What Anemone and how to for my True Percs

[Tmoriarty]

I recently got a pair of wild caught true percs, they are very friendly and not to scared, other then the fact they have think that the top left corner of my tank is there host.

My tank is fairly new, only a little over a month and a half old (maybe even early for fish), but my fish have been doing good for over a week so far and all seem very happy and unstressed. My nitrates are fairly low (10ppm). I bought a sebae nem from my LFS (at least i was told thats what it was and it was supposedly healthy). Through this site i have learned that its a harder to keep nem that and its more whiteish color means it wasnt doing good. Either way for 4 days it wouldn't settle anywehre in the tank it eventually ended up in my power head and had to be removed from the tank.... before it killed my fish from decay.

Anyways so far im not very successful with nems but my fish are doing good. I want a good home for my true percs and im wondering what would be the best nem for my true percs and how long i should wait to put it in the tank so it doesnt die. Ive read that a month is a little early for nems which is fine, i can wait a while. But at the same point all my parameters are stable. Anywys just looking for whats the best nem i should get and how do i introduce it to the tank successfully.

I have t5ho lighting, plenty for nems from what ive been told any advice would help a ton.

Also here is a pic of my percs while eating... all fish play nice


Tyler

 

[davocean]

Wow, that's a heavy stock tank for a month and a half, usually that is barely cycled at that time and probably would only have a pair of clowns at the most at this time.
Be sure to stay on top of WC's and checking params.
Normally we wait about 6 mo for tank to stabilize before adding nems, so right now is best to read and get familiar w/ species and what may work best for you.
In the meantime, list all specs, tank size, what lights/how many/params in numbers/SG/sand bed and how deep...
I would hold off on any new fish for a while too.
Any relation to the surfer?

 

[Tmoriarty]

No relation to the surfer but I do surf a little . As for the stock, i started with the 3 damsels..... well four but the mean one went back to the LFS. Gave them a few days they did good so I added the others. Current stock, and not changing any time soon is...

1x blue tang
2x true perula clowns
2x 4 stripe damsels
1x yellow tail damsel
1x orange spotted goby
2x emeral green crabs
5x snails (not sure what kind possibly nassarius, LFS was confused i think)
1x cleaner shrimp

I found out from here that im possibly a little overstocked, but my parameters have stayed ok.

SG : 1.023
Nitrates: 10ppm
Copper: no trace
Calcium 420+ ppm
PH: 8.2

I check my levels evey other day right now, mainly cause of the stock on an immature tank, im a noob to aquariums but I have read over 100+ hours of information, so hopefully im off to an ok start. I do 10% weekly water changes with 1 20% change to help maintain parameters. Fish are very unstressed from the looks of it, know when its time to eat, and are more then willing to come to the glass to visit me and the kids.

Tank is a 55g, 10g sump. Lighting is a 216w t5ho, 2 12k 2 420 blue acinics. 8 led moonlights. Timers are set to 7am for acinics, 8am for whites, whites off at 5pm acinics off at 6pm. Moonlights on while other lights are off. Sand bed is about 1 inch (shallow to keep from building nasties) Goby was more then happy with the sand bed, he utilized it to build a mound by one of the rocks for his home.

As for the nems what is the best type to get for my true percs, I know H. Magnifica's are harder to keep so ive heard, but I also know its a true percs natural home. Im willing to try with a H. Magnifica just to get them to host in it. If not what about BTA's, are True percs willing to host in them easily or not (ive read here on this site that its hard to get true percs to host in bta's). Also what about another attempt at a sebae later down the road, are true percs willing to host in these easily (they wouldnt host mine the 4 days it was in the tank).

Again thanx for the help, ill update my signature to reflect my current tank specs and such.

 

[pnavarro170]

very nice percs. not a fan of the background though. no idea on whats best for them as far as a nem goes. id do bubble tip for looks. but thats just me.

 

[Tmoriarty]

I know the best nem for a true perc is H. Magnifica, its there natural nem from what i have been reading. As for the background... The wife wanted it, and since I had to convince her spending this much money was ok, I have to keep her happy, so the background went on the back. Bubble tips are very nice looking i have just heard it can be very hard to get wild true percs to host in a bubble tip. Im sure i will try one cause i know they are the hardiest easy to keep so I have heard.

Either way, thank you for the replys, any help is always appreciated. And thank you to davocean for not flaming me putting fish in to early, I know i probably should have waited but I appreciate your reccomendations on how to keep the water good through monitoring and water changes vs flaming me for my actions.

