Couple of questions - new clowns / LR

[jet_jer]

I just purchased two new clowns - tank raised percula that are about 1 year old. I planned on placing them into a quarentine tank for 5-6 weeks, but that was derailed by my father-in-law who decided to take his tank down for a while - another story. So I was forced to place the clowns into my display (which I was paranoid about) they seem to be eating fine and using all of the tank, they switch from being close to the water surface to waydown into the rocks - very cool to see. Anyway, I purchased a bunch of different frozen foods and had some pellet food. How much do I feed them and how often, I know they are suppose to eat it all in 5 minutes, so the amount I think I've got - its how often that I need help with.

Now, I was given a piece of live rock from my father-in-law that was in his tank for close to 6 weeks now - he had an awfull time with green hair algea - but I think thats because he didn't use ro/di water. Anyway, I would like to place the rock in my sump, do I need to do anything other than scrub off the hair algea before placing it in there?

I also got two really big hermits - I don't want them in my disply - too big. Would they be ok in the refugium (no sand there) or shoudl I try to find a new home?

Thanks,
Jeremiah

 

[SkiFletch]

Well I can offer some advice about the clownfish. The book on them says to feed a wide variety of foods. Flake, shrimps, blood worms, pellets. Just feed them a little bit once or twice a day only what they can eat in a couple minutes. My clowns are actually picky eaters despite what the book says and really only devour Hikari Marine Pellets. I'm slowly trying to ween them onto flake, shrimp and bloodworms, but they just dont have much of a taste for those . Picky little brats

 

[bigkev76]

Feed the clowns moderately 1x daily, and a variety of food is good for all fish. Clean off the hair algae and put the rock in either your sump or refugium if there is room, and the hermits should do fine in a fuge as long as there is a little LR and stuff for them to forage for food on.

 

[jet_jer]

Thanks,
it seems mine will eat almost anything - they didn't seem to like my pelets this morning but there was probably too much other good stuff from the mix

jer

 

[chrisguy]

If the clowns are your first fish, they are basically in QT. The purpose of QT is to prevent a new fish from infecting your established fish. So, IMO you are fine.

For the LR, IMO, cook it. Get all the hair algae off that sucker before adding it to your system. I had a little hair algae on a rock that I put in my sump, now I have multiple rocks with hair algae.

How big is really big?? I would not put any large hermits in the display. Depending on the size, the can take out fish. They will eat snails as fast as they can. I've had to remove a cool looking hermit that kept trying to eat my conch. If you like the hermits, put them in the sump, but don't forget to feed them. I have several rock crabs in my sump. I feed them every 2-3 days.

 

[jet_jer]

Thanks Chris - they are the only two fish in the display and thats exactly what I ended up thinking to myself - just didn't want to have to go through the hastle of having to pull them back out of the display if ick is a problem. Doesn't matter now anyway .

The hermits are cool, but like you said I don't want these big ones (2.5-3" across) in my display.

I'll take the advice and cook it - I did that to my other rocks and everythin is good with them. The only thing I have now is some very neon green (under actinics) algea.

jer

 

[Long Time Beginner]

It looks like you've already got all the advice you need. Clowns are wonderful fish and I've had great luck with them. I will always have at least one clown in every tank I put together; they're kind of my good luck charm

It's also nice to see a newbie who is actually doing the right thing for their clowns. Just last week, I saw a mother buy four "Nemos" (two for each of two daughters). They were taking them home to put them in little 2-gallon plastic "tanks"...that they bought at the same time!

 

[SuzLucky]

I agree with Chrisguy about the hermits. I think that the one's that are in my tank are responsible for the demise of most of my snails. When I get my sump and refugium up and running they are going to find a new home there. Right now they are helping with the algae, but not much.