Fifteen juvenile ocellaris experiment

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bradam

New member
So after pretty much nuking my 240 gal tank I rebuilt it with the sole purpose of putting 1, maybe 2 Heteractis magnifica in it. I purchased 15 juvenile ocellaris to rule the tank from https://www.fisheyeservices.com/ .

First day I put the little crew in they all stayed bunched up in a golf ball size huddle and moved in unison, was quite entertaining. Try as I might everytime they'd see me with the camera they'd break the ball formation and swarm to the glass to check me out. Best shot I could get was

golfball.jpg


Day 2 they kind of started to spread out a bit and explore but all stuck very close togther and kind of explored as a group

day2.jpg


Today they seemed to split up into 2 groups and explore even more, but one or two would leave thier group and race over to the other group and vice versa. Been pretty amusing to watch. The bulk of them seem to like to hang around my plate coral piece while the smaller group seems to hover around my sebea anemone, none of the fish have come close enough to brush them though.

day3.jpg


I'm hoping they form a single mated pair and the rest will stay togther as juveniles. If not I've got a couple other smaller tanks to seperate them if I have to.

Now the quest begins to find a healthly Mag for them to host..


Well maybe have to wait on the Mag, out'a all the #$@! to happen I noticed my bubbletip split this morning. I figured I'd come from work and one would have moved a little but instead there was only one. Found a few pieces in the other in my sump :furious:
 
I wish you luck! It's a difficult thing to do, but it would be awesome to achieve! I would think it would be really cool if they created two groups, each with a hierarchy and ever so often they get into fights. You could call one group the Greasers and the other the Socs, like the book The Outsiders. :)
 
Very cool. Most likely scenario is 2-4 breeding pairs, a bunch of subordinates and couple deaths.

I can't wait to see how it looks in a year!
 
Similar to mobert's experiment, but not as many fish. I'd like to stress to others that there does seem to be an exit strategy to deal with aggression.
 
bues0022 said:
Similar to mobert's experiment, but not as many fish. I'd like to stress to others that there does seem to be an exit strategy to deal with aggression.
Click to expand...

Mobert also has many more anemones. More anemones = more territory = fewer territorial squabbles.
 
I can't recall off the top of my head, did Mobert start w/ ALL juvies, or didn't she have the original pair that bred them?
I would think I'd prefer to have one larger so dominance is determined immediately.
Either way, cool pics, and hope it goes well.
 
If you're going to keep a lot of clowns and a lot of anemone in the tank, I suggest you cover all your pump intake with some kind of foam. Also, make sure you some kind of overflow extender so that a couple of anemone don't roam and end up clogging your drain.
Looks good and good luck with the project.
 
I don't think so, eventually at least one will claim dominance over the others. This process can sometimes get a bit violent, hence the previous suggestion to out in one larger to create a pecking order from the onset.
 
If you had 3 clowns in a tank, two would bully one of them. If you had 10 clowns in a tank, there would be a few bullies. If you had 50 clowns in a tank, they would equally share the blow of bullying, and if there are more clowns to be picked on then each one will get picked on less frequently than if there were a few clowns in the tank. Strength of a colony is in numbers, so I would add trillions of clowns to the tank. :)
 
So I got them a little present today...

rit1.jpg


The funny thing is they haven't shown the slightest interest at all in my bubble tips or sebea but as soon as I pulled my arm out of the tank after sitting this new guy down they formed a school and 1 at a time started doing drive by's to investigate the new nem. About an hour later I caught one already playing in it.

The nem's foot is straddling 2 ridges in the rock and has me slightly worried as there's a gaping cave under most of it's foot atm but hopefully it'll settle down overnight.
 
bradam said:
The funny thing is they haven't shown the slightest interest at all in my bubble tips or sebea but as soon as I pulled my arm out of the tank after sitting this new guy down they formed a school and 1 at a time started doing drive by's to investigate the new nem. About an hour later I caught one already playing in it.
.
Click to expand...

Thats a cool example of how tank bred clowns are capable of recognizing one of their natural hosts. Nice mag BTW.
 
Are all of these clowns from the same hatch?

If so do you plan on raising the fry once they begin to lay? I would be concerned with the limited gene pool and the resulting inbred fish resulting in massive culling.

I am very interested to see the progress of this thread and wish you the best of luck! I have always wanted a species specific tank for clowns.
 
brannock_16 said:
Are all of these clowns from the same hatch?

If so do you plan on raising the fry once they begin to lay? I would be concerned with the limited gene pool and the resulting inbred fish resulting in massive culling.

I am very interested to see the progress of this thread and wish you the best of luck! I have always wanted a species specific tank for clowns.
Click to expand...

Yes all 15 are from the same clutch. I have no intention of trying to raise clownfish fry anytime soon. I do want to get another Mag and see if eventually I'm lucky enough to have a male and female nem.

This morning I got up and 11 little clowns were all sleeping in the nem, other 4 where kind off in a small group a few feet away tho. The nem moved slightly and is pretty much getting directly blasted from the Kora8 on the far end of the tank. Kinda funny everytime that pump cycles on all the little clowns try to hang on in the anemone for dear life lol
 
bradam said:
This morning I got up and 11 little clowns were all sleeping in the nem, other 4 where kind off in a small group a few feet away tho. The nem moved slightly and is pretty much getting directly blasted from the Kora8 on the far end of the tank. Kinda funny everytime that pump cycles on all the little clowns try to hang on in the anemone for dear life lol
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... I think we need a vid of this! :beer:
 
I had 3 Clowns and a added a royal gurama for a scapgoat.. didnt turn out so good 2 weeks ago for the smallest clown.. they chased him to death.. I actually heard him hit the tank then dissapear.. about 10 mins later.
The other 2 and grouma and just fine.
 
streak said:
I had 3 Clowns and a added a royal gurama for a scapgoat.. didnt turn out so good 2 weeks ago for the smallest clown.. they chased him to death.. I actually heard him hit the tank then dissapear.. about 10 mins later.
The other 2 and grouma and just fine.
Click to expand...

In a 10g tank? No wonder. Long term, a 10g tank isn't going to be large enough to support those two clowns, let alone a royal gramma added to it.

To the OP, very interesting experiment. Good luck and keep us posted!!
 
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