New clown behavior

reefguy24

New member
I just bought 2 new (very small....3/4" long) clowns today. I think they're percs.

My tank is cycled.

I bought a white anemone with long fingers (pink base) and put it in some rocks.


The two clowns are just swimming up and down in the front of the tank now. It's been 4-5 hours since I acclimated them etc. Does this mean they're stressed or?

Is this normal? How long before they host in the anemone? They clowns seem to be interested in me (tank is on my home office desk where I work from all day every day) and they aren't shy at all.

Also...the anemone seems to not like the place I originally put him in and he looks like he's about to bail. All fine and dandy, but after I put him in the tank, I could have sworn he made a beeline towards the back of the tank (or maybe the fast moving water picked him up?).


How do I keep the anemone in the front of the tank and out of the back?


I have read some of the other threads on here regarding clowns/etc.....but just wanted to make sure everyone is "ok" before I turn off the tank lights for the day and let everyone and everything new to the tank to kinda settle in for the night.


thanks
 
clowns are probably still getting used to the tank..Some my argue that you shouldnt add an anemone to a new tank...The anemone will move were ever it wants until it finds a place it likes.. And the clowns can host tomorrow or they might never host..its up to them if they want to or not and the type of anemone you have.
 
It sounds like you got a Haitian Pink Tip anemone, which is not a natural host to any clown species. That's not to say your clowns won't decide to make the anemone their home, but it's much less likely than other species. That said, even though that particular anemone (if I've IDed it correctly from your description) is one of the less demanding, anemones should only be kept by those very experienced in the hobby. They require more light than most corals and can be extremely finicky. The general rule of thumb is to allow at least 6 months for a tank to stabilize before adding an anemone, and I further recommend at least a year for a first time reef tank owner. Oh, and also on the subject of anemones, there's really not much you can do to decide where they end up in the tank, which is yet another reason they can be very tricky animals to keep. Murphy's law says your anemone will end up wherever it's most inconvenient for you. Back when I had a bubble tip, it decided that the backside of a large rock where you could only view it from looking in the side of the tank would be a perfect spot. As an added bonus, it did have a few tentacles poking out over the top just within range to sting one of my favorite corals. The solution there was to move the coral, and not try to move the anemone.

As for the clown fish, that doesn't sound particularly abnormal. Fish will often either keep to a small area of the tank or disappear behind the rockwork completely when first introduced to the tank. If all else is well, they should begin to act more "normal" in the next day or two.
 
My wife named my clown fish tweaker because of the way he raced back and forth in my tank. That goes away with time.

As for hosting it took my Snowflake Ocellaris 5 months to host my RBTA. As for getting an anemone to hold still... Not sure its possible they move around when the want
 
My wife named my clown fish tweaker because of the way he raced back and forth in my tank.

^ Now that is funny.:lolspin: :lolspin: :lolspin:

My clowns initially hung out in the corner of the tank and then learned to ride the flow coming from the koralia....over and over and over again. Kinda like 2 kids on a waterslide. Eventually that wore out and they now hang out in the same hollowed out rock
 
Picture time.

Can anyone help me identify the anemone? The guy at the fish store seemed uncertain. It's white with lime-green tips. Does it look healthy? It doesn't look as "robust" as you see in the wild, but it's not sagging and it hasn't moved from it's original spot.

Also can you help identify the clowns and the purple fish? Again, I forgot the name of the purple fish. The clowns I think are false percs.....based only upon the price I paid for both at my local LFS: $15 each.

I awoke this morning to find one clown sleeping in the anemone on his side, and the other clown was at the bottom of the tank.

I also have a brown algae problem on the sand.....and the three hermit crabs I got for this 24 JBJ nano didn't seem to make a dent in it overnight. Any suggestions?

The 2nd pic is the purple fish

The other is my zoa....of which the emerald crab and the purple fish have both knocked it off its ledge.....it doesn't look too happy.

The rest are the clowns and the anemone.

The last pic is my 30lb F2 Savannah cat.

If the pictures aren't showing up.....give me a few mins. I set resolution to 500px (down from 4k px), not sure if this is big enough for the forums. So will have to re-upload if the file size is too small.

thanks

EIGrFRB.jpg

PvMCWys.jpg

l5HRtuY.jpg

ebyscqN.jpg

Ib7w1LM.jpg

XNpjaRu.jpg

d6vS473.jpg
 
Last edited:
The purple fish is a magenta dottyback. They can be nasty little buggers.


So far (and it's only been 24 hours), he seems to be playing nice.....he has the entire live rock to himself, whereas the clowns just hang out in the front of the tank and put on a show.

Should also note that the clown that was sleeping in the anemone.....when I first turned on the tank light at 7am.....his color was so pale I could see right through him almost. In about 30 seconds his color came back to the normal deep colors. Very strange.
 
