Can a clown starve an anemonie?

[inetmug]

Have two rose bubbles. Both were doing perfect for months... until about the time a single black clown found them. We think the clown is a bit slow, cause it took a long time for him to find them.

Now he/she is crazy on the bigger rose bubble. It has grown, but it seems that the clown is so buried in it, that maybe it can not eat? It now just closes up sometimes and seems to hide.

Is it possible for a clown to be overly appreciative?

[davocean]

As long as the nem is at least 3-4x the size of the clown there should be no concerns.
Light is the nems main source of energy, you could actually not spot feed at all if light is sufficient.
Nems need established tanks and stable params, maybe give some specs.
Clowns move in quicker when it is a natural host nem/clown match, I suspect your type of clown may not be a natural host match and why it took a while to accept nem as a host.

[wetWolger]

Almost all the anemone's energy should come from the lights. It should be able to survive just fine without any fish hosting in it.

[Timfish]

Actually your clown is feeding your anemone by releasing ammonia from it's gills (significant percentage of a fish's metobolic waste is released as ammonium from a fish's gills). Here's a link to some research:

http://www.mendeley.com/research/effects-anemonefish-giant-sea-anemones-ammonium-uptake-zooxanthella-content-tissue-regeneration/

I never bother to feed any of my BTA's. Left alone I've generally see Rose split about once 8 - 12 months. Teal w/ pink tip about the same. A Brown BTA clone line from a wild specimen purchased in '97 typically splits every 6 months.

[inetmug]

What is any, are the signs of a split?

It is probably 6 months now since it has been in the tank. The one smaller one is amazing in color and bubble tip, the other use to be like that, now the tentacles are longer (probably about 2"), a deeper/darker red, with only a hint of bubble tip, more like the whole tentacle is a bubble shape. It has gotten bigger for sure. The smaller and bigger one are within about 12" of each other.

When any food hits it is closes up to look like its chowing down.

[davocean]

Some BTA's bubble at tips and some don't, it's not a sign of poor health.
Actually continuous splitting can be a sign conditions are poor

[codyreed29]

I had a rbta and a tomato it would actually grab food and take it to the anenome and feed it my other fish would be like were is he tKing that. Lol

[slief]

I had a rbta and a tomato it would actually grab food and take it to the anenome and feed it my other fish would be like were is he tKing that. Lol

My maroons did the same thing.. They would try to feed the anemone.

OP, clowns can't starve an anemone. I have two giant RBTA's and never feed them ever. They are just fine on their own filtering nutrients out of the water but lighting is the most important thing for them above all.

[89Foxbody]

If the anemone is too small, the clown(s) can kill it by constantly harassing it...But like was said above as long as it's adequately sized that wouldn't be a problem.

[inetmug]

Well, it is not small by any means. It just seems to "look" like it wants to get away from that clown. i will see if I can get a decent pic.

CA= ~420, ALK = 9ish, mag = ~1200+, all using red sea, give a drop either way

SG = .22

Po4 = .02-.04, again red sea only accurate to .02

ammonia/nitrite = 0
nitrate = 20-30 right now, due for a change.

I would agree with water quality, but the two are in the same tank, and less than a foot apart, at approx the same height.

I two 20K LEDs, I will look at their placement.

[davocean]

First off your specific gravity needs to be bumped to 1.025-26 and your mag to 1350.
Trates are a tad high as you know.
What Leds and how long has tank been running?

[inetmug]

First off your specific gravity needs to be bumped to 1.025-26 and your mag to 1350.
Trates are a tad high as you know.
What Leds and how long has tank been running?

Trates taken care of. Just got MG solution set up for dosing, so that will be done also. My SG is now .24 as I am bringing it up slowly. The intent is to get it to .25ish

Tank has been up since about April'ish time frame.

