marine biologist for 30+ years). Sometimes he is a little wonky on his information but he always picks healthy animals.
My SG is higher 1.026-1.027, my temps are 80-82 in the summer and 79-81 in the winter (warmer tank, faster growth). I have 5 or less nitrates (run a refugium with Chaeto). I am sure I need to get some of my elements back on PAR, I have never dosed this tank, but levels normally hold fairly level. The tank does not have a ton of SPS or LPS, and it has a large water volumn for what it has. It seems to be pretty firm to the rock, foot is still a "little" puffy, but I was only able to watch it for an hour before work. Hopefully it doesnt walk at night.
As you can see from my FTS though the tank is setup to direct the nem to stay on the arch, obviously it can ignore this and cross the cap to my SPS/LPS islands, but the hope is the mag will be motivated to stay in the high light/flow area.
I knew that a natural host would more than likely work, Ive posted about it in this thread multiple times. Getting a magnifica, let alone carring for one, is not neccessarily easy. I wanted the true percs and took a chance on them associating with BTA's, it did not work out for me, and for some people it works out just fine.
I am very happy that it worked out and I can keep the clownfish rather than trading them in for some juveniles and starting over. My female is over a year old (more cause she was probably 6 months old when I got her). She should be mature enough to mate, now that they are associating I am crossing my fingers that this leads to mating between the male and female.
My SG is higher 1.026-1.027, my temps are 80-82 in the summer and 79-81 in the winter (warmer tank, faster growth). I have 5 or less nitrates (run a refugium with Chaeto). I am sure I need to get some of my elements back on PAR, I have never dosed this tank, but levels normally hold fairly level. The tank does not have a ton of SPS or LPS, and it has a large water volumn for what it has. It seems to be pretty firm to the rock, foot is still a "little" puffy, but I was only able to watch it for an hour before work. Hopefully it doesnt walk at night.
As you can see from my FTS though the tank is setup to direct the nem to stay on the arch, obviously it can ignore this and cross the cap to my SPS/LPS islands, but the hope is the mag will be motivated to stay in the high light/flow area.
I knew that a natural host would more than likely work, Ive posted about it in this thread multiple times. Getting a magnifica, let alone carring for one, is not neccessarily easy. I wanted the true percs and took a chance on them associating with BTA's, it did not work out for me, and for some people it works out just fine.
I am very happy that it worked out and I can keep the clownfish rather than trading them in for some juveniles and starting over. My female is over a year old (more cause she was probably 6 months old when I got her). She should be mature enough to mate, now that they are associating I am crossing my fingers that this leads to mating between the male and female.
I think water changes are all that's needed, with anemones no dosing is required. Your tank and setup look fine for a mag. The only thing I would work on is getting the nitrates down to undetectable, though 5 certainly isn't going to hurt your anemone. You might find it will have a stronger feeding response and stay put without any movement at all with an undetectable level. With mine, I can almost be certain that nitrates are detectable when my mags shift slightly on their rock. They're like canaries in a coal mine.
Tmoriarty
New member
, I will work on getting the levels down, I will start some minor dosing on the tank because I do have SPS and LPS in the tank, i am sure it wont hurt the magnifica any . I have considered Vodka dosing to lower my nitrates down to 0 I was just hopping that the Chaeto would handle it. i am going to order a couple more macros to put in the sump and see if this helps with the last 5 nitrates.I did just talk to my wife on the phone, she said it has not moved yet which is good. In my experience with nems they tend to move after lights out, its like they like to move when no one is watching so they can perform the most damage to the tank
. Ill keep an eye on it.The thing with already lower nitrates.... a 125g water change would only drop my levels to 2.5
, time to add some more macro.
Tmoriarty
New member
I paid just over 60... more than usual for a mag, but it is considered large, normally they run 45 for a medium from most LFS's I have spoken to in Central California.
The price was less of a concern than a healthy specimen that my clown fish would associate with. This anemone showed me more about clown instinct in an hour than I have read about in a year. I was simply amazed with how the clown automatically recognized this anemone as a host.
It wouldn't even consider my BTA's... normally it wouldn't even venture around the tank much, the Magnifica caused it to instantly start exploring the tank and analyzing the Anemone from all sides.
