Marine Betta compatibility/Aiptasia

[Christoph]

Hi all! I am in the process of planning a big move of a 156 to my house. I have some concerns about the fish which are coming with the tank however. There is currently a Yellow Tang, Marine Betta (or Comet), some kind of Wrasse (rainbow maybe) and a Clownfish in this tank. The poor Clownfish is in one of the overflow chambers. Has been for over a year now. The owner thinks it jumped in there to escape the Comet. OK, so the Comet is a pretty beautiful fish, right? I would like to keep all the fish. When I add the fish back to the tank after the move I want to introduce my own Clown and "overflow" Clown at the same time. What do you think? Will the Comet get excited that there are two now!? Both clowns are about the same size - 2 1/2" ish.
Another issue while I'm writing.....the tank has been neglected during the last year. He apparently added som live rock from his friend's tank and an outbreak of Aiptasia ensued. There are a ton of them! Not to mention green hair algae swaying in the current!! My plan is to remove what is left of the livestock and attack the Aips while I can still see them in the tank. Once they are gone, I've been told, I can scrub the rock in a bathtub with a brush to get rid of the majority of the algae.
I know this all sounds kind of crazy, but on top of getting a sweet Oceanic custom-made tank, I feel like I am helping the remaining life in this tank. I am pretty sure this guy was just going to let it go.
Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[MCCOOL]

My betta ignores all of my other fish, including my clownfish.

I doubt you'll have success pairing the clowns, chances are, they are both females at this point. You'd be better off returning one clown to a store and getting the smallest one you can find ( in hopes of it being a male).

 

[Wolverine]

I agree with Mccool that there's a good chance that both clowns are female at this point, in which case they won't pair up well.
As for the betta, it's not uncommon for them to gobble up smaller fish; they usually don't, but I've seen it happen enough times to be wary.

 

[Christoph]

My betta ignores all of my other fish, including my clownfish.

I doubt you'll have success pairing the clowns, chances are, they are both females at this point. You'd be better off returning one clown to a store and getting the smallest one you can find ( in hopes of it being a male).

That's good news about the Betta. And maybe my LFS guy will swap Clowns with me. Thanks. Any opinion on the algae?

 

[rachenbrazil]

I would brush all the algae and leave the aptasias . After assemblying and becoming stable , adding a small butterflyfish like tahitian or kleini (easy fishes) to eat them fast...


Comet should not eat the overflow clown, maybe he get into the overflow running for the other clown , not the comet (if they want to eat a fish they won´t miss).
Pairing up these 2 is not impossible, but should have some days of battle that may lead to another overflow or worse, home floor flying, try first ...if not possible them trade one with a smaller one ...

 

[amazo]

A group of pepermint shrimp will also help with the aiptasia i used 3 it worked great on the small ones but the shrimp were small .All I had were small ones my coral beauty ate the big ones but small ones kept comming back 2-3 day of peppermint shrimp and none for a month.

 

[Christoph]

I would brush all the algae and leave the aptasias . After assemblying and becoming stable , adding a small butterflyfish like tahitian or kleini (easy fishes) to eat them fast...


Comet should not eat the overflow clown, maybe he get into the overflow running for the other clown , not the comet (if they want to eat a fish they won´t miss).
Pairing up these 2 is not impossible, but should have some days of battle that may lead to another overflow or worse, home floor flying, try first ...if not possible them trade one with a smaller one ...

OK, so brushing hair algae seems to be a common practice when necessary. The butterfly fish idea is a good one. The tank will be packed with corals in the future though. Are these butterflies reef safe?
I did get a peppermint shrimp to take care of a couple aips in my current tank and it doesn't care about them at all. LFS must have mixed some camels in their tank. I read that pep shrimp eat aiptasia like it is candy. Or maybe it is a pep shrimp and it is very health-conscious