The LEDs are two 48" (tank is 8') at http://www.buildmyled.com/20000k-reef-spectrum-xb-series/

Question on the SG though, I know many many people locally that are running coral and anems at .22-.23ish with great success. The tanks where these two anems came from is in that range currently. t's brother is very nice. This turn on the one amen is fairly sudden, like since the clown found it about a month ago. Probably a coincidence on the clown. But as I think back on it, it also seems coincident with when I started dosing. I am keeping a log now so I can get dosing pumps dialed in. Prior to that, the tank was running on IO/RC only, which was not enough, especially on the lower SG.

Currently I have to dose about 1.5 the CA versus ALK, which I posted on another thread for questions. I was trying to do 1:1 ALK:CA as ESV suggests, but it is not sticking.

[slief]

Trates taken care of. Just got MG solution set up for dosing, so that will be done also. My SG is now .24 as I am bringing it up slowly. The intent is to get it to .25ish

Tank has been up since about April'ish time frame.

The LEDs are two 48" (tank is 8') at http://www.buildmyled.com/20000k-reef-spectrum-xb-series/

Question on the SG though, I know many many people locally that are running coral and anems at .22-.23ish with great success. The tanks where these two anems came from is in that range currently. t's brother is very nice. This turn on the one amen is fairly sudden, like since the clown found it about a month ago. Probably a coincidence on the clown. But as I think back on it, it also seems coincident with when I started dosing. I am keeping a log now so I can get dosing pumps dialed in. Prior to that, the tank was running on IO/RC only, which was not enough, especially on the lower SG.

Currently I have to dose about 1.5 the CA versus ALK, which I posted on another thread for questions. I was trying to do 1:1 ALK:CA as ESV suggests, but it is not sticking.

With your salinity on the low side, numbers like Cal, Mg etc will likely be low as well. Especially with regular water changes. Most decent salt mixes can provide decent numbers of the above in your tank when mixed to .025 unless you have a lot of SPS and other stoney corals consuming calcium.

My guess is that once you get your water to .025, you will see better numbers in your tank.. Especially if you are doing regular water changes. That said, corals can do fine in slightly low salinity however natural sea water in most reefs is in the .025 range. With lower salinity, the need to dose will be much more prevalent if you are chasing numbers. You may find that you don't even need to dose once you get your system to .025.. This assuming your mix provides decent numbers and you maintain regular water changes.

[inetmug]

Got it, thanks, mag now at 1400. Even after a 20% change (the change was higher SG to get the whole system up, ~.28), the CA is low at 410 this AM, just dosed it up a bit, the ALK is perfect.

I just checked the Po4 again, is is actually around .08-.09 on red sea, so the rowa needs a change. I was hoping to eventually ditch the reactor in favor on chaeto, but that is not doing well which I posted on another thread.

Nitrates are not as low as I would have liked after that change, 10-15ish.

[wrott]

You do realize that you're missing a decimal place in the SG? I just don't want you to look ignorant in the future. 1.026 is standard, and is a little lower than NSW(natural sea water). And you are using a refractometer w/ 35ppt cal solution?
NO3 can be 0-50pmm w/out harm, most living things require some nutrients like NO3 and PO4. I would not trust any PO4 test kit, because PO4 is bound in everything from DNA to fish food to ro/di water. Don't bother chasing a lot of #s around. Alk and observed condition of inhabitants are key.

[Shobloth]

Give the clown mysis and the nem minced squid, should distract the clown enough for the nem to pull the chunks down far enough

[inetmug]

wrott - understood on the decimal point, when I walk away from stuff for a bit, I sometimes forget the detail. I know what it is in my head, but as your point out, communication can become quite another thing.

I am using a refractometer, with the course range. I wish I had gotten the fine range but I got it several years ago. It was calibrated, but I need to do it again. Right now LFS testing is showing the same numbers.

[davocean]

Be careful when changing the GFO, too much can drop alk and then it is hard to keep mag and CA levels up.
The 410 CA is not bad at all.
Chaeto has benefits, but will do very little in nutrient export compared to GFO