First Anemone, Very Exciting

M

monicaswizzle

Premium Member
Well--

Tomorrow my first Anemone should arrive via FedEx. It is a BTA that was on Drs F&S that I really liked, so I bought it at the same time as the pair of tank bred ocellaris. The "plan" had been to get the clowns through QT and settled into the display before adding the BTA, but I hope this will work out. I will QT the clowns and put the BTA directly into the display. If the clowns look healthy and the BTA is having any trouble settling in I may shorten the clown QT, but I hope the BTA will do fine without them. Very Exciting! I should be off to bed, but I probably won't sleep that well anyway, with visions of clowns and BTA dancing in my head.

I will be back. Hopefully with good news. Now, off to bed!
 
Well, yes I am. Now is the worst part. I slept my mandatory 5 hours and am at work. I have a lot to do, but will be taking the rest of the day off as soon as the shipment arrives. Usually FedEx delivers here about 10am, but with my luck today will be the day that I have to stick around until 4pm waiting for the shipment.

Some of us are a tad on the excitable side. Prior to motorcycle trips (my other outrageously expensive hobby), I usually can't really sleep for a few days to a week just imagining all of the cool places that I will see. At least with this hobby I can get up in the middle of the night and go stare at the tank.

Cheers!
 
Reading your first post, I have one comment. Anemones do fine without clowns. in fact, if an anemone is having trouble, it's probably better to keep clowns away from it, rather than shorten their Qt and get them into the tank with the anemone.

Ocellaris aren't generally too bad, but some clowns can be downright deadly with newly acclimated or stressed anemones.

oh, and you also realize that ocellaris are not found in BTAs in the wild, so your captive bred pair may or may not adopt your BTA as a host, right?

Kevin
 
I would not put the clowns with the anemone for about 1-2 weeks, to allow the anemone to settle in the tank without having clowns stressing it. Also you bought two clowns that means your anemone has to be of some considerable size, i dont remeber the rule but your anemone has to be a certain size bigger than your clown to be able to safely host it, and last like anemone said your tank raised clowns may lack the instinct to host in an anemone they dont normaly host in the wild.
 
I have to agree with what everyone is saying here. I had some TOUGH maroon clown fish before I took down my tank (moving) and they used to harass the heck out my BTA.

Ocellaris will hopefully be less rough with your BTA but don't think that the BTA needs them at all. The more time your BTA has to settle the better.
 
I know how excited you are. I spend at least half an hour each night before I leave the store just to relax with our tank. I have three BTA's in our tank and I'm waiting for them to be large enough before adding clowns. One has been in the tank about 3 weeks and the other two about a week. If you check here you will see why two were added to our tank at one time: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1164738 I would not have added two together since the tank is still so young. Anyway, they are doing fine without a clown. I feed them three times a week. Good luck with your shipment and hope you don't have to sit on those pins all day.
 
The rule of thumb I like to go by is the anemone has to be about 2-3 times larger in diameter than the biggest clown hosting.

If you have Maroon clownfish then I would go 4 times bigger in diameter since they are such an aggressive clownfish.


Any updates on the shipment?
 
Thanks for the thoughts and interest. The shipment arrived around 10:30 this morning and I am just now finishing the acclimation process (I live two hours from work, where I had the shipment sent). Several comments/questions on the comments--

1) The Anemone is 6 inches across (per DFS--hard to tell in a fresh shipment, but minimum of 4) and the clowns are still jueveniles, so the size should not be an issue.
2) I have read contradictory references regarding BTA and ocellaris hosting in the wild. Several books indicate that this combination does occur and some do not. My impression is that the books that indicated the combination were newer, so I assumed it is a newer discovery/development. I can dig the references out if you are interested.
3) I didn't get the clowns for the BTA, or even really vice versa. I got them both for me to enjoy, but part of the enjoyment will be the hosting, assuming it occurs.
4) I would have liked to go with S. gigantia just on looks alone, and all references I have seen do say it naturally hosts o's, but most also agree that it is much more touchy in captivity, possibly rarer in the native reefs and possibly more "aggressive" with regards to eating other fish in the tank. For all of those reasons I decided to kill (hope not!) a BTA rather than a carpet.