 

[this is me]

Natural hosts for A. Percula are magnifica and gigantea. Both are very difficult to find a healthy specimen.
However, A. Percula will host in many other anemones including BTA, Haddoni, and Sabae.

 

[this is me]

With a tank that's newly set up like this, I would recommend the BTA. Even still, BTA are not easy to keep if your tank is not mature enough.
Your SG is low for invert. I would slowly raise it to 1.026-1.027.

 

[Tmoriarty]

Thanx for the advice Nick, Maybe the lower salinity was why my sebae was as unhappy as it was, ontop of other factors im sure.

Ill slowly start raising my salinity to 1.026 through my water changes then maybe in a month I can take a shot at a BTA and see how that works out. Any other advice again is greatly appreciated

Tyler

 

[davocean]

Yeah, agree w/ This is me pretty much.
My SG is 1.025-26
Your tank is about max stock on fish, and that happened quicker than I would have done, but oh well, just cool down on that and can't say enough keep on WC's especially this new and that many fish so soon.
I would definitely wait on a nem till tank matures a little more, but yeah, BTA's are more forgiving.

 

[davocean]

Thanx for the advice Nick, Maybe the lower salinity was why my sebae was as unhappy as it was, ontop of other factors im sure.

Ill slowly start raising my salinity to 1.026 through my water changes then maybe in a month I can take a shot at a BTA and see how that works out. Any other advice again is greatly appreciated

Tyler

The salinity can be an issue, yes, but the main issue is that is a way new tank, too new for any nem to be honest.
4-5 mo would be pushing it for any host nem.

 

[Tmoriarty]

4-5 mo would be pushing it for any host nem.

Can you explain the maturing thing to me, i have read a lot on the forums in terms of tank parameters, reading them so on and so fourth. But I have not seen much in the way of the reasoning. I know that coraline algae takes a while to start growing, i Have the diatoms in full bloom. But what about having a tank at 4-5 months is diffrent then say 2-3 months. Or 1 year for that matter.

Im guessing it mostly has to do with the beneficial bacteria growth and so on, in which case is there a way to speed up this growth (say by adding fish early but staying on top of water changes and control of bad algae growth).

I can gladly wait to put in nems until a few months have passed just looking for the hows and whys of these actions.

Also in another thread i started marking my tank and its setup I had someone (I dont know how experienced) tell me that bio balls are bad in a salt water setup, I thought and from what i have read they are an alternative to live rock in your sump to grow beneficial algae and bacteria that the fish cant get to. Maybe I can get some feedback on this as well.

Another question is with feeding. I feed twice a day, about what they can eat in 3-4 minutes. When i feed i turn my pump off so that the food doesnt get sucked through the filtration till they have eaten most of it. I figure this is not required but im guessing the decreased dead leftover food helps keep my nitrates lower, in which case should i maintain this practice of turning my pump off to feed?

Again thanx for the feedback I know some of these questions belong in my other thread but since im getting more responses here i figured id ask :spin3:


Tyler

 

[Tmoriarty]

Here is an updated picture of the clowns as well as the nem I lost to the powerhead. What is the best method to transport the nem from the store.... acclimate it... and introduce it to the tank without disturbing or stressing it to much. My next go I want to ensure my nem sticks good. Would it be best to turn off my power head for a day or two while it gets stuck somewhere? I know i have read a lot about drip acclimating, can someone explain this better? I know that what I did with the other one was slowly put about half a cup worth of my tank water into the water it came with until the SG matched my tanks... took about 2 hours then put it in the tank. But it was transferred in a bag. Ive also read about people transporting there nems in glass ware and then putting that in the aquarium and letting the nem go out on its own, is this the best method.... again thank you to everyone for your help.

P.s. Fish are still doing good showing no stress that i can see, tank levels are stable checking every other day because of the newness of the tank. Cleaner shrimp molted today, made my wife sad cause she thought it died lol. I had to explain that they shed there skin kinda like snakes as they grow, then she was happy.

Tyler

 

[Tmoriarty]

I recently added a frogspawn to my tank (because they dont move around) and i heard that true percs will host in them sometimes.

One of the branchs has a barnacle on it though, is this bad for the clowns or a preventitive factor to them going inside the frogspawn. Im still planning on a GBTA but im waiting another month for tank to get some more time on it .

Was just curious in the mean time if i should remove the barnacle from the frogspawn to entice the glowns to visit it sometimes .