Anemone and perc questions...HELP!

[salll]

Alrighty, well recently I purchased 2 more anemones, making there be 3 in my tank. I have a pair of percs that havent been very friendly lately. Well let me rewind and give you a background..

I bought the 2 percs and they were super friendly. There was a distinguished female and male. I added one anemone and the female guarded it with her life, darting at any of the fish that came near.

This is where we jump back foward 3 weeks to present time--

Alright well a week ago i ordered an anemone online(which just arrived this morning) figuring that 2 anemones in the tank would give both clowns a good home, even if they didnt want to be paired. Well yesturday I went to the LFS, who was having a sale on BTA"s so I had to pick one up. Last night I monitored what happened with 2 anemones, and queen B clownfish guarded both. I even placed the new one at the opposite side of the tank for this reason. But with no success, the male was stuck swimming/sleeping under a rock.

I understand the female kind of runs the show(Only relating to fish!!! ha) but this is sort of discouraging. I added the 3rd anemone to the tank this morning after getting acclimated and the female just does a patrol now around all 3, making sure no fish is near them. Is this normal? Or do I just have an ill tempered fish who isnt friendly?


Question 2---
My first anemone I purchased was a rose bta. The tenticles are very skinny and sharp looking, no bubbles and not inflated. Color looks stunning. The two new anemones I purchased are a Metallic green and rose bta, along with a green bta. The two new ones are inflated and look like alot of bubble tips i have seen. Although, I like the look of the rose I have. Slender and very defined tenticles. Is there any trick to get the other anemones like this? Or is it just the way they will be?

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.
-Ben

 

[jmadison]

feeding them can help, improve water quality. What skimmer are you running on your cube? You have a lot of anemone in a small tank, and you said you have other fish than the two percs? Be prepared for the female to pretty much claim the whole tank has her territory. Normally they only claim a little bit around their host as 'theirs' but since you are dealing with such a confined space that pretty much means all the space in the tank. watch for fish with ouchies!

 

[salll]

The only other two were starters, blue chromis. they just act like robots, same thing everyday, no personallity. But anyways, I looked around and talked to my lfs, they said it would work pretty well doing an anemone tank,as long as i up'd the lighting and kept em fed, do you think its a bad idea?

 

[Toddrtrex]

Think you are going to have issues with 3 BTAs in a 29. They can/will get fairly large. The last one I had was over 15 inches when I sold it ( and that was after a split ). Going to have to stay on top of the water quality. How long has the tank been set up and what lights do you have?

 

[jmadison]

agree with todd, yes it is possible to make a nem tank, but we need to know more about your setup. lights, skimmer, parameters, how often you doing water changes? Its not going to take long for 3 btas to take over most of the realestate in your cube. thats not too say its impossible, you're jsut going to be diligente. How mature is your tank?

 

[salll]

I have a new light system ordered from nano-customs. PCI 144watts. I have an oceanic protien skimmer. My nitrites and nitrates are 0, and my ammonia is like... 0.2? Its almost all gone, but the tank is about 2 months old, so i have a small trace of ammonia there, but im adding bio-zyme twice a day. I also only have a few mushrooms and 1 small colony of zoo's, which i can move or probably sell to the lfs if need be. I have live rock rubble instead of bioballs. I also do weekly water changes.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I would be concerned about having any ammonia readings and having anemones.

 

[jmadison]

id be vigilent in your water changes and consider another skimmer option.