new pair of Perc's ,new tank Question

[johnfaas]

I upgraded from a 54 corner to a 120 with 180 - 200 lbs of kalini / maeshal island rock,1-2 inch sand bed,mag 18 getting about 1200 gph to the tank ,asm G2 skimmer,10 gal refuge,40 gal sump, Tek8-54W T5 HO Fluorescents (432 Watt )have not stocked yet.
I have a pair of True Percula's being given to me and was wondering what the best and nicest looking host Anemone with my tank setup? Also what should go in first the Percs or the anemone or together ? The tank will also be getting the sps's out of the 54 soon. Here is the tank :
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/17593new.JPG

 

[Bebo77]

what colors do you like?... anemones/ carpets come in many different colors.. i like RBTA myself

 

[johnfaas]

?

?

The RBTA are nice I also like blue and green.

 

[johnfaas]

How about seabe ?

 

[jjackson]

go with an RBTA or an LTA.... I prefer RBTA's

 

[TOURKID]

your tank needs to cycle and build bacterias for a few months before getting any nem. get the fish, and wait awhile before getting a nem. true percs dont naturally host btas...
hafta look into what they do host. Im not sure

 

[johnfaas]

The rock came out of a tank I have in another room cycled a few years in there

 

[Percula109]

I still wouldnt really put anemone in there being as weak as they are id just put the fish and wait a while, the clowns dont really need the anemone so they can wait till your tank is good to go for an anemone, as far as wich one for True perculas wich is what i have i like to have RBTA cause they blend in it looks nice and the red becomes very noticible to the human eye, my RBTA is the center piece of my tank.

 

[johnnybravo234]

Percula clownfish are naturally hosted by the magnificent sea anemone (Heteractis magnifica). I havent seen one for sale in a long time but like was said before they usually will take to a bta or a carpet. I have an ocellaris that amazingly took to a green ricordia mushroom. Please do let your tank get well run in before adding the anemone though. Good luck. Heres a pic of my guy.

 

[dantodd]

If you are going with a BTA or Hadonni I'd guess that a couple months with established rock would be adequate.

If you are trying to keep a natural host for percula I'd wait at least 6 months after you set up the tank before adding them they are both very difficult anemones to keep healthy. I wouldn't worry about it though as it can easily take 6 months to find a healthy mag or gigantea. Also, before even thinking about any of the species of carpet anemones be sure to plan your other inhabitants carefully as they all eat fish. Some have been known to eat percula so be careful.

 

[itz frank]

I've been told that percs will take to BTAs. And apparently there are people here that have had them take to them. I think the problem is between wild caught and tank raised. So far my anem. has been in my tank for 3-4 days and my percs have been eyeing it a little.

I've had percs hosd toadstools and flowerpots.

 

[dantodd]

Common wisdom is that CB v. WC doesn't make any difference in clowns hosting.

 

[johnfaas]

Ok ,
I am not putting anything in the tank at this time !
I am slowly transfering some of my 8" sand bed to the tank and refuge and I am letting the rock settle into its new tank.Than I am going to do a closed loop system .

My question is if after the rock is ready , if I only add the fish and anemone first giving the clown no other choices will this help ? Than start moving the rest of the corals and fish in If not I wont bother with a special host at this time. I have never had clowns and a host .

 

[dantodd]

I'd be particularly careful transfering an 8" sandbed. You will almost certainly get a BIG die off. The bacteria in a DSB is stratified and the mixing of the transfer will cause those that get out of location in the strata will die off. Just something to think about. I would move everything at once to get the die off and re-stabilizing over with ASAP. You might as in Dr. Ron's forum about the best strategies for moving DSBs.

An 8" sandbed would make an M. doreensis (LTA) extremely happy.

As for getting him in the anemone there are a lot of theories and strategies. None are proven to work beyond anecdotal evidence. My personal preference would be for the anemone to be well established and have other fish in the tank first. This will provide a good hiding place for the clowns and a reason to hide. Seems logical to me but there is no more real evidence for the success of this than any other technique. There are a couple threads active right now on getting clowns to host.

 

[johnfaas]

just the top 2" a few cups at a time