So, I will take the "hint" and not shorten the clown QT even if the BTA is "restless" or sickly looking. It arrived in great shape by the way (helps that I live in WI, so very close to DFS and minimal in ship time).

Time to do some more acclimation tasks. Thanks again!
 
PS--Almost time to move the BTA to the tank. Can I use my hands for that, or are rubber gloves strongly advised? I know carpets and hands don't mix, but not sure about BTA. My gloves are clunky!
 
LOL, well mine doesn't seem to sting. If you are worried you could always get those medical gloves.
 
Thanks Debi--

I used my hands to transfer it to the tank with no seeming ill effects to me or it. I have read that some people have pretty strong reactions to carpet anemone stings and that even for those that don't the carpet can grasp them so well that some tentacles tear off during the removal of the hand from the anemone. Never have read one way or another about BTA's, or if I did it didn't make an impression.

Anyway, I had to turn the power heads off because the BTA didn't immediately affix to the area of rock that I hope it decides to like and blew down onto the sand. Now it is sitting on the proffered rock and looking mostly limp, but otherwise healthy. Any idea how long I should wait before resuming powerhead operation? I assume it can't really "pick" a good home if the current is dead, but I don't want to blow it about the tank while it is "choosing".

What fun!
 
Thanks again Debi.

Regarding the powerheads, I decided to try them again after about 15 minutes and the BTA seems to be firmly affixed enough that it is no problem. It is however "on the move". So far it has wandered about 6 inches (surprises me how fast it can travel, considering the lack of clear foot structure). It is sitting on top of one of my Hawaiian feather dusters, which I hope is just a temporary thing while it heads off to wherever it is going. I would hate to have to try and pry the feather duster out from under its foot. I also have wondered if it would try to eat the feather duster, but at least so far it is foot contact and not tentacle contact. Wonder where it will be when I get back from dinner?
 
Yeah, you can't control where they want to be. I feel lucky that mine moved almost to the middle of my tank and hasn't moved since.
 
Well, that little rascle! As I hoped, the move across the FD was just temporary. On the down side, the BTA decided to try and descend into a "cave area" that I have constructed by climbing down the "feathers" of the FD. That couldn't support the weight of the BTA and the FD withdrew the feathers and the BTA tumbled onto the DSB. It briefly started to "blow" in the current and I was prepared to intervene if it started to move towards one of the powerheads. But, it resettled onto the DSB (upside down), righted itself and is now "contemplating" whether to advance onto the live rock rubble that has my clams on it or to start climbing the wall of the tank. I am hoping for the live rock rubble, but I hope it doesn't decide to sit on (or eat, they are small) one of the clams. I assume that it is not at all likely to decide to stay on the sand. That would be fine with me (if healthy for the BTA), but I believe they "always" attach to hard substrate.

Still hoping to make dinner before the show livens up again.

PS Debi--What with your "horny" little icon winking at me all the time, it is very distracting. Have you no self respect or decency? If the answer is "no", that is a good thing in my book, but not behavior suitable for these public forums. What part of WY? I was a wee lad in Cheyenne, but that was so long ago that my cowboy boots don't even fit on my hands and my six guns (cap guns) are long retired and the jean jacket with "Jesse James" on the snaps and a "ruby" at the throat is long gone to goodwill. I really was a cowboy once, even if now I am a fat and faded mid westerner. Etc Etc
 
Your clam will not be eaten either. If the BTA does start to engage in a stinging behavior with the clams, the clams will withdrawl into their shells.
 
OK, thanks. I assumed the clam is plenty protected (unless the BTA sits on it for days), but hate to have a $60 clam be a snack. I don't plan to feed the BTA for a day or two unless someone advises differently.
 
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