Fishes and Anemone

[fleek]

I have a school of clown fish (5 of them) and 1 yellow tail. I am going to transfer them from 30L tank to 130L tank soon after cycling the 130L tank. I am thinking of getting Anemone, do I need to get one for each clown fish, or can several clown fish home with one? Will the Anemone eat my yellow tail?

[Gouldian]

From my experience your clownfishes will soon be wrestling for dominance even after you have upgraded to the 130l. Clownfishes don't school well and the most dominant (female) will soon be ruling the tank with its mate (2nd most dominant). Adding the anemone will encourage "roosting" behavior among the 5.

Having so many clownfishes will deter you from adding any more fishes unless you have a super-sized skimmer or willing do more maintenance.

Adding anemone is alright but do note:

1) Anemone are much more difficult to keep compared to fish only set-ups

2) Not all anemone will be readily accepted by the clownfish as its host

3) Anemone will move around stinging other denizens in order to find the best spot

4) Anemone may move and get pureed by your wave-maker or pump causing tank-crash

5) Anemone needs increased lighting

6) Anemone have lower tolerance to water parameters (temperature, nitrite, ammonia, pH etc) compared to fishes

If you are willing to accept the above and is willing to set aside more time and money into your set-up then you may want to consider Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmea quadricolor) aka BTA. Although not the natural host for Ocellaris or Perculas, BTA is one of the few anemone requiring lesser efforts to upkeep.

Hope that helps.

[DUCADOS]

True.... Anemones may look nice...

But if they down,your whole tank most likely to be down too...

[fleek]

From my experience your clownfishes will soon be wrestling for dominance even after you have upgraded to the 130l. Clownfishes don't school well and the most dominant (female) will soon be ruling the tank with its mate (2nd most dominant). Adding the anemone will encourage "roosting" behavior among the 5.

Having so many clownfishes will deter you from adding any more fishes unless you have a super-sized skimmer or willing do more maintenance.

Adding anemone is alright but do note:

1) Anemone are much more difficult to keep compared to fish only set-ups

2) Not all anemone will be readily accepted by the clownfish as its host

3) Anemone will move around stinging other denizens in order to find the best spot

4) Anemone may move and get pureed by your wave-maker or pump causing tank-crash

5) Anemone needs increased lighting

6) Anemone have lower tolerance to water parameters (temperature, nitrite, ammonia, pH etc) compared to fishes

If you are willing to accept the above and is willing to set aside more time and money into your set-up then you may want to consider Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmea quadricolor) aka BTA. Although not the natural host for Ocellaris or Perculas, BTA is one of the few anemone requiring lesser efforts to upkeep.

Hope that helps.

For my 130L tank, I have a protein skimmer (Super sized), a cannister filter, a UV sterilizer, a chiller and some wave makers. Is that sufficient?

[mansiz]

What type of clown are you keeping now? Is it normal percular/common clown? They will be fine in a school, as for the size of the anemone, a big one is sufficient to house all of them.

Do note that anemone is an invert that requires good water parameter, they requires strong lighting as well. If you are using 4 x T5 HO or >150 watt MH light, it should be sufficient. If you are using normal t8 light tubes, you will have to upgrade your lighting before getting an anemone.

The anemone will moves around until it found a suitable spot for itself, sometimes the spot that it likes will not be a spot that it can show its intense beauty for the tank, you might have to consider.

Yellow tail do you mean damsels? The anemone will eat fishes that go near it, but damsels should be fast enough to avoid their tentacles. Bubble tip are not so dominant, if your get carpet, it might kill more slow moving fishes. From my previous experience, my carpet have killed some fishes like fox face, butterflies and even purple tang.

[Gouldian]

For my 130L tank, I have a protein skimmer (Super sized), a cannister filter, a UV sterilizer, a chiller and some wave makers. Is that sufficient?

It hard to answer your questions, there's now hard and fast rule to reefing, it depends on what is your requirements. I have seen people who kept 8 clown in a 20l tank with LR full of nuisance algae and the owners is happy with the set-up and I have also seen people with only add 2 to 3 fishes in a 700l tank and keep complaining that the fish load is too high.

Our advises are generic to steer you away from failure but its your tank at the end of the day and you made the judgement call.

Hope that helps.