The price was less of a concern than a healthy specimen that my clown fish would associate with. This anemone showed me more about clown instinct in an hour than I have read about in a year. I was simply amazed with how the clown automatically recognized this anemone as a host.
It wouldn't even consider my BTA's... normally it wouldn't even venture around the tank much, the Magnifica caused it to instantly start exploring the tank and analyzing the Anemone from all sides.
I've heard mixed results with vodka and anemones (some say it's fine, some say it's detrimental to them). I've never used vodka dosing, so I don't know. In years past, I used the deep sand bed (fine aragonite) to lower the nitrates. That worked, but the notorious crashes did happen in my case after a few years. My mags looked/acted weird and I checked the nitrate, and sure enough it would be elevated (once around 80ppm, years ago). A few years ago I decided to get rid of the sand bed altogether. I rely on protein skimming, water changes and activated carbon. I've found this to work better in my case. As I mentioned before, mags seem to be like barometers for nitrates. After you've seen them for a while with undetectable nitrates, you can definitely see a difference in them when the nitrate start to creep up (not expanded quite as much, slower feeding response, shifting a few cm on the rock.
Tmoriarty
New member
I checked nitrates today, they are still around 5, but I need a better test kit, the API one is to hard to judge. I have a Deepsand bed in the fuge but it only has a footprint of 12x18 or so, which is decent but not impressive. The advantage with the DSB in the fuge is I can change out the sand at anytime and not have to worry about it crashing the tank.
I may just add some new Macros to the fuge section and see if that lowers my nitrates the rest of the way.
Update on the mag... It is stuck good to the rock and hasn't move since introduction. It is fully inflated at all times that I have seen so far. The female clown is refusing to let the male in the nem and has gotten pretty aggressive towards him, she has bit him a number of times regardless of how much he trys to submit. Hopefully she gets more loving with him again soon, he doesn't need any more abuse. The mouth of the Mag is still a little open, half inch or so, but it seems overall quite healthy. I fed it today (Mysis) and its feeding response was very astute, it consummed the 15 or so mysis within a couple minutes.
One thing is for sure, its quite a bit harder for my shrimp to steal food from the magnifica... one almost got eaten when the mag got ahold of his leg and was reluctant to release him. Maybe Ill get lucky and the shrimps will get eaten (they drive me nuts daily). Little food thiefs.
I may just add some new Macros to the fuge section and see if that lowers my nitrates the rest of the way.
Update on the mag... It is stuck good to the rock and hasn't move since introduction. It is fully inflated at all times that I have seen so far. The female clown is refusing to let the male in the nem and has gotten pretty aggressive towards him, she has bit him a number of times regardless of how much he trys to submit. Hopefully she gets more loving with him again soon, he doesn't need any more abuse. The mouth of the Mag is still a little open, half inch or so, but it seems overall quite healthy. I fed it today (Mysis) and its feeding response was very astute, it consummed the 15 or so mysis within a couple minutes.
One thing is for sure, its quite a bit harder for my shrimp to steal food from the magnifica... one almost got eaten when the mag got ahold of his leg and was reluctant to release him. Maybe Ill get lucky and the shrimps will get eaten (they drive me nuts daily). Little food thiefs.
I'm glad your anemone is doing well for you. It sounds like it is settling in quite well for so soon. When I watched your video I can see your female is the perc from your avatar, but it's a black and white occy that's trying to get into the anemone--so not the same couple that's in your avatar?
Tmoriarty
New member
The male in my Avatar vanished from the tank around 4 months ago... couldn't find him anywhere. I replaced him with a Black and White occi who the female picked on for a day or two then was ok with them. He submitted right away to the female and after a month or so with her she was fine with him, they swim around the tank together and he constantly follows her everywhere.
Since the nem has been added she has gotten a little mean again. He still trys to follow her everywhere and submits to her non-stop (as seen in the no flow video). During the day he will hang out right out side the nem just a few inches. She chases him if he gets to close. At night time she lets him come in the nem and sleep with her. Maybe they are not as paired as I thought, lol. I know they do not naturally breed together but I have heard many instances where true/false percs breed and figured they were close enough to try it.
Update on the nem: It still hasn't moved and has been in the tank over 48 hours. I am pretty happy with this. the flow directed at it seems to have it flowing what appears natural to me. The anemone has grown in size a bit and seems to be about 10 inches at its widest section. I will take a new video this weekend once I get a chance to clean up my glass a little.
