Help with deciding on an anemone for my clowns

[Hitch08]

I have two clowns. I am told that one is male and one is female. Unfortunately, I don't know whether they are ocellaris or percula clowns. Last night, I tried to take some photos of them using my cell phone. They aren't great, but you should be able to see them here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130973762@N02/shares/3kBe8z

I would love to get an anemone that will (hopefully) host them. It looks like the best options are either a Heteractis magnifica, Stichodactyla gigantea or a Stichodactyla haddoni. Or, if they are perculas, then a Heteractis crispa.

I really like the look of the H. Magnifica. However, Liveaquaria indicates that it is "Expert Only."

As noted below, I have a 120 gallon tank with a 40g breeder sump. I have three Ecotech Radion lights over the top. I started using NOPOX several months ago, in order to drop phosphates and nitrates. Four weeks ago, I switched to vinegar. NO3 and PO4 are now very low. I am having some issues with cyano, although it's getting better with the low nutrients. I also realized that my flow was probably too low and upped that recently.

Although my tank is closing in three years of existence, I don't consider myself an expert. When I originally set up the tank, I ordered live rock from TBS. The package came with a flower pot anemone. It's doing great, although the clowns have no interest in it.

When I had a saltwater tank back in the early 90's, I didn't have very good luck with carpet anemones, although those were the days of the wet/dry filters and I wasn't running MH bulbs.

Any advice, suggestions, wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Hitch08]

I’ve never post directly to RC. Trying now.

Well, great feature. The photos, however, not so great.

 

[Hitch08]

My LFS has a few LTA's in stock, so that's an option as well. How likely is it for my clowns to take to a LTA?

Sounds like the H. Magnificas pretty difficult to keep alive? I'd appreciate some tips on what is more likely to survive and host the clowns.

Thanks!

 

[ClownNut]

BTA will be an easy to take care of anemone, most likely you can find some in your club. that's already get use to tank life.
if you want

 

[Uncle99]

BTA will be an easy to take care of anemone, most likely you can find some in your club. that's already get use to tank life.

Super advice!
Mine just love my BTA, be ready to be patient, sometimes host right away, sometimes maybe months......one thing for sure.....they will find it....

 

[Hitch08]

Unfortunately, I'm not a member of any clubs. But that is a great idea! I spent a while this weekend reading threads in this sub-forum. I've gone back and forth about what direction I'd like to go. I'm hung up on that Mag as I think it's such a gorgeous anemone. Would love to have one.

But then I saw that someone recently posted a link to this thread: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1259398

The BTA's in that thread look really good. I'm certainly not going for a clown harem tank, but I could get a rose bulb anemone and think that I'd be happy with it.

As far as being ready to order it, I found the fish flox on Ebay. Should I go ahead and order it before the BTA? I think the answer is yes. I do have a 10 gallon hospital tank and various PH's and small heaters around. I have some egg crate.

Not certain what to do regarding a light. I can buy a bulb for temporary use from Lowes/Home Depot. I do have an H380 Halo II LED Algae grow light. I bought it for my refuge, but wasn't very happy with it. It's now in a bin. I tend to think that it's the wrong spectrum, but don't know if it will work well enough if the nem needs treatment. Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated! I'm trying to do this the right way.

 

[ClownNut]

i am surprise that you havent join a local reef club in your area. i think time to do it.
a bta from a local guy mean you dont need to do anything but add it to your tank. i think to me that your best option. plus you most likely spend way less than order one online.

 

[davocean]

So many people give BTA's to their occs or percs and then wonder why it takes forever for them to accept it as host, and that's because it's not really a natural host match.

You were actually on track looking at natural match options.
I don't think mags are really that hard to keep, the only hard part is getting a healthy one or knowing how to treat it on arrival if needed.
Once you get past that just give a perch high up for good light and they tend to stay, and your clowns will most likely dive in right away.

 

[ClownNut]

i never have any issue with any occs or percs to host RBTA
that morning
https://youtu.be/8LaOpUZOak0
that afternoon.
https://youtu.be/PdEDCJkW8LQ

 

[davocean]

Some people get lucky and it happens fast, but many don't.
There are countless posts on this, it's probably the number one topic I see posted here, that's why many long time clown/nem keepers who have come to recognize this issue try to inform others as to what the real issue is.

