27 clowns in the same tank 27 months~Thread of the Month

[mobert]

Originally posted by Featherdusters
Wow, I could never get tired of looking at these pictures. Clown fish will always be one of my favorite saltwater fish so this is clown fish heaven to me

Thanks! They are my favorite fish too. I recently lost my powder blue tang after over a year. I'm not sure if I want to replace it with another tang. (I think it inadvertently ate too many flat worms)

[kes_reef]

Beautiful set up! Truly amazing!

[Doni]

Beautiful!! Your clown/anemone reef is very refreshing.
Keep up the fantastic work

[bleedingthought]

Originally posted by mobert
You have to make a berm. An island by itself where the anemone can't touch the glass or another rock structure. That is the only way to contain them. My previous tank was a 240 with the high point under a 150 W HQI's. Since the clones couldn't reach the glass, they just expanded their territory and it was very difficult to remove clones.

I've tried that twice. Unless the anemone can reach out about 5" to another rock, it must have just detached and float to the other side. 3 times now!

[mobert]

Originally posted by bleedingthought
just detached and float to the other side. 3 times now!

bummer.

[lemmiwinks]

i remember reading your thread when your clowns first spawned with great interest. it's awesome to see them in adulthood

congrats!

[mobert]

Clowns will be three years old next month.
I got them a birthday present a few weeks early:

[TJ_Burton]

What a wonderful tank of clowns and nems!
I really enjoyed the photos.

[mobert]

[kenny77]

Wow I haven't seen a tank so nice and so diferent at the time. Congratulation.

Have you seen any type of dominance or pairing? they are 3ys old now, so I might guess that at least you have one pair. Or they roam all together like good brother and sisters?

[inachu]

Originally posted by MarinaP
Congrats, Mona.

Your tank and clowns look great.

Are RBTAs and GBTAs clones from two single parents or did you add more after initial setup?

Attention: Folks who are new to this hobby. Do not try this at home. Mona is very experienced and raised those babies herself.

Too late. I already have 9 clowns.

I just need to buy 3 or 4 bta

[Leopard Man]

Absolutely amazing. How long is your photoperiod?

[Maxi]

really nice

[mobert]

Thank you all for looking. I really appreciate the comments. Here is a picture of the dominant pair:

The one on the right is the female. They have kept everyone else out of the anemone. There is a little bit of fighting and one little guy keeps trying to get in but they have mostly given it up to these two. Interesting that in the BTA's there is another dominant pair but since it is pretty much solid anemones on the right side of the tank and there is no fighting at all in the BTA's.

I will be watching to see if this pair with a natural host will turn darker in color than those living in the BTA's.

H. Magnifica has been in my tank one week now and it continues to do very well. The mouth is tight and it holds itself upright all the time. But then again, I am not very familiar with what a healthy mag should look like. I have seen it form a ball after I put food in the water. It does seem to catch particles. I am not target feeding on the advise of some on this board and the lfs I got it from. It has not moved from the spot I put it and it is very sticky. The foot looks well attached. Should the tentacles be longer and more pointed when it is happy?

My photo period is 13 hours of VHO's and the three 400W halides are on about 8 hours each. With only 6 hours in the day when all three halides are on. Moonlights are on a couple hours in the morning and night.

I would not normally advocate more than one pair of clowns in a tank but raising these Percula siblings from one clutch, with lots of well dispersed food and having more anemones than clowns seems to have kept aggression to a minimum.

[mobert]

Pic with flash. Can you see the anemone mouth?

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

cool pics, do all them clowns go after your hand when you put your hand in the tank?

[mobert]

Originally posted by SALT WATER CRAZ
cool pics, do all them clowns go after your hand when you put your hand in the tank?

They swarm the front of the glass when I look at them! Or.... do you mean do they bite like my Clarkii's did? Percs are friendly and beg for food. Not a biter among them.

[inachu]

I think one reason for your success is that there are so many places each clown can rest and relax.
You gave them lots of choices!

[Chihuahua6]

Breathtaking!!!!

I think you may have inspired me to do the same (with the anemones) in my 280 gal. I wanted to add only a few species of soft corals and allow them to form large colonies. I didn't want to mix anemones with them however you seemed to have found a solution to contain the wandering nature of the anemones.

[Flavum]

so whats going to happen when they all become sexually mature. will you end up with 1 big momma and 25 males or half and half??

[jadeguppy]

I vote this tank of the month. Anyone want to join me?

I think you have given many of us hope in housing an anenome. I am upgrading to a 125g and plan to put some pillars in there. I may just design it to contain some anenome now that you have shown how it can be done. Thank you for sharing.

[rkelman]

Your tank / is beautiful Mona. Its nice to see something different for a change. I have about 340 black and white ocellaris down stairs and your putting ideas into my head.. My wife will not be happy

[jadeguppy]

Yea, I gotta say she has me wanting to do the same thing. Right now my clown pair decided to host on my goniopora, which isn't happy about the arrangement. How far away from things do they need to be to keep them from moving? I'm setting up a 125g and am thinking about putting in pillars and islands. Do you think I could keep 1 or 2 contained?

[todd03blown]

WOW WOW WOW, breathtaking tank. what an amazing job.

I just bought the ELOS mini and have been trying to figure out what I want to do with it from a livestock perspective. I think after seeing this I want to go with 4 clowns and anemones. The colors and all just look so amazing!!

[mobert]

Thanks for the comments.

Originally posted by Flavum
so whats going to happen when they all become sexually mature. will you end up with 1 big momma and 25 males or half and half??

I don't know. That is the fun. The dominant pair has one helper that sleeps on the outside of the mag. In the BTA's there seems to be a couple of threesomes also and then there are the dorms where they rest of them pile in together. It will be interesting to watch when they start laying eggs.