Since the nem has been added she has gotten a little mean again. He still trys to follow her everywhere and submits to her non-stop (as seen in the no flow video). During the day he will hang out right out side the nem just a few inches. She chases him if he gets to close. At night time she lets him come in the nem and sleep with her. Maybe they are not as paired as I thought, lol. I know they do not naturally breed together but I have heard many instances where true/false percs breed and figured they were close enough to try it.
Update on the nem: It still hasn't moved and has been in the tank over 48 hours. I am pretty happy with this. the flow directed at it seems to have it flowing what appears natural to me. The anemone has grown in size a bit and seems to be about 10 inches at its widest section. I will take a new video this weekend once I get a chance to clean up my glass a little
.My guess is that in time she will calm down and accept him again. With my maroons, I once moved them from one tank to another. The female suddenly treated him as though she didn't know him, even though they have spawned many times together. I put a clear divider between them, she calmed down, and then I removed the divider. They returned to happily spawning together. A change, like your mag, brings out the territoriality in the females, but then they adapt.
Great to hear your anemone is staying put. I'm guessing you have a winner there.
Great to hear your anemone is staying put. I'm guessing you have a winner there.
Tmoriarty
New member
It is staying put, eating, and growing (Im guessing adapting to the light). I put a 6 month burned in bulb over it to try to avoid light shock. One thing I do like about running 20k's is the PAR is lower while the PUR is higher. I have a brand new 20k radium ready to go in the light fixture but I don't want to put it right over the magnifica to burn it in so I will most likely put it on one of the sides for a month until it is burned in a bit.
Yah she changed moods almost immediately when I added the nem, She has accepted him at night but still wants nothing to do with him during the day. She does still swim with him when I approach the tank to feed. Lucky for her food from the "heavens" only falls a few inches from her new trusted home, lol.
I will post a video of the whole tank this weekend hopefully with something other than ambient
Yah she changed moods almost immediately when I added the nem, She has accepted him at night but still wants nothing to do with him during the day. She does still swim with him when I approach the tank to feed. Lucky for her food from the "heavens" only falls a few inches from her new trusted home, lol.
I will post a video of the whole tank this weekend hopefully with something other than ambient
Tmoriarty
New member
Update: Nem is still doing good, still have some nitrates 5-10 but have not seen issues from the nem. It has moved up the rocks a bit, I would guess mostly to get more light. It has however been healthy. It does not go through any deflation/inflation cycles that I have noticed.
Since it has been doing good I am going to try to pick up 1-3 more Magnificas while I am on vacation this up comming weekend. I have found a place that is selling them for quite cheap ($20), they are similar to mine, but some of a little more color. The place I am going to get them though has had some extremly colorful ones, he showed me pictures of some. And he will be getting me a couple more colorful ones in a couple months. Instead of relying on splits from these anemone I will just be stocking them to how I want them in the tank and selling any splits (I know they don't split like BTA's)
I will post new pictures next week, hopefully with new nems added
Since it has been doing good I am going to try to pick up 1-3 more Magnificas while I am on vacation this up comming weekend. I have found a place that is selling them for quite cheap ($20), they are similar to mine, but some of a little more color. The place I am going to get them though has had some extremly colorful ones, he showed me pictures of some. And he will be getting me a couple more colorful ones in a couple months. Instead of relying on splits from these anemone I will just be stocking them to how I want them in the tank and selling any splits (I know they don't split like BTA's)
I will post new pictures next week, hopefully with new nems added
Tmoriarty
New member
Also, I know from what I have seen people have not had magnifica breed successfully in a closed loop system. I know people have had them spawn, but not seen them actually land out and grow. With having multiple nems, I assume that I will end up with a mix of male/female Magnificas. I have my flow setup to be lower at night so maybe I will get lucky enough to see them breed in my tank.
I have had success with seeing my snails breed in the tank (Which I have read was uncommon to get them to grow). I have hundreds of Turbos that are smaller than 1/4 inch in the tank.
I have had success with seeing my snails breed in the tank (Which I have read was uncommon to get them to grow). I have hundreds of Turbos that are smaller than 1/4 inch in the tank.
