Clownfish, Crabs, and Shrimp Oh My ;p

marinereef28

New member
In a tank that I am setting up for my grandparents we r now thinking of what is goin 2 go n. We were wondering if anyone has had any luck having a pair of clownfish, a pair of anemone crabs, and couple glass anemone shrimp all sharing the same H. magnifica. Or will they all have to have thier own separate anemones. Also if there may be a better anemone for the job pls let me no. thx
 
I haven't had any experience with the crabs but Karen doesn't speak well of them... http://www.karensroseanemones.com/theanemonecrab.htm

My B&W occ is VERY protective of her RBTA... a mitrix crab crawled underneath it once and she kept pecking at it until it ran off... so I doubt they'd like to share the same nem. I'm no expert though, just my guess. Hopefully some people with some experience will chime in.
 
I have had no problems keeping an anemone crab with a pair of latezonatus clowns in an RBTA. I thought for a while that the crab was dead, but it seems he just moves to the underside when the clowns are in it.
 
RBTA is always a great choice. Easiest to keep (IMHO) and are available as captive cloned. I have three myself!
 
ok heres what ive seen.

with anemone carbs they do irritate the tentacles to a degree. they dont steal food but more or less push it off the nem(trying to defend anemone??).

anemone shrimp are down right harmful to anemones, they still food and if they dont get enough food they will begin to consume the anemone itself. plus theyll irritate the tentacles as well.

and well clownfish just dont like to share their nem with no one even though they will make the exception every once in a while.

and getting a BTA clone is more enviro. friendly.
 
Will the Porcelean crabs inhabit the same anemones as Amphiprion ocellaris? Also if they shared the same anemone would they still display the same behavior like courtship and spawning?
 
Anemone crabs are totally harmless to anemones actually. They prefer anemones with short tentacules like Stichodactyla gigantea so they can stay on the anemone. Otherwise, they just hide underneat the anemone (when you have a bta or magnifica forexample) and usually either dont get enough food or get eaten by other creatures as they are very defenceless without an anemone. Some of them can live long in tanks without any aggressive tank mates though but its best to keep them with short tentaculed anemones.

There are many species of anemone shrimps. Most of them are in the genus Periclimenes. The most common one is Periclimenes brevicarpalis. This species feed on anemone tissue and i wouldnt recommend keeping these shrimps in home aquaria because they can cause a lot of stress for anemone which may lead to death. Without an anemone, they will starve. Another anemone shrimp species is Periclimenes holthuisi. Its much better choise than P. brevicarpalis and can be kept in aquariums. Periclimenes species are usually found on anemones with long tentacules like Heteractis magnifica. One of the most common anemone shrimp species is sexy shrimp (Thor amboinensis). They are also safe but are not usually as loyal to their anemones as Periclimenes species.

The behaviour of clownfish against crab and shrimps is related with the size of the anemone, species of the anemone, species of the clownfish and character of clownfish. Ocellaris usually wont mind the shrimps or crabs IF the anemone is big enough. They may even benefit from the cleaning sessions of anemone shrimps as Periclimenes species usually clean parasites of fish like cleaner shrimps.
 
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