All fish fade in color at night. It's a defense mechanism. As for your anemone, you were sold a very bleached bubble tip anemone. It's going to need some serious TLC with frequent feedings of Mysis and strong lighting to recover it's zooxanthelle. What kind of lighting do you have over the tank?
 
All fish fade in color at night. It's a defense mechanism. As for your anemone, you were sold a very bleached bubble tip anemone. It's going to need some serious TLC with frequent feedings of Mysis and strong lighting to recover it's zooxanthelle. What kind of lighting do you have over the tank?


Why do fish stores (especially so called "reputable ones") sell bleached?

I was doing some reading on this last night....bleached means it lost all of it's "good" zoo/etc.

So when I feed it....I just take a turkey baster and squeeze into the hole in the middle?

I have the JBJ 24 gallon with the LED lighting. I only keep the LED on in the daytime, then for an hour or two in the evening I use the "blue moon" lights until it's lights out for about 12 hours until the next morning.
 
They sell them to make money. Novice tank owners don't really know that the anemone is bleached or what the consequences of purchasing a bleached and sick anemone means. The LFS doesn't care, they just made some money. ;) A reputable store would be a better place to shop.

As for feeding it, yes, just thaw some PE Mysis, and offer it to the anemone a few times a week. Squirt it into the center of the anemone.
 
I hate to be a pessimist, but unfortunately, the prognosis for that anemone is not good. It sounds like your tank is not truly stable (you probably wouldn't have a diatom issue if it were), and even a healthy anemone is difficult to care for. You can certainly try to return it, which financially would be a good move. Unfortunately, the fish store that sold it to you is unlikely to give it the care it needs. If you hold onto it, you will want to try to feed it. Most of an anemones energy is going to come from the light, but that obviously requires a healthy supply of zooxanthallae, which you obviously don't have in this case. As for feeding the anemone, just about any meaty food is going to work. I've used silversides, krill, shrimp, bits of fish, mysis, etc. You don't want to try to put the food directly in the anemone's mouth. The anemone uses its tentacles to catch the food and bring it into its mouth. Hopefully your anemone is still healthy enough to have an active feeding response, because you really can't force feed the animal.

I'm afraid I'm not very smart on the lighting you're using on your tank, but it may not be enough for the anemone. As I said, light is the source of the anemone's primary source of energy, and bubble tips need a lot of light.
 
i'm just curious...

when reefguy24 mentioned that he had leds on his tank, right away was the response of "you don't have enough light"

i'm still learning about reef keeping and very new. from what i have read though, wouldn't it depend upon what led fixture he has going? aren't some of the leds good fro growing any type of coral? for instance, i just ordered a photon 16 from reefbreeders for my 29 cube. i have read and been told that light is more than enough for any type of coral.

maybe i missed something in his description? what kind of led are you running on your tank?
 
Thanks all.

I'm going to try to "force" feed it once a day like you mentioned, see how it goes.

Actually, I specifically said not to try to force feed the anemone. You can harm the anemone by trying to force food into its mouth. Place the food on the tentacles. The food you use should be no longer than half the length of the mouth, and in your case, I'd go much smaller than that. 1/4" x 1/2" chunks at the very biggest, and you can go as small as feeding it something like mysis. In the latter case, thaw some out in a separate container, and use a turkey baster or syringe to squirt the mysis gently onto the anemone's tentacles. In general, you probably don't need or want to feed an anemone more than 1-2 times per week, but in your case, every couple of days would be a good idea. If you're feeding it something as small as mysis, daily would be just fine.
 
Last edited:
i'm just curious...

when reefguy24 mentioned that he had leds on his tank, right away was the response of "you don't have enough light"

i'm still learning about reef keeping and very new. from what i have read though, wouldn't it depend upon what led fixture he has going? aren't some of the leds good fro growing any type of coral? for instance, i just ordered a photon 16 from reefbreeders for my 29 cube. i have read and been told that light is more than enough for any type of coral.

maybe i missed something in his description? what kind of led are you running on your tank?

If you're referring to my response, I simply said that it "may" not be enough light, and I admitted my ignorance of that particular lighting system. You're absolutely correct in that LED lighting intensity varies greatly. It was simply stated as a possibility that he should look into if he hasn't already.
 
yes the clown behavior is natural :) sucks about the nem but good luck. also in his upset state... dont try and move him just let him go where he needs to and feed him every day / other day...
 
yes the clown behavior is natural :) sucks about the nem but good luck. also in his upset state... dont try and move him just let him go where he needs to and feed him every day / other day...

and the way to feed him is this?


1. take frozen shrimp cube and defrost fully in paper cup
2. strain the unfrozen shrimps (to avoid adding more nitrates to water in tank)
3. take turkey baster and "suck up" 3-4 mini shrimps
4. blow them onto the arms of the anemone?

Is the anemone supposed to immediately grab the food? Or should I shoot the food into it's mouth hole?


thanks
 
Back
Top