On top of the hosting issue, there have been many that have witnessed black color fade from clowns w/ unnatural matches, myself included on that one, we don't really understand why, but I know w/ mine and many others after giving a natural host the black eventually came back.

There are benefits to matching w/ a natural host

 

[ClownNut]

the only time i have issue with lost color were when the clown got super lazy dont comes out to eat...

 

[Evolve29]

I have two clowns. I am told that one is male and one is female. Unfortunately, I don't know whether they are ocellaris or percula clowns. Last night, I tried to take some photos of them using my cell phone. They aren't great, but you should be able to see them here:



https://www.flickr.com/photos/130973762@N02/shares/3kBe8z



I would love to get an anemone that will (hopefully) host them. It looks like the best options are either a Heteractis magnifica, Stichodactyla gigantea or a Stichodactyla haddoni. Or, if they are perculas, then a Heteractis crispa.



I really like the look of the H. Magnifica. However, Liveaquaria indicates that it is "Expert Only."



As noted below, I have a 120 gallon tank with a 40g breeder sump. I have three Ecotech Radion lights over the top. I started using NOPOX several months ago, in order to drop phosphates and nitrates. Four weeks ago, I switched to vinegar. NO3 and PO4 are now very low. I am having some issues with cyano, although it's getting better with the low nutrients. I also realized that my flow was probably too low and upped that recently.



Although my tank is closing in three years of existence, I don't consider myself an expert. When I originally set up the tank, I ordered live rock from TBS. The package came with a flower pot anemone. It's doing great, although the clowns have no interest in it.



When I had a saltwater tank back in the early 90's, I didn't have very good luck with carpet anemones, although those were the days of the wet/dry filters and I wasn't running MH bulbs.



Any advice, suggestions, wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

I have done both bubble and LT. My local lfs says they hate LTs due to lack of hardiness.
I don't know but my LTs are very hardy.
I got one at Petco heavily bleached that shrunk to the size of a dime and thought he would disappear and die. He got his brown color back and growing very well.
I like LTs they tend to stick in the sand VS crawl around on glass and if you have overflow external filter get sucked in which I lost one that way.
While they will move, they are less likely to go up and stick themselves on the glass.
I just have the brown ones but between the two I prefer LTs by far. I know the BTAs are super popular but I hate the fact they tend to roam all over the place including on the side of the glass and possibly get sucked into the filter. Here are my two LTs. I need to clean the glass, so sorry on the dirty glass. The smaller one was the heavily bleached white LT which at one time was the size of a dime and no stick. Now the anemone tentacles is super sticky. I go with LTs and the purple LTs are simply beauties.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Indymann99]

my vote is BTA

Vid below
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/152505950@N07/40066178901/in/dateposted-public/" title="IMG_1186"><img src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4741/40066178901_350231b637.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="IMG_1186"></a>******** async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Indymann99]

And yes to those of you who look close, I do have 3x clowns.. they have been together for 5+ yrs and the smallest doesnt get picked on at all.

 

[930Reef]

I have done both bubble and LT. My local lfs says they hate LTs due to lack of hardiness.
I don't know but my LTs are very hardy.
I got one at Petco heavily bleached that shrunk to the size of a dime and thought he would disappear and die. He got his brown color back and growing very well.
I like LTs they tend to stick in the sand VS crawl around on glass and if you have overflow external filter get sucked in which I lost one that way.
While they will move, they are less likely to go up and stick themselves on the glass.
I just have the brown ones but between the two I prefer LTs by far. I know the BTAs are super popular but I hate the fact they tend to roam all over the place including on the side of the glass and possibly get sucked into the filter. Here are my two LTs. I need to clean the glass, so sorry on the dirty glass. The smaller one was the heavily bleached white LT which at one time was the size of a dime and no stick. Now the anemone tentacles is super sticky. I go with LTs and the purple LTs are simply beauties.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1 on clown hosting LTA. Mine took a week or 2 but seems to just depend on the clown. Ocellaris btw. I love the LTA. Lost one to a torn foot recently but was great right up until the end. I need a purple one now as my clown is lonely!