9g nano big enough for a small ocellaris?

[lionbacker54]

i am new to the hobby, and have started a 9g nano. tank is cycled already with live rock and a DSB of live sand. only have a clean up crew in there now.

i wondered if the tank is big enough for an ocellaris, tank bred.

if yes, can you advise between these three sources

1. my lfs. only has 1 clown, and it is a fish that someone had for 1.5 yrs before selling it to him. tiny. maybe 1.5 - 2.0 inches only.

2. pet supplies plus. they have a tank filled with tank bred clownfish. not sure of the age, but they are pretty small. they look healthy to me, but i did see two dead fish in some other tanks (a maroon and a tomato). kind of scary.

3. petco. i know these are tank bred since i confirmed it with ORA. look healthy enough to me.

thanks

 

[dalilgriffith]

petco occelaris are good. thats about the only thing ill advocate with them.

U wanna try to get two at the same time. 9 gallons is fine... the min is 10 but i dont see a problem.

 

[lionbacker54]

why get two at the same time? i was thinking of just getting one. would just one be lonely? i don't think i could successfully breed them.

 

[dalilgriffith]

its not about breeding. one clown alone is just depressing. They are such a "Pair" breed. Do you like to be alone?

 

[miniwhinny]

Can't comment on the tank size for two...I'm to much of a newb...but if folks think a 9 is big enough for two then if you can get two - you'll love how they interact. My pair sleep on each other at night and they're never alone so you can tell they appreciate having a mate.

Quite a few people here have Petco clowns and say they are very hardy.

 

[lionbacker54]

points well taken. two ocellaris from petco, coming right up!

 

[tufacody]

Do regular waterchanges, maybe a gallon a week, and you will be fine for at least 2 years. Once the bug bites, you will get larger fast enough

 

[miniwhinny]

...and we demand pictures of your new babies in their new home a.s.a.p.

 

[dalilgriffith]

pix or it didnt happen

 

[lionbacker54]

http://s430.photobucket.com/albums/qq24/lionbacker54/

i ended up only getting one. the petco guy refused to sell me a second when he found out i only had a 9g.

 

[deepblue68]

nice tank.good luck.

 

[chrisstie]

I think the petco guy actually made a smart choice. Thats interesting. Yeah, I don't feel its humane to have a pair in that size tank. You may have run into oxygen issues, water quality issues, etc.

Despite what others say here clowns dont have to be a pair whether they feel they look better that way or not. Having one rewarding fish that is healthy > a pair under stress any day.

 

[garygb]

Joyce Wilkerson says a 10 gallon is the minimum size tank a pair of ocellaris or perculas can be safely be kept. She is regarded by many to be the last word on keeping clownfish. Would 9 vs. 10g make that much difference? If you are good about making water changes every week or two and run activated carbon and use protein skimming, I think you could pull it off. Just know, that your clownfish will soon become female when left alone. If you decide to get another clown, make sure it is a juvenile. On the whole argument of one vs. two, I think a clown can be healthy either way, but my guess is they prefer to be paired. If not, they would be solitary in the wild rather than found in pairs and/or groups.

BTW, if you ever decide you want to get an anemone for the clown, you will want a larger tank. All of the host anemones get too large for that size aquarium.

Best of luck with your new ocellaris. Your tank looks good. The chaeto ( I think I saw a ball of chato, right?) will help to maintain the phosphate and nitrate levels. Also, I think I saw a protein skimmer in the pic. Those are great for reducing wastes. Feed sparingly and one you get used to the regimen of taking care of your clownfish, consider getting a little mate for it.

 

[chrisstie]

Joyce writes nice books and provides good information especially for breeding, but I worked at an LFS in the summertime in Florida and had people with mostly 12g tanks (the aquapods) coming in with problems with their fish. There wasn't enough oxygen exchange for the fish they were keeping and the pH was drastically off from where it should be. Maybe in other climates its safe to keep them in so small of a tank. Hey, I like an apartment just fine but I feel a whole lot more comfortable in a house. Hopefully the OP will like the hobby enough to expand to a bigger tank someday so the clownfish will have some luxory

Just keep coming back here and ask any questions you may have on the clowns and we'll be happy to help. When you're new to the hobby there is so much to learn and absorb it isn't always easy keeping everything straight and unfortunately sometimes the fish can suffer so don't be afraid to ask if you run across anything!

 

[lionbacker54]

thanks for the advice all. the clownfish looks pretty healthy, and rules the tank. it is alarming to me how greedy it is. it attacks the mysis shrimp i feed so quickly and voraciously. i read about a three minute rule where you feed as much as a fish can eat in three minutes, then scoop the rest out. no matter how much i add, it is all gone within less than a minute. i'm scared to add more since, as you said, it is best to feed sparingly. i'd estimate i feed about 10 mysis shrimp per feeding, twice a day. that's a lot, isn't it? the fish gives me the impression it could eat twice that amount, easy.

also, maybe the fish has already turned into the dominant female? it used to get scared when i reached in to reposition coral or what not. now it is attacking me.

 

[garygb]

There is no exact right amount to feed your fish. If you keep feeding it, it will eventually stop showing an interest in more food once it is stuffed. If you feed more it will grow faster and if you feed less, it will grow more slowly. As long as the stomach is somewhat plump, your fish will be getting enough food.

You just got the ocellaris, so it isn't necessarily a female yet. Again, using Joyce Wilkerson's book as a reference, she says the gender change can occur in as little as a month when a clownfish is kept alone. Regardless, if you decide you are going to add another one at some time in the future, just get one of the small ones in the lfs tank. That will pretty much insure that it is still an "intermediate male." Ocellaris aren't generally too brutal when it comes to adding a new, smaller future mate. Nonetheless, the introduction will go more smoothly if there is a clear divider between the old fish and the new fish. Once the new fish shimmies and defers to the old fish, the clear divider can be removed. At that point, the dominance hierarchy has been established and there shouldn't be any real problems. For ocellaris, this can happen very quickly.

 

[gnorts]

I have two petco clowns and there awsome and actually where the first fish i put in. I thought I was done cycling caseu everything was cleared after the intial cycle for a week and all of a sudden after adding them I havde some ammonia and nitrite at .5 they lived fine all the way through the 2 day period of fixing it and are still alive 4 months later I love them and actually have a 20 gallon high tank cycling for just them two right now going to try to ventur into anemones with them and set up the 20 gallon just for that. Well see how it goes.

 

[chrisstie]

A clownfish's stomach is about the size of its eye, though for some reason they can always choke down about 10 more than what they need. I'd do maybe 2-3 mysis.. 2 times a day if you feel you have to feed that much.

Just keep the water quality up in that size tank and don't feel too guilty if you overfeed once in a while while the fish is young, he will grow fast with the extra food.