clown fuge

[Moonstream]

I just had an idea, I really like both the percua, occelaris, and clarkii clowns. it is my understanding that the perc and oc will pair up, and can live together, I know the clarkii can't live w/ them however. I was thinking about keeping either the perc and oc clowns in my fuge or the clarkii clown in my fuge. I would feed them normally and set up the fuge so that the fish could live and go about normal life. One of the reasons I want to keep the clarki is because then I can watch the clarkii w/ a nem, as I read that oc clowns are not like the others because they dont feed the nem before them selves ect...
So the fuge will be part of a 20L tank and will be 18-20 inches long, and 12" wide and tall. Will this work? There will be a 65 watt bulb over it so I was thinking about growing some xenia if it is the oc/ perc, or a yellow leather for the clarkii. I would rather have the clarkii in the main tank, tho, so that I can get a nem for it. Will the skunk clowns act like the clarkii? Could a pair or 1 live in the fuge? here is my planed stocking for the main tank
1-2 clowns (1-4 if I go through w/ this)
1 shrimp goby
1 neon goby (willing to skip if it means keepint the other clowns)
1 blenny
1 royal gramma
1 scarlet cleaner
1 peppermint srimp
4 reef hermits
2 turbo snails
1 pistol shrimp
2 bumble bee snails
1 BTA
various corals and polyps
maybe more small inverts, not sure yet.

pls help me
:lol:

 

[Moonstream]

hello?

 

[Anemone]

I don't think any specific species of clown can be guaranteed to "feed" it's anemone. In fact, there is quite a bit of controversy over whether the behavior is actually feeding the anemone. Many damselfish take large chunks of food and "hide" it in a crack or crevice in a rock or coral with the evident intent to come back and eat it later... in the case of an anemone, the hiding place gets a meal.

Also, some fish steal food from their anemones - some eat it (furthering the damselfish comparison of using the anemone as a food repository) and others just take the food and spit it out away from the anemone (protecting/cleaning the anemone, who knows?).

FWIW,
Kevin

 

[Moonstream]

hmmm... well could I still do the fuge idea?

 

[Anemone]

Sure. Putting clown(s) in the fuge would be no different than breeders putting their broodstock in interconnected tanks.

Kevin

 

[elegance coral]

I have 2 clowns in my fuge and they are lovin life. It is a 55gl fuge with lots of pods for them though.

 

[Slakker]

As I understand it, clowns aren't witnessed feeding their host anemone in the wild, either. It's one of those "captive" phenomena.

 

[Moonstream]

cool. Which would be better to keep in the fuge? I will likely only keep 1 clown in the fuge. Will they eat many pods? I still want to be able to support a pod population. Also, if I put lava rock in the fuge, will that be adble to take the place of the LR?

 

[pbukow]

The ocellaris/percs will most likely do better in the fuge because of the size its going to be. Clarkii's, in the wild, are one of the species of clowns that will travel very far from its host nem from time to time, and they get pretty big too.

I don't know how well lava rock is going to simulate the effects that real live rock has on a tank but with all of the large holes it should serve as great pod farms.

 

[Moonstream]

will tufa rocks be okay? 10 pounds of LR will be used to seed the tufa rock, which will be broken into small peices and used as a base structure, as this will be a show fuge.